Their student dorm room is the first home away from home for many young people, often in a new city. If you are in the same boat, first of all, congrats! An exciting and thrilling part of your life is about to unfold.
But more importantly, you might already be thinking about all that you want your dorm room or a room you are renting to be.
It should be cosy yet easy to maintain. It should be a way for you to express your individuality without breaking the bank and so much more.
To help you get started, here is a list of ways to spruce up your student digs. I hope that something on this list inspires you and gets you a bit closer to that place of your dreams.
Bring in some plants
Nothing makes a place feel more like home than a strategically placed plant or two. Besides, it shows all your visitors that you are a responsible young adult who can take care of more than just themselves.
You might be thinking that nice-looking plants mean a lot of work and care, but that is not necessarily the case. When it comes to picking flowers that prosper in small rooms and with little to no maintenance, you have plenty of options.
For extra fun, give your plants human names and keep your friends up to date with how they are doing. Then, once they step into your room and finally meet the plants, they will feel like they are in on an internal joke.
Place string lights everywhere
One of the most valuable things about spending time away at a college or a university isn’t the lectures. Instead, it is the new friends that you make along the way and the long and meaningful conversations that you get to lead till the early morning hours.
Some string lights or fairy lights throughout your student room make these moments more special and intimate.
You can simply pile them up wherever you feel like or hang them from a window frame. Either way, the result will be a more intimate atmosphere than the one you’d get with the harsh bright lights.
Get a corkboard
With new classes and activities ganging up on you from all sides, your first couple of weeks or months away from home might seem a bit hectic and even scary. To help you keep things under control, get a notice board or a corkboard.
You can use these boards to remind you of important things like reading lists and upcoming courses, but they can also be a fun way to express your creativity – or leave passive-aggressive notes to your roommates.
Hang a few photos on your corkboard and turn a boring office supply into an awesome personal piece.
Cover those ugly walls
All the dorm rooms worldwide have one flaw – they are painted in the most tedious and dull colours imaginable. Fortunately, there is an accessible fix for this.
Depending on your preferences and your dorm or landlord regulations, you have several options at your disposal.
Posters are the standard way to go. Even if your place forbids using pins to hang posters, you can get around this by using white tack instead. So go ahead and put up posters of people, places, and bands that inspire you or go the ironic route and pick a few quasi motivational posters that resemble stuff your aunt posts on Facebook.
The more involved option is picking wallhangings of some kind. Check online or at your local arts and crafts place to find something that suits your esthetics. Use self-adhesive removable hooks to hang those up. You can use the same method to put up a colourful tapestry as well.
Get a nice rug
Apart from its ability to really tie a room together, a rug is yet another small thing that can make your room look cosier and feel more like home.
Same as with anything else in your student room, you will want to hide as much of the dull stock look as possible so go for as big of a rug as you can.
Check the retailers known for their not particularly built to last but cheap stuff, such as IKEA or H&M Home, for affordable options.
Pick some unique bedding
Dorm rooms are notoriously small, which means that your bed will be the focal point of your room. As such, it demands some nice and stylish bedding.
Add a couple of throw pillows in the mix, and you are going to have yourself a friendly and pleasant place to sit, talk and sleep.
One final word of advice – when picking a colour for your bedding, go with a neutral colour, so it doesn’t clash with the changing interior of your room.
Because in the next couple of years your room is going to change a lot – and so are you!
