I was not allowed to hang anything on my bedroom walls for the first eighteen years of my life. So, naturally, I spent an inordinate amount of time the summer before my freshman year planning how I would decorate my dorm room. Most of my friends transferred their bedroom walls to their dorm room walls, but I had an entirely clean slate which I quickly learned would be expensive to fill, especially if I did not want to just have a few large posters.
There are so many ways to conventionally decorate a wall and even more items specifically designed to make walls look beautiful and coordinated, but there are also ways to spruce up a wall with ordinary objects that would normally never have the opportunity to evolve into pretty-looking wall ornaments.
- Pictures are basically everywhere in college dorms. Some people basically make wallpaper with all of their polaroids, but I am not talking about that picture your friend took of you after you meticulously styled your hair and covered your cheekbones in bronzer. I am talking about that stack of photos from a disposable camera that you are not sure why your parents still have. Look through stacks of photos no one has looked at in years. Look through stacks of photos no one has ever bothered to look at. One of my favorite pictures on my wall is of some manufactured savannah from a safari ride, and I found it sandwiched between someone’s sunburned arm and the back of my dad’s head.
- Postcards are printed on surprisingly sturdy paper and come in so many different prints. I have this gorgeous cartoonish one featuring a rainbow draped over Niagara Falls that one of my best friends sent me, and every time I look at it I think of her. If you have friends at different schools, then you can send postcards to each other, especially because getting mail is always fun! Museums also sell postcards, usually with prints of pieces featured there and for way cheaper than buying the full-size version!
- Greeting cards, especially ones found lying around or received from other people, are my absolute favorite things to hang on my wall. Most cards I found have something written on the front and either a bouquet of flowers or some other pretty picture, so all I had to do was cut out the picture! This also works for old birthday invitations if you happen to still have them. I have pictures of unicorns, mermaids, and even a filled-out invitation from my 9th birthday party.
- Stickers, if they do their job, are never going to come off your wall, but do not let that stop you from using them as decoration! If you stick them on post-it notes, washi tape, or something else removable, they will come off really easily at the end of the year. I tend to buy cute stickers whenever I see them, so it is a great way to display them.
- CD inserts (also known as the little info books in front of CDs) make great decorations because they often include pictures of the artist and lyrics. Even if you don’t buy CDs anymore, you probably still have some lying around your house collecting dust.
- Everything else that you have been saving because you cannot bare to throw it away probably can make it on your wall, too. I have bookmarks, key-chains, coins, guitar picks, bracelets, vintage handkerchiefs, and lanyards all coexisting with more traditional paper decorations. If you can figure out how to hang it, then it will probably look amazing!