DIY Decor: 4 Tips for Sprucing Up Your Dorm Room

Around 20 million students will attend college this year. Many of them will live in the drab, concrete boxes known as dorm rooms.

If you’re one of those students, expect aggressively neutral colors and strict rules about what you can’t do to the room. Forget painting the walls, for one.

That means you must arrive with some non-destructive DIY dorm decor ideas in your pocket. Keep reading and we’ll share some tips for sprucing up your concrete box.

1. Lights

You find overhead fluorescent lights in most dorm rooms. While they do provide adequate lighting, it’s usually a harsh light.

Bringing a lamp from home with that includes a decent lampshade is a simple way of managing this problem. It lets you pick a bulb with the right light color balance for you.

If you just want something different, you can always hang the much-lauded twinkle lights. You can show up all those expensive globe lamps by putting those twinkle lights into a geometric terrarium.

If those ideas don’t ring your bell, there are always the venerable paper lanterns.

2. Wall Coverings

Few things feel less welcoming than bare walls. You can always go with posters, but there are other options.

For example, you can create your own wall hanging by painting on an old sheet. Recreating the Sistine Chapel ceiling isn’t necessary. Basic stripes or even polka dots will do the job of giving the walls some life.

If you harbor strong feelings for a team, consider fan banners. You can see a good example over at bodyrags.

You can even make your own paper bunting with some scissors, glue, and glitter or paint.

3. Plants

Check with your roommate about allergies, but plants can spruce up a room. They add a nice splash of natural green color that can complement or contrast with your bedding.

You can take the color it up a notch with a flowering plant. African violets bloom with a nice purple, while Kafir lilies give you a vibrant orange.

Keeping a plant in your room also offers some health benefits, including:

• stress reduction
• improved sleep
• better focus

These are things you’ll appreciate as a busy college student.

4. Upcycled Items

Upcycling involves using old household items in new ways.

For example, you can tie this in with nicer lighting by making some mason jar lanterns. They usually call for tea candles, but you can replace the candles with small LED lights.

You can make a cork bulletin board into a jewelry hanger with some basic push pins. Old tin cans make excellent pencil/pen holders. You can paint them or apply decorative contact paper.

If you do decide to upcycle, just make sure you do all the prep ahead of time.

Parting Thoughts on DIY Dorm Decor

You can pull off DIY dorm decor without a huge budget. In fact, the best options often rely more on creativity than cash.

Terrarium twinkle light lamps, paper bunting, and upcycling take more elbow grease than shopping. You can often grow your own plant from a donated cutting.

As long as it makes you feel more at home, though, it’s a success.

Looking for more? Check out our post on small space living hacks.