College can be stressful and classes can be difficult. The best feeling after a long, hard day is to go back to a perfectly curated room. Your room should be your sanctuary and if you’re like me, you can’t stop fixing things to make it fit the perfect vision you’ve created from numerous Google searches.
Lucky for us, this huge dorm decorating trend doesn’t have to be expensive. I’ve learned plenty of easy ways to craft a beautiful sanctuary, all within your college student budget!
- Stack upwards, not sideways.
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I love how this trick changes the appearance of surface. Here I took my books and stacked them on top of one another instead of standing them up sideways. This way, they act as their own décor and aren’t hidden in the corner of your desk. If you can match the colors of your books you choose to display to each other, it helps the aesthetic even more.
- Washi Tape is your new best friend.
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Say goodbye to having to buy picture frames (expensive) and hanging them (a painful, time-consuming process). Washi Tape makes everything better. You don’t have to worry about things falling down, or putting holes in the drywall. It also takes up less space for future moving processes. Use Washi Tape to add color to prints or picture you want to hang!
- Always refer to Pinterest.
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Pinterest is all-knowing. Period. I printed out all of these graphics from Pinterest and stuck them to the wall in this collage. To keep with the color scheme of my room, I would search “blue quotes” or “pink quotes” to get my desired look.
- Fill up a big space with some color.
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As I was decorating, I realized I had a huge empty wall to fill. I thought about the easiest ways to make this space more inviting and settled on the tassel banner seen here. What I like about it is that the pop of color distracts from the fact that the wall is so big. It makes the space look filled even though I only spent eight dollars on Amazon for it! And yes, it helps to have an awesome view like the ones here at Boston University.
- Use contact paper.
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Everyone knows dorm furniture was not chosen for its beauty. That being said, it’s not a lost cause! Contact paper comes in so many designs and colors and its inexpensive from Target or Amazon. You just peel off a corner and slowly start to lay it over the furniture you want to makeover. It comes off easy too, so no harm done!
It took me until my third year here at Boston University, but I was finally able to get the hang of dorm decorating. In the end, I’m glad I put the effort into making my room a place I wanted to be.
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