6 Ways To Make Your Dorm Room Decorating Ideas Feel Like Home

It can be difficult transitioning from living at home to living at college. You’re more likely than not to feel homesick and the plain white walls of your dorm room are sure to only make you feel worse. Thankfully, there are six easy and fun dorm room decorating ideas to make you feel at home, or at least feeling less like a prison cell.

1. String Lights

Lighting is key to making a room go from harsh and uncomfortable to relaxing and calm. It’s practically unheard of for dorms to have any other lighting other than the overhead fluorescent lights that no one likes using. While you can’t control the type of lighting in your dorm room, you can purchase string lights and use them in place of the harsh lighting already installed. They can be bought from most stores and can be easily installed by using hooks that stick to the wall. There are many types of string lights, and most provide more than enough lighting for the entire room.

2. Photos

The next problem that occurs in dorm rooms is the bare, white walls. They can make you feel like you’re trapped in a harsh and discomforting environment. The more things you put on your walls, the more you’ll feel happy and comfortable in your room. It’s cheap and simple to print out photos of friends and family that you can tape on the wall using wall safe tape. These photos will act as constant reminders of where you’re from and who you have good relationships with. This is one of the memory-themed dorm room decorating ideas!

3. Blanket From Home

Everyone has that one blanket that lives on their couch or bed back home. Bringing that special blanket that smells like home can be incredibly comforting to have on your bed at school. Not only will you be extra comfortable when you wrap it around you, but you’ll also be reminded of home and feel the comfort one experiences in that familiar place.

4. Personalized Decorations

The summer before college is a great time to channel your inner Pinterest expert and create personalized decorations for your dorm room. There are endless ideas on the internet for ways to do this, but you can also brainstorm your own personal ideas. As a vinyl lover, I took two records I had multiple copies of and put them on a table at my graduation party with a silver sharpie and a sign that said, “Sign Me!”. All of my family members and friends signed them and wrote loving and funny messages for me. I ended up taking the vinyl to school and hung them on my wall, constantly glancing over at them to remind myself of where I’m from and who’s there supporting me!

5. Oil Diffuser

An oil diffuser is a great way to replace having candles in your room, which are usually not allowed in dorm rooms. There are tons of different scents you can buy for your diffuser, and chances are one will remind you of home or at least make you feel comforted. This is one of the calming dorm room decorating ideas for a peaceful space.

6. Mattress Pad

Chances are your bed at home is comfortable and feels like a cloud to drift into sleep on. Your twin xl dorm room bed will not feel like that. However, there are so many different types of mattress pads out there that you can purchase and put on top of your mattress. This small act will make a big difference in being comfortable and making you look forward to getting into bed at night. The combination of a soft and comfy bed with your blanket from home will almost make you feel like you’re back in the bedroom you grew up in.

Did any of these dorm room decorating ideas feel like home to you? Let us know in the comments below how you chose to decorate your room!

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