Whether you are a freshman feeling anxious and excited about college or a seasoned senior who can’t wait to graduate, your dorm or apartment room will be a home away from home for a good two thirds of your year.
It should be a place where you can study effectively and provide safe sanctuary from outside stress. Your abode should be a place where you can host movie nights or curl up with a good book.
Of course, there are a few obstacles to creating the perfect oasis of collegiate bliss.
Most college students are not made of money, so finding inexpensive items at department stores like Target, Wal-Mart, Zellers or a thrift store is a plus. If you live far away from your college, you may have to 
pay for shipping or storage over the summer, which can also drain your resources.
Then there is your roommate. Definitely ask what s/he has in mind, but don’t feel pressured to coordinate exactly or let his or her design concept prevent you from expressing yourself. You will both be happier if you respect each other’s right to decorate your spaces however you want. If you both agree on a color scheme, that’s great, but otherwise don’t diss her Britney Spears poster or plaid comforter. You both need a space where you feel comfortable to express yourself and your personal style.
Dorm decorating can be daunting, but it can also be a lot of fun, much like the first year of college. I can’t help you study for a chemistry or history mid-term, but I can offer some suggestions for making your dorm room a comfortable, stylish place.
The Basics of Bedding
One of the first things to pick out is a comforter. The bed often doubles as a coffee table, couch, or study area and is the largest piece of furniture in most dorm rooms, so it’s key to choose a comforter that reflects your style and won’t immediately show the dirt.
Finding a comforter you like will also help determine the color scheme for the rest of the room. Will it be romantic pastels? Classic school colors? Vibrant floral patterns? Basic black and white?
Reversible, solid colored comforters are a good choice, because they offer twice as many design options and can be dressed up with lots of fluffy throw pillows, but patterns like leopard prints, sunflowers, or stars are fun, too.
When buying bedding, keep in mind that most colleges have extra long beds, so regular twin sheets are too short. If this is the case, look for extra long twin sheets at Target, Bed, Bath & Beyond, or Linens’ N’ Things.
Think Storage
Space is tight in most dorms, so maximizing storage is a must. Here’s how:
- Raise the bed with cement blocks or RackRisers to make space for extra clothes, books, laundry, luggage, or whatever else under the bed.
- Stack plastic crates in your closet, under your bed, or next to your desk. They are cheap and come in a variety of colours. An alternative to plastic crates is a wire storage system, which lets you assemble your own crates and dismantle or reorganize them later. Or buy some decorative hat boxes in varying sizes for extra storage.
- Buy closet organizers for shoes, skirts, accessories, or makeup to ensure that you will always be able to find those cute black sandals or that peach lip gloss when you need them.
-Invest in some cheap plastic hooks. Stick them to your closet door to hold a bathrobe or jacket, or find a metal towel holder for the back of your door.
The Wall Is Your Canvas
Once you have the basics, it’s time to go crazy decorating the walls. Well, not too crazy. Check your school’s rules before painting, punching holes, or even using tape on the walls. Luckily, you can buy special poster adhesive at decorating stores to customize your room and avoid paying a fee for chipped paint.
Posters are the most common way to decorate, and some colleges have a poster sale at the beginning of the year where you can snag some highly unusual and inexpensive finds. But posters are not the only way to go. Here are some other ideas to adorn your walls:
- Colored chalk will easily wash off most surfaces. Or use butcher paper and colored pencils. Unleash your inner artist and draw a new mural or work of art once a month or whenever you feel inspired.
- Frames are essential for holding photos of home or new friends at college. Buy them almost anywhere or create your own with a cardboard matte and glitter, buttons, feathers, beads, or any other decorative knickknacks. Or you could use funky memo holders to display favorite photos on your desk or bureau.
- French memo boards can hold a whole bunch of pictures, ticket stubs, or magazine cut-outs. Buy one at Bed, Bath and Beyond, Linens’ N or make one out of cardboard, fabric, and ribbon.
- A laundry line is a great alternative for you to string up pictures or ticket stubs on the wall or across the room us. Urban Outfitters has a laundry line with suction cups for easy use.
- Magnets are useful and decorative on any metal surface. Customize that Micro-fridge and display your praiseworthy papers with magnets of flowers, superheroes, butterflies, or Magnetic Poetry (also a fun distraction from studying).
- Dry erase boards on your door or in your room are handy for communicating with friends and roommates and making notes to yourself. Or get a dry erase calendar at an office supply store and keep track of your busy schedule.
- Sheer fabric draped across the window or over a bed creates a soft, romantic look. Or if you have an open closet, put up a colorful shower curtain to individualize your space or hide dirty laundry.
- Lights are fashionable and functional. A desk lamp for late-night studying is a necessity, but adding mini-lights strung across the room can create a more personal atmosphere. White lights will complement any décor, or choose colored lights in funky shapes like stars, cactuses, or hearts.
So you get the idea. There are oodles of ways to transform your plain Jane dorm room into a vibrant reflection of your style and personality. All it takes is a few dollars and a little creativity. If only Chemistry were that simple.
Tags: advice, at home, college, decorating, dorm, idea, LIFE, residence, room, roommate, school, student, university
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This was not good at all – all it told us was “do it yourself” and no good advice!
I could’ve been better off with without it! LOL!
[this comment has been moderated for language]
I agree, Drew, this article does have good ideas, but you might want to consider anger management classes. D didn’t have to say much to burnt at the stake.
D, what kind of advice did you want? Ya, it does say to do it yourself, but the article gives countless specific, measurable things to do. Advice doesn’t mean excuses or ways to get what you want without having to do anything. I disagree that you would be better off without it. You don’t have to follow it or even agree with it but I think gathering information and then deciding what you will and won’t apply to your life makes you a more informed person who can make better choices. You won’t know if something will be helpful for you unless you read it, right, so I don’t agree that the process is a waste of time.
Give people a chance to learn, DK, shredding them doesn’t help them see your point or make you sound wiser than them.
wow thanks for the help…. NOT!
poor Susan Johnston. I’m sure she was only trying to help and that she never wanted her article to arouse so much unnecessary drama and emotion…
honestly yelling at each other is pointless, considering the other person will probably never see your comments again.
anyways i thought it was a good article, i got a lot of good ideas. and i’m fine with “do it yourself” i’m going to college anyways i need to do things myself.
Interesting article – I agree with above comments! It could have been a little more helpful than “do it yourself”. So – I found this really cool website called designyourdorm.com – its a 3D virtual room creator. Everyone should take a look, it’s really helpful!
I disagree with the chalk idea. I’m sorry, but I’d rather keep my lungs cancer free. But I appreciate the other ideas.
i agree i would like to keep my lungs cancer free.
Great article with some creative ideas. My daughter is headed off to college in a few weeks and this article helped to offer some finishing touches that I may have forgotten (like the French memo board and the closet hooks). I love the idea of the laundry line and THANK YOU for telling me where to find it. Sorry to see that some of our college-bound youth are having such difficulty with appreciating FREE ideas and with expressing themselves in an articulate and appropriate manner. I’m hoping that some of these skills will be acquired in college. Aelisha and Taylor- thanks for expressing your thoughts as intelligent young women.
So neat! Love it and thanks for the ideas!
[...] More decorating ideas; these on the cheap [...]
hey there! I’m an art major, so the way i decorate my dorm room is vital to my sanity. i am going into my 3rd year, and have figured out a lot of what you have said, but one thing has stuck out that i never would have thought of: butcher paper!!!! excellent!
also, i would like to mention that putting up old CDs that no longer play is a great way to play up the walls. they can be put up with the command strips. this way they can be easily removed and applied! woot! also in the past i have put up post cards i have gotten from around the world (my friends travel) and i have found that that, along with a couple paper parasols from cost plus of chinatown, adds a certain eclectic nature that is quite pleasing to all those “indie kids”.
all in all, great advice:)
btw, the art of decorating your dorm is trial and error. you win some you lose some. it just takes guts to be bold and try something. and, depending on your roomie, you may not be able to do everything you want to do. no one can tell you specifically what to do for your dorm. what fun would that be? just be grateful for the advice that is present, and let the things that annoy you go.
oh! one more tip: to cover up minor nicks in the walls, put some colgate toothpaste over the small holes nails or thumb tacs make. this only works on white walls, so be warned.
good luck! and do try to be excellent to each other…
oh… if you get the non toxic cryola street chalk, it will keep you cancer free. it’s kinda designed to keep little kids safe…. so you should be too. (duh)
Jeez…I’ve never seen people get this worked up about decorating–and I live in the Village!
I’ve never had a dorm, choosing to rent rooms and later my own apartment (both cheaper and more convenient than living on campus, in my case), but all through school I’ve found book-lined walls to be both attractive and functional. And the brick-and-board shelves are cheap to construct, and they look good, too.