Whether you’re commuting from home or living on campus, it’s always nice to revamp your bedroom without breaking your budget. For those of you living on campus, the dorm rooms can often look like a daunting and barren prison cell. It’s important to do a little bit of home decorating so that you can feel comfortable and not like a stranger in a strange place. Here are seven simple and affordable ways to decorate your room.
1. Pictures and drawings
For some people pictures are completely digitalized and you won’t catch a hard copy anywhere, but I personally think it’s incredibly important to have photos of your friends and family to remind you of home, especially if you’re far away. Drawings are another great idea even if you are not an artist. If you are an artist, this is a great way to showcase your work, and if you’re less artistically inclined you can always put up others’ drawings, professional or personal. If you have any young siblings or children in the family who’ve drawn you a picture then your room is the perfect place for it.
2. Plants
One of my concerns when coming to college was how stuffy and potentially smelly the rooms were going to be, and with all of the restrictions on candles, plug-ins, and incense, I thought I was doomed. Never fear ladies and gents, nature has your back. House plants are an easy way to purify the air and brighten up a room. I started with four easy, almost unkillable plants. I bought a lucky bamboo, a dracaena marginata polka dot plant, and a philodendron (don’t try eating this one, it’s poisonous. I’m not sure why you’d want to try and eat a plant anyways, but just an FYI). The polka dot plant sadly died over the summer while a friend was looking after it, but I still have the other three and expanded my indoor garden to have eight plants in total (three succulents, an aloe plant, and one I have yet to identify are all new). Plants naturally purify the air and they just overall make the room prettier and greener, just make sure you get indoor plants and that your roommates aren’t allergic before buying anything that flowers.
3. Flags
George Mason University is incredibly diverse and has students from all over the world here. Whether you collect flags like my brother or want to display the flag from your home country or state, your room is the best place to do it. I have the UK Union flag hung on my wall and miniature flags from the different places I’ve lived sitting in my dracaena plant’s pot. Super cute!
4. Lamps
Lamps can come in all shapes and sizes, there’s one out there for every personality type. I have one lamp that’s pink in the shape of a guitar, and another one that’s a Himalayan rock salt lamp. The Himalayan rock salt lamp is supposed to purify the air, but even if it doesn’t it looks super cool when it’s lit up and it glows from within the salt.
5. Rugs
Whether you have that fake wood floor or the ugly carpet that’s standard in dorm rooms and nice rug will be a surefire way to make the room look more homey.
6. Mason jars
Believe it or not, mason jars can be used for a lot more than just pickling. You can use them to store food, drinks, and plants. Mason jars are great for decorating or simply storing things. I’ve seen miniature mason jars strung together and hung on the walls, sometimes just with string but also with lights.
7. Posters and tapestries
Lots of teens get movie posters and band posters and maybe you brought them to college with you. If you did then great, that’s an easy way to cover the walls. If you didn’t, don’t worry, you can always buy cheap posters online or in store. In the past here at Mason we’ve had poster sales by the Hub, so be on the lookout! What I’ve noticed more of recently is the desire to buy tapestries. You may have noticed vendors selling tapestries on campus last week, and while they were pretty cool they were also fairly expensive. $30+ for a tapestry? That’s highway robbery. I bought a really cool tapestry on Amazon for $8.50 last week, and there are so many designs to choose from. This is surely the way to go if you want to liven up the walls of your room.
At the end of the day decorating your room is up to you. Choose what expresses your personality and highlight the things you enjoy the most because you should feel comfortable in your room no matter what. It’s your home away from home.