The Best Tips For Decorating Your Dorm Room

When decorating your dorm room, you need to keep five things in mind; space, privacy, essentials, color, and lighting. Lucky for you, I’ve already done that for you. Here are the best tips for decorating your dorm room.

1. Optimize Your Space

Optimizing the space in your dorm should be the first thing you do when you move in. If you have a roommate, you’re going to want as much floor space as possible because after a while you’re gonna feel like your personal space bubbles are clashing. This will save you a lot of fights with your roommate in the long-run, and you’ll probably befriend your roommate quicker since there will be less bickering.

Before you start moving your stuff in, look at the layout of the dorm. Try to keep your furniture against the wall and keep a clear path from the window to the door. This will help make your dorm room feel bigger. The next thing you want to do is see what you can safely stack to create more floor space. If your bed can be lofted, use bed risers to give it some extra height so you can put your desk under your bed. Be sure to get a bed rail if you do this so you don’t fall. Trust me, falling off your bed in the middle of the night hurts a lot.

Having your desk under your bed gives you a cozy, office-like setting, perfect for studying. You can push your desk against either end of the bed, but don’t put it in the middle. Since you put your desk at the far end of the under part of the bed, you have room to put your dresser underneath it too. Put this on the opposite end of where you put your desk. Congratulations, you just opened up your room for optimal space.

2. Prioritize Your Privacy

Prioritizing your privacy is really important when you have a roommate. You’re sharing your personal space with a stranger. Boundaries are going to get crossed and this could cause some uncomfortable tension between you and your new roomie. Setting clear privacy boundaries is a great way to avoid a few arguments.

Remember that cozy office space you made under your bed? Hang a curtain going from the head of the bed to the foot of the bed. This will help you feel like you have your own space even though you are sharing a room. If you use blackout curtains, it will allow you to study with your lamp on throughout the night without disturbing your roommate. Since your dresser is under your bed as well, it gives you privacy when you need to change your clothes.

3. Make A Kitchen

Not all dorm rooms have full kitchens, or even a kitchenette. If you live in a dorm without a kitchen, then you need this tip. You’ll need a mini fridge, a microwave, and a Keurig coffee maker. You don’t need a big fancy one, just a regular single cup one.

Now you can keep microwave dinners in your mini fridge for when you get hungry but don’t want to go to the dining hall. You’re also able to keep foods like lunch meat, vegetables, and milk. The Keurig machine will save you time, money, and let you have your favorite coffee orders from the comfort of your dorm. But it’s not just for coffee and tea, you can use the hot water to make ramen noodles.

Another helpful tip for your makeshift kitchen is to designate one of your drawers for dry food snacks like chips, cereal, and ramen. If you’re filling all your drawers with your clothes then you probably brought too many with you. Trust me, you’re not going to need to bring your entire closet with you. You’ll just end up wearing the same outfits every week.

4. Pick A Color Scheme

Your dorm room is your second home, so it should feel comfortable to you. Decorate it the way you want. I matched my color scheme with my bedroom at home because it is a familiar environment. If you’re not sure how you want your dorm to look, then google different color schemes and pick the one you like best. There are so many options available and you can always tweak them to fit your personality better. The way you decorate your room is going to be your roommates first impression of you, so show them who you are.

Light academia is my favorite color scheme because it’s so pretty and the colors make a room feel cozy. It’s the kind of room I imagine sitting in when drinking vanilla chai tea. The usual colors are sage green, rose gold, banana yellow, navy blue, and burgundy paired with light neutrals like beige, white, and cream. It’s a good option for those who don’t know what they want because it is mainly neutral colors, so it will be easier to change when they do find a color scheme that suits them.

5. Choose Your Lighting

String lights are perfect for dorm rooms. You can hang them on your way and use them to hold pictures of your friends and family, or you can use them to light up the study area under your bed instead of using a lamp. Strip lights are also a good choice. You can use them to line the ceiling of your dorm and light up the whole room, or you can use them to line the under part of your bed and light up your study area. Both are great choices, so whatever you choose just depends on your style.

 I personally like strip lights better because you get more color options. You also have the option to make them flash or fade into different colors, and if it’s connected to your Bluetooth, you can make it move to the rhythm of the music.

Which dorm room decorating tip was your favorite? Let us know in the comments.

Featured photo: @kendyllgrace02 via Pinterest