Coming into your first college dorm can be super exciting but also stressful.
Where will you put all of that stuff you just brought with you? Will you and your roommate get along? How comfortable is this dorm mattress really going to be? Is my dorm room going to be the hangout spot for me and my soon-to-be friends?
These are some of the many questions and worries that I had when I showed up as a freshman on move-in day in college. I totally get it. Coming into a completely new environment with tons of strangers is extremely nerve-racking. For those first few weeks, you’re constantly navigating the campus, relationships, classes, and your own journey.
But, lucky for you, I am going to provide a little bit of an escape from all of the anxiety and stress by giving you a crash-course on the best ways to decorate and style your dorm room to make it a homey space that you’ll love.
At the heart of every college student is their dorm room, so having a space where you can be comfortable and relax, but also create memories with new friends, will make your college experience a great one.
And, if you’re one to take a lot of pictures, having a dorm room that is cute and trendy but also organized and clean will give you plenty of awesome photo opportunities for those Pinterest pins and Instagram posts with your new friends.
Either way, and however you want your dorm to look, there are plenty of ways to make your space look nice without sacrificing square footage (although there isn’t a whole lot of it to begin with).
So, without further ado, let’s get into it.
This post is all about how to decorate your dorm room.
Switch Things Up
Don’t settle for the original layout of your dorm room. If you don’t quite like how your dorm looks, then rearrange it!
You can easily move your bed, desk, dresser, chair, and any other furniture that comes with the dorm room (just make sure to coordinate with your roommate if you have one).
This will make your space unique to you and will give you some flexibility in styling a space that’s true to what you’ve envisioned.
By rearranging your furniture (like lofting your bed to put a desk underneath or changing the layout of the furniture in the room), you can customize your space and make it work better for your lifestyle and routine.
Go Vertical
When you move into a dorm room, you have to think about decorating in a totally different perspective. You don’t have a lot of space to spread out, especially if you have a roommate. So, what do you do? You spread out vertically.
Instead of putting your desk and dresser next to your bed, raise your bed up and put them under your bed. Or, instead of trying to fit a futon or small sofa on the floor of your dorm, raise your bed up and put the sofa under it.
You can also put your small dorm room “kitchen” under your bed or put your dresser in your dorm closet if the dresser is small enough.
You can also do this with décor, especially wall décor. Design your wall décor upwards (you can use posters, tapestries, art, shelves, lights, or pictures) to make your space feel bigger and look more spacious.
Get Creative with Storage Space
You can put storage anywhere, even in unexpected or hidden places. Living in a dorm room means that you don’t have a lot of space to work with, and all that stuff you just packed in your parents’ cars is going to have to go somewhere.
For your bed, using a bedside shelf or handy bedside pockets for organization and storage of your electronics, favorite books, and charging cables can really free up some space and declutter your desk area. You can also put storage space under your bed and add a long bed skirt to easily hide it. Add shelving above your bed for more storage options.
For your closet, you can put a shoe rack on the floor to organize your shoes and clear up floor space in and around your closet area. You can also hang vertical organizers in your closet to keep it clean and cute.
You can also find storage space in ottomans, under sofas, in fridge caddies, over-the-door caddies, on racks and shelves, and in mirrors with storage space.
Stick with One Color Scheme or Design Style
Picking a maximum of three colors and one design style (like bohemian, traditional, modern, eclectic, or farmhouse) will make your dorm room cohesive, stylish, and pinterest-worthy.
Not to mention, having a consistent design and decoration goal for your dorm room makes it super fun to actually start decorating you space.
Add a Headboard
A lot of college dorm rooms have hard cement walls, which aren’t the most comfortable to lean up against.
Adding a headboard to your dorm bed will make your space look homier and feel more comfortable. You can even DIY your own headboard to make it personalized to you and to safe money.
Document Memories with a Photo Wall
Create your very own memory wall with all kinds of photos!
Whether you prefer polaroid pictures clipped to fairy lights, good old-fashioned printed photos from Walgreens, or a gallery wall, decorating your dorm room wall with photos can be a super personal and artsy way to style your space true to you and your memories in college.
Loft Your Bed to Make a Study Nook
Another great way to make more room in your dorm and to customize your space is to loft your bed so that you can put your desk underneath. This makes a cute little study nook for you to endure those long study nights and hard homework days.
You can also use this space to decorate and customize. Add a coffee maker or a tea station for those Sunday morning homework sessions, a giant chalk board for planning out your week, or anything else you want in your study space.
Add a Mirror
Mirrors are miracle workers!
They can make your small space look way bigger and can add style and an artsy element to your originally boring dorm room.
Hang a small mirror on your wall, hang a mirror behind your door, or lean a floor length mirror up against your wall. You can really put mirrors everywhere, and they will elevate your space.
If chic, trendy, or artsy fits your design style, add mirrors to your dorm room.
Mirrors also create a super cool illusion with lighting if done correctly, so incorporating lighting with your mirror placement and design can really elevate your space and make it look multi-dimensional.
Hang Curtains to Make Your Room More Homey
Some of the views from college dorm rooms can be not so great. So, what do you do? Add curtains of course!
Not only do they make your space feel homier and more comfortable, but they also embellish that not so stellar view, and can hide it when you don’t want to see out your window at all.
Curtains also add a hint of regal or traditional vibes to your space, which can be perfect if that is what you’re going for!
Decorate Your Space with Fairy Lights
Lighting can have a major impact on your dorm room. Floor lamps, desk lamps, and wall lighting can make a statement, add an artsy flair, and keep your space looking trendy.
Fairy lights in particular are great for hanging in dorm rooms. You can even add photos to give them a more personal touch.
Lighting can also be used to showcase wall décor that you want to spotlight, like your own art, tapestries, or signs.
Add Flair with an Area Rug
Rugs can be another great staple piece to put in your dorm room for a little extra flair.
Whether it’s a small under the desk rug, or a big 8×10 rug that covers all of the little dorm room floor space that you have, rugs can be used to decorate your dorm and customize the design to your style.
Plus, rugs are a fun way to prevent you from vacuuming that nasty dorm room carpet all the time.
Coordinate with Your Roommate
If you are living in a dorm room by yourself, then this might not apply to you, but if you do or will have roommates in your dorm room with you, then this section is for you.
Talking with your roommates about what stuff your bringing, what kind of décor you want to put in your space, and what your design style is (and if you both want to coordinate design styles) will make your life so much easier.
Coordinating with your roommate will also preserve a healthy relationship and could make or break your relationship.
So, make sure to talk to your roommate about what stuff you should bring to save money by not duplicating items, and what you want the dorm to look like, so that your dorm is Pinterest-worthy, and your roommate situation is healthy.
Less is More
Like I have said before, dorm rooms are extremely small. You don’t have a whole lot of space to work with.
So, less is always more in my opinion. It’ll make your life so much easier, and your space a lot less cluttered, if you bring only the essentials with a few extra items (such as décor).
You probably shouldn’t pack those extra 5 pairs of shoes that you probably won’t ever wear, or you probably shouldn’t bring 7 pillows for your twin size dorm bed. These are just a few examples of “less is more”.
Trust me, you’ll thank me later.
Make Your Dorm “Kitchen” Stand Out
Your dorm “kitchen” doesn’t have to just be a mini fridge with some dirty dishes. There’s nothing less chic than a lonesome mini fridge in the corner collecting dust.
You might not think it, but you can do a lot with the little space you have for a kitchen area in your dorm.
Add fun magnets to your fridge, create a mini coffee or tea bar (or hot chocolate bar in the fall/winter), or add a shelving unit to store your fruits and vegetables, bread, peanut butter, and any other food items you can use in a dorm.
This can also come in handy when you wake up late for that 8 a.m. class and don’t have time to go to the dining hall, or for those late nights studying when you just need a sour candy or Hershey’s pick-me-up.
In this post, I showed you how to decorate a dorm room that is unique to your style and effective in making your space look clean and crisp.
Dorm rooms can be hard and extremely daunting in decorating and styling them. When you show up as a freshman to your new college dorm room, it can be really intimidating to lug all of that stuff you brought with you into a tiny room that might also have another person living in it with all of the stuff that they lugged with them.
So, using these decorating and stylish tips can help you design a space that’s unique to you and organized so that not only does your room feel homey and inviting, but its also the stable and less chaotic part of your college life.
Having a space where you can come back to every night that provides stability, consistency, and comfort makes your college experience so much more enjoyable, especially if you have an awesome roommate to share that with.
With a dorm room that meets all of your organization and decorating dreams, you can make more memories with friends, enjoy study nights, and relax in peace, which will decrease your stress during that first year that you are navigating literally everything (and you’ll be able to take cute dorm room pics).