This is not changing rooms...

[Industrialise your bedroom]

* Permissable colours: black. A hint of dark grey is also acceptable. Rust brown may also be acceptable in some circumstances (i.e. in rust).

* Basic materials: metal, concrete.

* Furniture: minimalist, metal, uncomfortable, preferably built from girders or scrap metal. Your shelves could also be held up with breezeblocks.

* Ornaments/decoration: spiky things, rusty chains, tools/powertools, chainsaws, metal cables, barbed wire, computer cables, electrical tape, gas masks, skulls/skeletons, also (obviously) huge posters of industrial bands or films.

* Vital items: technology is the key word here. Therefore you must have: stereo (with huge speakers - let the world share your love of industrial and noise, and make sure they can not just hear it but feel it as well); TV; DVD player; VCR; computer; anything else you can lay your hands on with buttons, dials, levers, flashing lights, etc on it. It doesn't have to do anything, just be stacked up looking scary and technological and overwhelming to any non-rivethead who dares enter into your domain. Also required is a large stack of industrial CDs (vinyl is so outdated darling), DVDs, videos, dystopian fiction, etc.

* Floor coverings: carpet is a big no-no. Only metal flooring is acceptable.

* Optional extras:

- a furnace with a bloody great big chimney, belching sparks and smoke for that industrial factory/steel mill look (and smell).

- a very noisy air conditioning unit (you probably won't be able to tell the difference between the sounds produced by this and some of your favourite industrial-noise artists anyway; plus it'll help to counteract the furnace)

- graffiti, for that urban shithole vibe

- bits of random machinery, scrapyard salvage etc. May be useful for hanging your leather trenchcoat, chains, cowboy hat etc from when not in use.

* No-go areas: Do not, under any circumstances, have any of the following in your rivethead room:

- flowers or plants. Except maybe cacti (nice and spiky) or carnivorous plants (e.g. venus flytraps) because they look damned cool and are quite evil, as plants go (I had a venus flytrap though, it never ate flies and ended up dying after a couple of months. Wussy. All my cacti died too, maybe rivetheads just aren't cut out for owning plants).

- anything pink

- anything fluffy or soft. This includes cushions. Unless they're encased in wire mesh maybe.

- Care bear duvets

- Marilyn Manson posters (you'll lose all credibility as a rivethead with these - possibly more so than by having a Care bear duvet)

- Frilly lampshades. Why even bother with lampshades? Think minimalist/industrial. Think lights strung on metal cables. Think bare bulbs. Or go the whole hog and live in permanant darkness.

- candles (too goth)

- windchimes and those stupid dreamcatcher things (too new-age/poser)

- anything with 666 written on it. You are not a trendy-goth posing as a Satanist. 666 is not evil, it is a cliche. Steer clear. If you're gonna scrawl graffiti on the walls, be original. NIN logos at least.

- curtains. Go with blinds or just paint your windows black.

- altars/shrines. I don't care whether you worship Trent, Ogre or Genesis, just don't go down the fake Satanist route of having an altar in your bedroom.

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