Decorating Your Dorm Room

One of our avid readers (Sarah) asked Dani and I to make a post about decorating your dorm room. Of course, we were very excited and have been thinking of some good ideas. College is such an awesome time to meet new people, to be whoever you want to be, and to get to know the Lord intimately. And also, it is a fun time to decorate your OWN place for the first time! Since we are young and adventurous, I say go for it with bright colors. If you can paint (which most dorms don't allow you to do) try a fun color. If you can't paint, you can always do some cool things on the walls with fabric. The picture below shows a canvas covered in fabric (I love the desk too) and you could also make it into a picture/inspiration board :-)

Storage:

Good storage options are a must for an organized dorm room, especially if you are sharing with one or two other girls. Ross, TJ Maxx, Marshall's, or any thrift stores are great places to find cute baskets or boxes to store things in.

Desks:

Your desk will most likely be a place that you spend a lot of time (at least I do). You can do so much to make your desk cute as well as organized and conducive to studying. Below are some pictures for inspiration. Click on the photos for a larger view :-)

Accessories:

This is where you can have a lot of fun. If you are into matching, contact your roommate ahead of time to coordinate colors for bedding and accessories. Pillows, chairs, lamps, drawer knobs, mirrors, jewelry hangers, rugs, pictures, posters, and shelves are all great for personalizing your space.

Here are some really cute jewelry hangers. I also love this lamp which a DIY from the amazing Design Sponge blog. Danielle also covers one of her lamps with fabric which you can see here.

Mirrors and lamps can add a great punch to your room. Lamps are always fun DIY projects if you find an old lamp at a thrift store that you want to update. Same with mirrors, they are super easy to paint or spray paint.

If you have space, I love this DIY project using knobs and pieces of wood to hang your coats and bags on. I have never made them myself, but I always pictured them looking really cute in a dorm.

Plants:

I love bringing the outdoors in with houseplants. They are affordable, and make you dorm room air nice and clean. Go to your local garden store and ask for a list of plants that require very little attention. Succulents, which come in so many varieties are super easy and you can combine a bunch in one pot.

Pictures:

Everyone in college loves to put tons of pictures up. Sometimes it can be a bit overwhelming so I would like to suggest some ways to display them tastefully. Frames and bulletin boards are always a good option, but my personal favorite is to get some string or ribbon and some small clothes pins at your local craft store to display photos, letters, magazine clippings, notes, or whatever else! Here is a link to one of my past posts about creating one of these for yourself.

I hope that this post gave new college students and our other readers inspiration to spruce up your rooms. Thank you to Design Sponge and Decor8 for all of these awesome pictures.

Love,

Bianca