apartment therapy changing the world, one room at a time

disagree on buying a good rug...bad things happened to the very very cheap rug I had in school.

If you care a lot about the look of your room, get in contact with your roommate(s) early and put together a design plan. It's possible to coordinate too much (looking back I regret the matching duvet covers my roommate and I bought) but wildly clashing schemes in a small space can drive you crazy. Pick two or three main colors you agree on and personalize from there.

I agree that having a comfortable, attractive environment is important even for college students. These are all practical ways of cozying up a dorm room without spending too much money. It's not hard to find inexpensive and attractive bed linens, art, rugs and lighting. If you are a careful shopper, you can find things that you can use in room after room, and even past college.

However, I object to the excessive commercialization of 'the college experience' and the explosion of college-related decor and accessories in the past decade or so. A great deal of it is cluttery junk and will be left behind by students for bemused staff to dispose of. As with any kind of decorating, sticking with the basics and avoiding gimmicks is the best way to get the most bang for your buck and avoid creating more landfill.

And I think most would agree that the time and money one invests in a living space should be balanced with how long one will be there and for what purpose. College students should be more focused on studying, making friends, and generally maturing and developing themselves as human beings rather than perfecting their dorm rooms. I say this with regards to a couple of previous AT posts on dorm rooms, which I felt went too far in the latter direction.

SAVE YOUR MONEY!!!

I am 25 now and I don't use a single thing I bought to decorate my college dorm. Don't get me wrong, it looked great, but your tastes will change. It's a waste of time and money. Plus you have to move every 4-8 months!

Go for an inexpensive Anthropologie look. Hunt at the salvation army, yard sales, your grandparents garage...take hand-me-downs and concentrate on studying and meeting new and interesting people.

Keep it ridiculously simple. You will look cooler. Invest in an amazing laptop and really good bedding - that's it. Go cheap for everything else.

After you study hard and get a good job, then move into your first place and actually start investing in pricey stuff. For now, if you're a total design nut, just subscribe to Elle Decor and keep a design ideas folder on your computer.

oh, the mattress pad idea is a good one. I had a twin one from ikea for under $100. Awesome idea.

Its been a long time since I have been in collage but the only thing that was new was a butterfly chair and new mattress everything else was thrifted and it looked great.

I took Indian sarees that I found in the sales bin at an Indian mercantile store and layered them over rodes as my drapes which later became table clothes for my outdoor dinner parties. You can find some really beautiful prints and colors and they can be thrown into the wash.

st@cy good advise!

The one thing that REALLY made my roommate's and my room look AWESOME was black presentation boards from Hobby Lobby. You can take pins and pin up
e v e r y t h i n g! They look really sharp if you have them hung in the right places. :)

I wouldn't spend too much money on sheets, unless you have a more conventionally-sized bed and not the extra-long twin beds that are standard-issue at most colleges. A mattress pad is a must, I think. Those dorm mattresses can be terrible.

I agree with going inexpensive. I didn't, and now I don't use a single thing that I bought for my dorm room. Just buy the necessities, things that you will enjoy living with for the year, and then finish off the decorating with inexpensive items like photos. I had photos taped and tacked all along my closet and on bulletin boards in my room. They made my stark unit feel like home, and always served as conversation starters with my guests.

Keep it simple, save money and use hand-me-downs. in every small college town I know, there is an attic or storage space with tons of furniture for sale.

I used my dorm room for sleeping, since there were 3 of us in about 100 square feet. I spent most of my time in the hallway, library or lounge (not always even in my own dorm) and took advantage of all the other good spaces on campus.

Tie dyed curtains! (they were dirt cheap. I wish I still had them...)

As a former Resident Advisor, I've seen MANY modifications to a dorm room. Here are some of my favorites.

1) Try making a lightweight wooden frame that will fit large blank spots on the wall and covering it with any fabric you like (think of a painters canvas). Cover any cork boards with the same fabric or mix it up.

2) Many people in my dorm made loft beds and slid their desks under them, then stored their bed frames disassembled in their closet. Make sure you build it sturdy.

3) Rug - I agree that one is needed, but not an expensive one. As stated above, MANY "bad things" can happen to a dorm rug.

4) Check out thrift stores in the area for a cheap loveseat and cover it with a cheap king sized sheet of comforter after a heavy spraying of Lysol and Febreze. These fit great under a lofted bed.

5) Get either a hollow core door ($20 at a hardware store) or take the door off your closet. Clamp the door to your desk or set it on your bed as needed for increased work area. If you have a single room (you're lucky) you may have two of everything. Set the door across your two desks to make one nice big work area.

6) It sounds cheesy, but get a plant. A nice big plant to put in your work area. It will brighten the room and produce much needed oxygen. Plus, it monitors stress. If you're plant is dying because you're not watering it, you're either over stressed or partying too much to pay attention to what matters.

Remember, anything you do to the room will have to be undone by you before checking out at the end of the semester or year. Be creative and have fun.

I was all about cheap and cozy. I assumed that my room-mates would have different ideas of what the space should look like (as they did), so I concentrated on making my bed my own space. I studied there and rested there. I put see through curtains around my bed (with clouds on them). Since I had a bunk bed located above a desk and an armoire, the clouds were sort of cute. Also had a large blue Chinese lantern above the bed.

And yes...my tastes have definitely changed. No more black lights and photos of Hail Bob on my walls. :)

If you're totally on the same page with your room-mates about what it should look like, could be a worthy investment (I would try to not exceed $100), otherwise claim what's yours and make it your own!

Eh on the mattress pad -- what you want is one of those foam egg crate mattress toppers if you can find them, I'm fairly sure Target has them for cheap, and probably in twin XL.

I disagree w/ slowdown -- I had two pair of sheets from LandsEnd that I could rotate on my bed. Nice sheets in unfamiliar territory can be comforting.

But really, it's a DORM ROOM, there isn't that much space anyway (at least there wasn't where I went to college), so about the only decorations you'll need are maybe a few things on the walls, a comforter, and a desk lamp.

My dorm room always got lots of compliments, I think because I kept it all pretty simple and stylistically coherent. Lots of vintage prints of Paris (cut out of an old calendar), bohemian tapestry things covering a trunk, books everywhere, good (comfy, fluffy) bedding, interesting lighting. None of the pink plastic DORM ROOM target accessories, but lots of fun stuff from my parents. Lots of hand-me-down shelving.

Appreciate what you might already have.

It's true that many dorms have terrible existing furniture, but some do not. In the dorm I lived in for my first year at school we had blond, bent-plywood desks by Marcel Breuer. I believe the chairs and bookcases were also Breuer.

Sadly, I hear the school has since gotten rid of them. (It makes me wish I had stolen my desk and just paid the $50 "missing item" fee at the end of the year!)

15 years later (gulp), I still use a few things that I (ok, my parents) got for my dorm room: some beautiful persian rugs, an antique leather-backed mission-style rocker, and a really quality solid wood bookshelf. They also gave me a few framed art prints that livened things up.

Rather than the mattress pad, I went for a featherbed for a little extra padding. I also bought a simple wood set of shaker pegs to hang coats and bathrobes and the like, preserving valuable space (but nicer than the gross plastic stick-on hooks).

But since our dorm rooms were very small, the biggest improvement that I made was to ditch some of the school-issued furniture. Not literally, of course. The most heinous stuff went into the basement storage areas of the school (with some help from sympathetic custodians), and the dresser was tucked into the closet where it's ugly lines didn't impact the room.

my top favorite things we did in our room (over two years w/ two different roommates):
- Lofted our beds. We had a pretty high ceiling so we still had enough room to sit up in bed, and it made a world of difference in the amount of room. The second year we painted the loft black which improved the room's look about 200%.
- Had a futon. The futon was a great place to study, relax and watch tv, or hang out. But try not to ever take naps on the futon, it helps to seperate sleeping (in bed) with studying (which should not involve sleeping).
- Bought an extra large mini fridge. Our fridge was just under the max limit (about 58 inches, I think). The seperate freezer comparment was awesome, our friends would often store their ice cream in it. It was also nice to be able to fit a whole container of milk/juice in the fridge.
- Made curtains. We took down the (gross, old, disgusting) off white curtains and replaced them with nice colorful ones we made ourselves.
- Covered our desk chairs. We had those standard wood dorm chairs with a seperate back and seat. We took the screws out of the chairs, covered the (gross, old, disgusting) fabric, and put it back together. Just had to reverse the process at the end of the year.
- Bought cheap rugs to cover the entire floor. We bought two ultra cheap, big box store rugs (probably $30 total) that covered almost all the floor space (except for the fridge/microwave area) and used carpet tape to tape it to the (gross, old, disgusting) linoleum. Our rugs held up much better than the expensive carpet remnants people bought on move in day on campus or more expensive rugs because stains came right out and they didn't get matted down.

That is the biggest dorm room I have ever seen!

The best way to decorate your dorm room is actually to wait for major things until the end of freshman year, when people throw out unbelievable amounts of stuff. Get a friend with a truck and snarff up anything awesome from the curb.

In the meantime, the single most important change to a dorm that I can think of is lofting the bed. If your school allows it, lofting makes an amazing change in the amount of usable space in your living quarters. Most school stick two people in a room as big as the one pictured above, so see if your roommate is open to making a bunk bed.

Every square foot counts.

we did wall to wall carpet in ours that my roomate had scored. It had padding attached to it, and was brand new, so we went wal to wall.

a lot of dorms are going to stackable furniture which can be good and bas. We had 3 guys in our room and left all 3 beds built up so your bed was on top and a desk and shelving underneath. Then one moved out, so we were left with a huge bed area. So we took that one and mine and constructed a super loft to get rid of the rest of the furniture. This out the extra bed literally against the ceiling, but we didn't need it.

You just need to get creative. Also, our walls were cinder block, quick way to make you seem like a prisoner.

OH, and get a nice flat screen, which they were around more when i went to school just 3 or 4 years ago, would save a ton of room.

Why would you buy expensive sheets to fit an extra-long twin bed? Unless you're planning on having an extra-long twin for your first apartment/home too? It's a waste of money unless you have a younger relative or friend to pass them onto.

That dorm room is HUGE for one person. You must have taken out the other bed, desk, and dresser.

The best thing you can do in a dorm room is to make your bed (you have a comforter---how much time can it take?) and keep your dirty clothes off the floor. It's a great way to keep it from feeling claustrophobic.

And open a window once in a while. It probably stinks in there.

As a recent college-dorm-move-out (now have my own apartment thank the good God) here are a few tips of my own:

1. MATTRESS PAD- I had both a foam pad and a pillow-top. It made the crappy dorm bed a cloud and a haven.

2. Another huge thing is lighting. See if you can replace the ugly-ass curtains they leave you with, or at least pull them away from the window and drape some cheer cloth over the existing curtain rod. It makes a huge difference.

3. The biggest problem I ran into was clutter. You're bound to save every piece of art your friends make, bring a billion pictures, etc. But in the end, it's suffocating. Clear a space and spice it up with a favorite picture, or a line of polaroids. Try a hanging photo mobile. And for God's sake, don't tape up a million photos on a wall, only to rip them when taking them off in 8 months.

I say go at least a semester before investing in any larger decorative items like rugs and furniture. by then, you will know what kind of room yours will be: the room that you work in, the room where you have movie night with your neighbors, the room where your friends come to preparty before a night out, the room where the raging party that gets shut down by campus security? furnish accordingly.

that said, less is always more.
- get a solid duvet in a neutral color. dress is up with pillows; if you get sick of the enough pillows will also make your bed a couch for when friends are over and can be used for floor lounging.
- do frame a few prints/photos. my freshman roommate did this right away and her half of the room instantly looked cooler. make sure, however, that you don't just frame a bunch of tiny images.
- get a rug of some kind. nothing expensive (urban outfitters has tons of cheap rugs). don't go solid or every little spot and crumb will show. and don't forget to vacuum now and then.
- unless you have a spectacularly giant room, the only furniture you should get is a decent quality, comfy desk chair to help you study *at your desk*. if your chair isn't comfy, you will be tempted to study in bed and that's a bad plan. use it all four years, then sell it. other than that you can 'suffer' though having some bulky tacky furniture for a little while.
- most importantly, don't forget to (re)sell any items you acquire rather than trashing them. even if you won't be there over the summer, you can team up with a bunch of people and rent a storage space for a few items-- it's not that expensive and much less wasteful.

Regarding a rug. My freshman year of college I got a bunch of carpet samples from a store (super cheap) and put them down with duck tape on the back. Whenever there was a spill we'd just pull that piece up and replace it with another. Adds some color to the room as well as cheap and practical! I like to think of it as a precursor to Flor.

TOTALLY get the rug pad. You don't need to get the pricey rug, but spring for the pad. Industrial tile floors are not comfortable, even if you put down the plushest rug on earth. Get the rug pad.

I love this topic :)

I'm all for getting the biggest bang for a buck - which means transforming things you already have and finding inexpensive things (whether IKEA, Target, Craigslist, or thrift stores) and transforming them.

And with online DIY resources like Apartment Therapy, even more can be accomplished in dorm decorating.

I completely agree about the mattress pad. They can be pricey, but a worthy investment!

Some cheap ways to spruce up a dorm:
-Hang curtains from a tension rod, since you usually can't put holes in the walls. You can even paint on more designs if you want
-Switch out sheets and comforter every now and then. I get mine at Ralph Lauren Outlet - great quality, great price
-Netflix subscription. Not exactly decorating..but it will increase your quality of life
-Use those removable adhesive hooks by Scotch to hang things. I tied a string around the small hooks attached to my bulletin board, then hung the strings from the hooks. Also attach a tight string behind light picture frames and hang them from the hooks.
-Floor lamps with shelves. You can paint them to match your room's theme.
-Wall hangings. Put holes in the top of a tapestry or wall hanging and then hang them on the Scotch removable hooks to give those bare white walls something interesting

I'm bargain hunting this summer for things to spruce up my dorm room this year more than I did last year. I'll post pictures once I'm settled in this September.

I think the best thing I had in college was a cheap cotton rag rug (probably from Pier 1) that I was able to roll up at the end of the school year to pack away for use the next year. I also brought a down comforter with a nice duvet cover - also packable. I totally agree with buying a nice set of twin XL sheets - you're going to be there 4 years, and twin sheets are usually pretty cheap, even nice ones.

Non-fluorescent lighting and a comfy bed are the most important things, at least in my experience. And inexpensiveness.

Do they still sell those halogen torchiere lamps? They may not be up to AT design standards, but nothing lights up a room like it. With the right floor lamp, you'll never have to use the overhead fluorescent light. Just try not to burn the place down by tossing your dirty clothes on top of it...

Make your bed a comfy place for sleeping and reading. Get similar bedding to what you have at home. (If you sleep under a cotton quilt or chenille bedspread at home, you'll never sleep comfortably under one of those synthetic fill comforters that come in those bed-in-a-bag packs.)

Get an eggshell mattress and a pillow-top to put on top of it. Then get oversized pillows so you can sit up and read on top of your made bed. And get a reading lamp for the head of the bed.

Re the decor:
- get a bulletin board or other photo board type thing so all of your photos are contained in one spot, rather than taped all over the wall
- Bring one or two nice prints, then decorate the rest over the course of the year as you come into your own style. Then your room will reflect your personality rather than a design magazine or target ad.
- plants are awesome :-)

My Gawd, that dorm room in the picture is enormous! My first one was half that size... we had to loft our beds up to the ceiling to have space to move!

Most important thing to bring to college: extension cords and outlet extenders. Our first room had two outlets. Running a refrigerator, a stereo, a microwave, two computers, a printer, multiple chargers, lamps, alarm clocks, and (of course) multiple hair implements, at the same time was some sort of miracle.

I agree about textiles- but bring things that are easily washed in a crummy dorm-room laundry facility. Rugs, curtains & blankets that can't be washed (or that are too big to stuff in a small machine) will become vile almost immediately.

Never ever put an expensive rug in a dorm room. Especially if you have a roommate who likes to party and throw up. I learned that the hard way.

In defense of my expensive sheets...yes, you will probably only use them for the year. But you use them every single night for the year and, think about it, all you have is your bed and your desk so you're in your bed quite a lot, your friends come and hang out on your bed and you need to get good sleep too!

Spend $$$ on a laptop and bedding. Get everything else second hand.

Oh man this coming year is the first time in 2 years I will not be living in the dorms, thank god! With that being said..It was hard for me to live in a tiny little room with bad carpet, lighting, walls, etc. because I am a design freak. Thankfully me and my roommate made the most of it, we got so many compliments on our room and everyone always came over. Our room was not "ikea-ish" which to me is a good accomplishment cause most dorm rooms end up being that way, It was unique, one of a kind! As much as I hated living in those dreadful rooms, I will miss the times me and my roomie spent there.
College students deserve to splurge!!

Jeez slowdown, how expensive do you think nice twin sheets are? You make it sound like a huge investment wasted. Twin sheets are super cheap... I got two sets of great quality high thread count sheets on sale for less than $40. Most college kids spend at least that in just one night out. And it was probably the best money I ever spent for my dorm room - when you're averaging five or six hours of sleep a night, every wink you get is precious and having a nice comfy bed to sink into is everything.

I also got the thickest mattress pad I could find, not just for comfort, but also because I didn't want my skin to be anywhere near the many years of grossness that has come into contact with a dorm room mattress. My university had lots of issues with their dorm cleaning staff and the rooms were nowhere near sanitized at move-in. I still shudder to think of it. The room only began to feel like home after many hours of scrubbing.

It hasn't been too long since I graduated (two years ago) so I figured I'd weigh in. Do NOT buy expensive things for your dorm - like rugs, etc -- you will only be extremely upset when your not so great roommate spills their soda on it. This happened to many friends.

The most expensive thing I had in my dorm (though I admit I lived at home the last two years since dorms are nuts) was the bedding and that is because I planned to reuse it every year. Everything else was thrift store, hand-me-down, dumpster dive find, etc. Almost no one uses the stuff from their dorm and you just got to move it every year.

Good storage solution is to get get some furniture risers for your bed - that space is extremely valuable. A ton of colleges don't like the idea of lofting the bed and furniture under - at least around here.

I'm beginning to wonder if Indiana has strict colleges - you had to leave the dorm furniture in, there was to be no curtains besides the blinds ad sheers they had on the windows, and you were restricted from hanging anything from the walls unless you used double sided tape. Plus the dorm was about 8' by 10' and I had to share it - I couldn't have gotten much in besides the essentials anyways.

This post cracks me up - I went to college a long time ago before students had so much easy access to credit. We would have never wasted scarce drinking money on or devoted much time to decor besides putting some stuff up on the walls, making the bed, hooking up the stereo and plugging in the fridge.

My freaky freshman roommate had absolutely nothing on her walls or anywhere else the first semester. We had a bet that she owed me a six-pack if she didn't hang anything up by finals. She did eventually hang a nice print, and bought me the beer anyway.

I had billboards stolen from the Metro North stations visible to everyone in the quad when our shades were up since we didn't have "window dressings".

Bring something to clean with. A mop/broom/dustpan/mini vac or something. Many dorms don't provide anything for cleaning and if you don't have it then you wind up living in dirt. Also, bring something to deal with the stale air. Most dorms don't allow candles or incense but if you want to keep same bring/make allowances to buy something.

A small fan - tower or otherwise. Again, about air circulation.

Oh, and before you buy anything make sure you know what you can and can't bring to school. Many dorms don't allow microwaves, mini fridges, or other appliances (except through the companies they contract with).

Reading the comments reminded me... a nice allergin proof mattress cover (they're just like the pillow protectors with a zipper and all, but for mattresses) really made sleeping on a dorm mattress seem a lot less icky.

I have a confession to make. I spent many, many hours thinking about how I would make my half of my very first college dorm "my own". I arrived armed with my own chair in a sand microsuede with patching pouf for additional seating, and the most amazing raw silk curtains in saffron and blood orange that I would attach to the Ikea bed canopy curtain rod we ended up drilling into the concrete walls. I thought my side of the room was a modern Morocco, complete with some beautiful lanterns I'd found at a yard sale.

And my roommate thought I was a huge pain in the ass.

Children! I was a total dorm design NUT in college, and I still use many of the nifty little things I acquired during my four years there. My favorite little tid bits that helped to make my dorm exceptionally homey:

-This may sound a little offbeat, but I went out to the dollar store and purchased a bunch of wrapping paper, which I used to "wallpaper" my walls. Stay away from busy prints and bright solids, as both are distracting. Stick to neutrals and simple prints, like stripes, that are easy to match up and easy to work with.

-Check out antique stores. Sometimes they have such old and nearly decrepit items that you get a real steal on something you only need for a short time anyway. I got a huge, really gorgeous old gold leif mirror that was missing a little piece for under $20.

-Don't even bother with hanging around June to garbage pick 6 year old vomit crusted couches left on the side streets in your college down. Gross. Instead, take a fun springtime drive with a friend who has an SUV in cute, classier towns. Redecorating couples throw away some wonderful items during spring cleaning. This is how I scored a beautiful kitchen table, which I later found out is worth over $600 by a furniture buff family friend.

-Jersey cotton extra long sheets. Cheap, come in ever color, and incredibly soft. When you graduate and hopefully make some real money, then you can splurge on things like high thread count.

-Never underestimate the luxury of non-halogen lighting.

-Art, whether it be crude collages constructed from torn out magazine clippings or a $10 Monet print, is priceless.

Regarding dorm room bedding.

1.

I cannot reccomend this enough!!!!!

BUY A WOODEN SLATTED MATTRESS BASE FROM IKEA
http://www.ikea.com/us/en/catalog/products/60079788

and put this under the mattress. Springs attached to dorm beds are horrible and are unable to support the mattress properly. Put this under the mattress, and put a memory foam topper on top.

2.

Invest in a fluffy QUEEN sized comforter and good duvets.
None of the bed-in-a-bag flimsy stuff with cheap comforters and synthetic sheets.
You will be able to use your comforter and duvet for a long time after college if you buy queen instead of twin. And they fill so much more luxurious :)

@undercover: Again, I wasn't saying that all kids should be relegated to crappy sheets. When people mentioned buying "really good" sheets, they did not specify what that means. People have different standards and metrics.

For instance, I went to school on a combination of grants, federal loans, and various part-time jobs, so I scrimped on everything: the cheapest bedding, no extra furniture (even vintage stuff, a lot of which isn't cheap for someone on an extremely limited budget), used books, few new clothes, very limited eating out, etc. I don't think I'm the only person who's had to get through college with the bare minimum of 'stuff' (most of which was handed down to a younger sibling). I think I was tired enough from studying, working and socializing to not mind my sub-par sheets at night.

"College students deserve to splurge!!"

...when they have jobs.

Although I definitely agree that college students should focus on not spending a lot to buy ridiculous plastic furniture/accessories, I do think it's nice to have a cozy dorm room. You're away from home for the first time and having a dorm room that feels like a real room can make a huge difference. Plus it encourages you to leave your door open and have people over.

That said, simpler is better. The dorm rooms I remember were clean and bright, without tons of fancy additions.

I just let my dorm room be what it was.

too small for two people. unpleasant. made of cement. walls that rejected any attempts to hang things on them.

then I moved into an apartment. :)
now life is good.

The best advice I could give you is to get a comfy piece of furniture for your room. Something that is compact and easy to store but is also able to provide seating for a few friends. One great item is the SlouchBack. check it out at http://www.SlouchBack.com

you will dig it

When my daughter moved into her first college "house", mini-vans full of parents rolled in with beautiful lamps, cozy chairs, paint, thow rugs, and 1,000 framed pictures of friends (and in our case, we brought extra smoke detectors because it was a 100 year old wooden house).

The boys across the street showed up---mostly on their own---with stereos, big TVs, a couch for the front porch, and a foos-ball table.

The boys were already out on the porch drinking beer while we were still hanging curtains. My husband pointed across the street and said, "I wanna live with THEM!"

Kids---ya gotta love 'em.

daughter is up in two weeks to her second apartment at big university in small town in a green state with a river running through it and way too much rain, unless you like rain.

fresh year was in a semi-swank 3 br with two other girls and it was drama city. boys in their complex had like a door and a couple of crates for a table and that was it. they had sofa, chairs, big tv, bar stools, table and chairs, coffee table. the comforts of home. but the drama was intense, some of it involving furniture. her own room was nice, really, with desk bed, office chair, bookshelf, and all her clothes on the floor. now she has a new room-mate and we hope it will be cool. decor is like college cheap, but that can work.

its all strange for me. i lived at home and went to cal.

Graduated this year, and always had the room (now the apartment) where people want to hang out.

1) SEATING- cushions are perfect for stashing in unseen nooks.
2) MAKE YOUR BED!- the room will instantly look bigger, cleaner, and more inviting.
3) LIGHTING- you and your roommate wont come home at the same time, and it's nice to have some light when you get in without waking up (or being woken up by) the other person. Christmas lights around the ceiling work well, while offering a party vibe when you have friends over.
4) SOUND- you need good headphones (so you and your roommate can study/watch movies/listen to music without bothering each other) and you need good speakers (so you r music sounds good when you have friends over.

That being said, your best times at college wont happen in your dorm room... so dont stress out or break the bank designing it. Also, your friends wont remember what posters you had on your wall, but they will remember the good friends and good times :)