The home décor section in stores has always been a glorious and dangerous place for me. I find myself dragging my feet in Target, pausing to imagine all the designing I can do when I get my first apartment; but right now, I don’t have an apartment, I have a dorm room—and no money. So as much as I love to decorate, I have not been able to do everything I want to my room. Thankfully, this year I discovered pinterest (cue angels singing) and a whole new world of “do it yourself” crafts was revealed to me. Here are a few ideas—some from that great site and others from friends—of ways to affordably and adorably create your own dorm room décor. All you need is some imagination… and a lot of glue.
Lighting:
This semester my roommate and I were both underwhelmed with the poor of lighting in our room. I really wanted some extra light but I didn’t want to get the white paper lanterns that so many people have. I found a DIY on pinterest (my favorite site for craft projects) where someone had covered small plastic cups with patterned cloth and attached them to Christmas lights as DIY string lanterns. This version was a little too complicated for me; I really didn’t want to buy cloth or involve a hot glue gun. So I decided to create my own version of this fun craft.
The supplies I used included:
Pretty paper from Michael’s (which was expensive at $15 for 48 sheets but it has lasted me through many crafts and I still have a lot left)
String lights with white cord ($11)
Elmer’s glue (cheap)
Paper Cups (very cheap)
Metal hook screws (stolen from my handy dandy boyfriend)
I made a template, traced and cut the paper, and covered the cups with it. There were 100 lights on my string but the paper cups came in packs of 24 so I ended up with 96 lights. I used a knife to cut an X into the top of each cup and then simply slipped them on to the string lights. The result was a beautiful string of paper lanterns that wraps around a good portion of my room. I hung them on hooks that I stuck into the ceiling. The light they give off is not harsh like the overhead lights in my room and gives the room a nice aura. One of the best parts about this project is that the cups are not permanently attached to the lights, so at the end of the year I can take them off and stack them for easy storage. This project was so easy and affordable but looks luxurious.
Storage:
I covered six food cans with some of the paper leftover from the lights, then I stacked them into a triangle and glued them together with my trusty Elmer’s. The whole thing took me less than an hour, and I watched “Sex and the City” while I did it. I ended up with a great storage container for my pens, pencils and other little knickknacks that look fun and pretty on top of my shelf.
Jewelry:
I used to keep my jewelry in a box but it gets so tangled up, plus it is so pretty that I decided to show it off and make displaying my jewelry into art. A few years ago my mother bought me one of those wooden figures that moves and is supposed to help you learn to sketch the human body. I have never used it but somehow it made it’s way to Eckerd with me so I decided to put it to good use. I hung my necklaces and bracelets off the limbs and stuck pushpins into it to hang my earrings off of. The end result is a decorative addition to my room that makes it easy to see and choose from all of the jewelry I have and keeps it from entangling.
My good friend, Jaclyn New, also has a simple solution for the jewelry organization predicament. She bought cork squares (available pretty much anywhere), hung them on her wall and put pushpins in them. She can easily hang any type of jewelry on them and has a lot of room. It can be quite easy to display your jewelery in a way that makes it decorative and accessible.