Dorm Room Decorating: Comfort & Ambience

Your college years can be hard. While I was in school, I went through a bad breakup, lost a beloved grandparent, & my parents moved across the country. Even when I was just dealing with stressful midterms, it was always helpful to know I could go back to my room, where I knew a cozy blanket & a nice cup of tea were waiting for me. 

Even if you get through your college years without too much interpersonal drama, sometimes you just miss your mom & your home! A cozy, comforting room is just what you need. 

Comfort

Dorm rooms are often filled with wooden furniture. Soften it up! Make sure to have lots of cozy blankets & pillows for studying, chatting with friends, & the all-important nap. 

Put down some throw rugs, have framed photos of far away friends & family, & a few favourite things from home. 

A Beverage Corner

I don't know about you, but I drank a lot of coffee in college. Make sure when you do, it's out of a cute mug! In my dorm room, my roommate & I set up a beverage corner on top of our small fridge. It included: 

a coffee pot

an electric tea kettle

spoons in a small cup

 sugar

cream in the fridge 

We hung pretty coloured mugs on the wall using 3M hooks. 

It was always fun to have girls in for a cup of tea or coffee & a study break. 

Light

  

Just say no to fluorescent lights! As if all that homework isn't already giving you a headache! In college, we were all in a Facebook group called "People Against The Use Of Fluorescent Lighting." 

Open your blinds, turn off the overhead lights, & bring in some ambience! 

Target has great battery operated candles (some are even scented & flicker like real candles!) if you can't light candles in your dorm room. 

Paper lanterns from IKEA are fun. 

Get some cheap standing lamps for lots of light. 

Clip on desk lamps & fun patterned lamp shades make it cozy & pretty! 

Put twinkle lights everywhere. These are great for getting ready on those early mornings after a late night of studying. No one needs to see you looking that tired! 

Fresh Air

It's hard to think clearly in a dirty room with musty air (plus it's kind of gross)!

Open your windows. At least once a day. 

Clean your room. Keep Clorox or Method wipes close by & shake out your throw rugs often! 

Make your bed every morning. In such a small room, it will make a huge difference! 

Spray a little perfume on your curtains to make your whole room smell good (make sure your roommate likes the scent first!). Or use a few drops of essential oil (lavendar is great!) in a spray bottle filled with water. 

Most of these ideas can be done be using things you already have plus a shopping trip to IKEA, Walmart, or Target. 

Well, we've covered creativity, style, storage & comfort. Have fun decorating your dorm room!

Dorm Room Decorating: Storage

Dorm rooms can be really tiny, which creates a challenge when you need to store school supplies, clothes, books, toiletries, food...and all your roommates stuff! You probably have a lot to pack into a small amount of space. This requires some ingenuity.

Here are a few storage ideas that worked for me:

*Rearrange your furniture. One of my roommates & I put one of the two regulation dressers into the closet. We had less closet space, but it made for a lot more space in the room.

*Stack your bunk bed...or don't. For awhile, my roommate & I stacked our bunk beds, & eventually decided having a 'normal' bed was worth missing out on some floor space.

*Under the bed rubbermaid bins. These are lifesavers. Label them so you can easily see what's inside.

*Fabric or paper covered boxes. Use for computer cords, extra school supplies, snacks, you name it. Hide the stuff that's not cute!

*Use baskets to hold bigger items: blow dryers, dishes, etc.

*Stacking rubbermaid drawers. These can go in your closet or you can use the top of one for your coffee pot & mugs.

*Whittle down what you bring. Seriously. Don't bring everything you own. Your roommate (& you) will be glad you left some things at home.

My favourite sources for finding cheap storage solutions are Target, Ikea, & graduating seniors!

Next week, we'll wrap up the Dorm Room Decorating series with some ideas on bringing comfort & ambience to your dorm room!

Dorm Room Decorating: Style

Last week we talked about using creativity to decorate. This week I'll show you some ways to give your dorm room more style on a tiny budget. 

3M Hooks

I realize now that I should have purchased stock in 3M hooks as a freshman. 3M hooks are not cheap but they are reusable, are made not to leave marks on your walls, & will get you through 4 years of college & maybe your first apartment. Buy them in all sizes & get creative!

Use tiny clear hooks lining the wall next to the ceiling to hold twinkle lights

For holding back curtains

Painted with cheap acrylic paint & hung vertically to hold mugs

Hanging pictures (the big hooks are surprisingly sturdy)

To hold bathrobes or a pretty dress on a hanger.

Small hooks hung horizontally over a dresser to display necklaces.

Use the tape for hanging maps, posters & pictures.

By the door to hold your keys & purse.

Paper

I was lucky enough to have an art supply store & Paper Source two blocks from my dorm room. My roommates & I bought sheets of decorative paper & maps each semester for our walls. I now have some of these cheap maps framed in my apartment! Girls on my floor got pretty creative with this stuff. 

Use large pieces to cover an entire wall. 

Hang them diagonally & write a favourite quote across them. 

Cut them into large shapes (stars are good) & hang them on the wall. 

Cover a large canvas with sheets of paper from a design you love. I did this in one of my apartments with an oval canvas & blue floral paper. 

As a background for favourite pictures. 

Use to cover anything ugly. We covered light fixtures (don't start a fire though!) & a myriad of other ugly things in our dorm room. 

Leftovers can go in the front of your class notebook or to a poorer dorm room neighbor. 

Come back next Monday for ideas on storage in a small dorm room!

Dorm Room Decorating: Creativity

College is awesome, isn't it? Yes, it can be one of the most stressful times of your life, but there are so many things about it that are fun!

I went to a community college for two years while living at home in Minneapolis, then transferred to a Bible college in Chicago. The school pretty much required students to live on campus, so I was in a dorm room for three years with four awesome roommates (all at different times).

The dorm rooms were tiny, with two small closets, lots of regulation furniture and about 2 inches of floor space. Decorating each year required some creativity!

Looking back, I am shocked to remember how poor I was a college student (my roommate & I once turned down an event because it cost $2.00. Two dollars.) So I wanted to pull together a few things that are helpful for decorating your dorm room (or other small space) on a college student budget.

If your dorm room is like mine was, there are about a thousand rules for what you can't do: no nails, candles, paint, fun... So you have to get around those rules with some creativity.

Here are a few of the things my roommates & I came up with to creatively decorate our rooms:

*We couldn't put nails in the wall, so we painted 3M hooks (which are made to not leave a mark when you take them off the wall), stapled two looped pieces of ribbon to the back of a $5 Target mirror, & hung it sideways. Voila! Something on our wall & bonus: it made the tiny room look bigger.

*My desk chair was one a friend had found in the Home Depot dumpster, which I covered with brown & pink fabric using safety pins.

*We covered the back of our door with 3x5 cards where we wrote down funny quotes (or at least they seemed funny after an all-night study session).

You'll be surprised what you can come up with when you think outside the box a bit to decorate your dorm room!

Come back on Mondays in July & August for ideas on how to store your stuff, make the room cozy, & use things like paper & 3M hooks to give your room some style.