Dorm Rooms with Style

Let’s face it. Unless you live in an off-campus residence or a sorority/fraternity house, college dorm rooms can resemble jail cells or sterile hospital rooms. This is how the student I worked with initially felt about her room before the makeover. But a small, bland room doesn’t mean you can’t infuse your own style and personality into it to create a home away home while in college.

A dorm room usually has to serve as a bedroom, study area, dining room and living room, so the best advice is to use the vertical space as much as possible and choose furniture that can be multifunctional. In the makeover featured, a loft style bed was ideal to gain additional living space underneath for a desk. For seating and organization, a bookcase was turned on its side to function as a bench and placed in front of the window. The cubby holes are great to store books and decorative accessories, while pillows on top complete the look to make it more comfy. Although you want to buy furniture that will require minor assembly to keep costs low and ease the move at the end of the school year, that doesn’t mean you have to comprise on style in the process. Most of the major retailers offer a great selection of back-to-school furniture pieces, so they are definitely out there.

Now, another big challenge with dorm rooms are all the decorating restrictions imposed by the schools. Drilling holes in the walls, for example, is typically not permitted. In that case, use double-stick tape and self-adhesive hooks to install anything. The goal is to add color to the room by using accessories. In this makeover, the curtains behind the desk area and along the window were hung by placing the tape along the top seam, and this immediately added needed color in the room without paint. I also love using peel-n-stick art to add a graphic element on any wall. They come in many different designs and colors, so it’s instant style in a room without the commitment. At the end of the semester, simply peel it off. Follow these tips and start your school year off with an A+ in style.