Do-It-Yourself: How to Create a Well-Decorated Dorm Room
Did you come to school hoping to make your room look awesome, but never got around to it? Well, here are nine easy, affordable ideas to make your room look better and brighter without taking away time from studying or having fun.
1. Use ambient lighting. Fluorescent lights always make people and things look washed-out. Buy a floor lamp (or two) with different settings and put them in different corners of your room. Look for an interesting desk lamp as well. Remember to actually use them.
2. Do your best to coordinate, but don’t overdo it. Having a common color adds an element of cohesiveness. Show some personality with different combinations of that common color. Here, black is the main color. Both comforters are black and white, but the sheets on each bed are different colors.
3. Give your room a personal touch. Put up something for guests to sign when they visit. This gives people something to look at besides pictures of people they don’t know. The black border is used in this way as a guest book.
4. Create dimensions. Place a border that goes around the room at a certain height to give an illusion of width. Don’t encircle the entire room; this could give a closed-in feeling. Use a variety of things to create your border. In this room, black foam-board is used to make strips that run above the beds. The border continues on one wall with a door mirror that hangs horizontally.
5. Have your own little niche. Turn your desk or dresser certain ways to create nice areas that feel homey. This desk is arranged so that the user’s back is to the wall, creating the feeling of a private corner.
6. Scotch-3M command strips can save a dorm room. These strips come in all sizes, with hooks or Velcro. They work amazingly well, and they’re versatile. You can use the strips to mount just about anything.
