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Drab to Fab Dorm Decor

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Hilarey Wojtowicz Student Contributor, The College of New Jersey
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Jessica Corry Student Contributor, The College of New Jersey
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at TCNJ chapter and does not reflect the views of Her Campus.

With tile floor, cinderblock walls, and windows small enough to make it feel almost like a prison room, TCNJ’s dorm rooms are not the easiest to decorate. But with a little help from Her Campus, you and your roommate can take your dorm from cold to cozy in no time. Make your room the place to be on your floor this year with these three easy tips!

The set up!

With a limited amount of space and a lot of stuff to fit into your dorm room, you need to be conscious of what goes where. In many TCNJ dorm rooms, there are nooks and odd spaces that your desk or dresser might not fit into. Using stackable storage bins and under-the-bed drawers is a neat and organized way to fill these nooks and crannies. Get creative and take full advantage of these space-savers to leave the rest of the floor open. This will help to prevent your room from looking over-crowded and crammed.

Have a seat!

Dorm rooms at TCNJ come with four basic pieces of furniture: a bed, a dresser, a desk and a nightstand. But besides the one chair and your bed, where will everyone sit? After rearranging your room, you might find that you have a lot of room to add extra seating. Try a mini futon or a butterfly chair. Both are small enough to fit in the dorms at TCNJ and they can transform your room from just a place to sleep, to the place to hang this Fall. Or even better, go for an ottoman and get the perks of extra seating and extra storage space! Don’t forget that a rug not only provides more seating, but warms up the room.

Try Walmart’s affordable mini-futon in pink, red, blue, or gray, each for just $99.

The extras!

Now that you have your furniture in place and everything else unpacked and put away, it is time to add some color. Throw pillows are always an easy way to add pops of color to any room. Throw a couple on the futon and on your bed to help brighten everything. Also, posters make great wall art for dorm rooms and help you cover up those cinderblock walls, too. Can’t wait until TCNJ has its annual poster sale at the Stud? Look for posters and inspirational quotes online. Try allposters.com. You can’t beat their back-to-school poster sale, with posters starting at just $4.98. Choose from hundreds of posters and find the ones that will be the envy of all your friends on your floor this Fall.

Resources:
Walmart.com
Allposters.com

Hilarey Wojtowicz is a senior Journalism/Professional Writing major at The College of New Jersey. Hilarey works for TCNJ's Residential Education and Housing Department as a Community Advisor, but is truly aspiring to be the next Carrie Bradshaw. Not only does Hilarey love writing for her campus's chapter of Her Campus, but she enjoys writing about sports for local newspapers, as well. A true Jersey girl at heart, Hilarey is definitely not from the Boston area, but is a huge fan of the New England Patriots. You can find her interning in New York City this Fall at Woman's Day Magazine.
Jessica is one half of the fantastic duo founding Her Campus on the leafy suburban campus that is The College of New Jersey. A Journalism major and Communications minor in the Class of 2012, she is a native of Pennsylvania and an adoptive resident of New Jersey. That's why she can't fist pump, but can pump gas. Before Her Campus, Jessica was a newspaper reporter, communications assistant and world traveler, having studied and interned abroad in London. When she's not writing or talking up a storm, Jessica can be found bargain shopping, catching up on a good book, fiddling with her camera or attempting to stay in shape. Other passions include hummus, tickling those ivories on the piano, meeting new people and all things Her Campus.