Q: It's the start of a new semester, and I'm looking for advice on how to improve my white box dorm room. I have a single this year, approx 10x11 with tile floors. Here's a set I made that features the prominent items I have in my room so far.
1. Bed Bath and Beyond drawers for storage and mini fridge.
2. Standard dorm furniture. Everything, including the desk chair, must stay in the room.
3. Standard twin xl bed. My bed is different in that it doesn't stand on 4 legs, and can't be raised.
4. Brown floor rug
5. My bedding from last year. It's green with white polka dots, from Target. I still have the comforter and 1 sham with me that can be used for something, perhaps other than bedding, if necessary.
6. Bedding I bought this year. A white IKEA duvet cover with a greyish/blue leaf print. Blue/green/cream polka dot sheets from Target. I also have pale blue and lime green sheets.
7. Some decorative items: a white lamp from Target, wooden owl statue, green leaf dish, and tree branch jewelry organizer.
8. Vintage sheet music cover art that I found abandoned outside a thrift store. I haven't hung these yet because I'd like to frame them, but haven't figured out the best way to hang frames in a dorm.
9. Pretty requisite NY subway map (I go to school in NYC). I have this hanging as a poster, but would love to frame it.
I like eclectic, but my room seems too mismatched and I'm really looking for some cohesiveness. The standard dorm caveats are: I can't paint or alter the walls in anyway (including nails, tacks, sticky tack, and anything that would remove paint), and I can't hang a traditional curtain rod. I'd love any design ideas AT readers have, as well as suggestions for cheap frames and ways to hang them without damaging the walls.
Sent by Mari
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Comments (16)
Keep the pink drawers in a closet or swap them for ones that are white or black.
this is a pratt dorm room isn't it
The very best thing you can do is design it to be easily organized -- make sure that everything has a place to live, and then actually put the things there.
I had an incredibly mismatched single full of jumbled, collegey decor (about half the size of yours!) that was always immaculately neat (necessary due to its size). And yet, people were always telling me how cute of a room it was. Basically, I feel like I tricked people into thinking my room was cute by dressing it up in clean.
As per arranging it all: judging by how you were able to take photos and cut your furniture out of them (like the wardrobe, bed, etc.), you seem to have at least basic Photoshop skills. Take photos of your walls and use Photoshop to test drive different arrangements of how your posters would look once hung (so that you get the hanging right on your first try). In my experience, 3M poster tabs hang/hold/remove wonderfully unless your walls are particularly textured.
Check out www.lovelyundergrad.com, she's been featured on Apartment Therapy before and has some great ideas.
I second the 3M hooks, they are great! Also, I feel like all of your stuff goes together really well with the exception of the pink drawers and the brown rug. Can you paint the pink drawers with some plastic spray paint? Can they be stored in a closet or hidden in a corner so their color doesn't stick out so much?
I like the sheet music artwork. 3M make an array of adhesive hangers that you can use to hang frames on the wall.
I agree about hiding or replacing the pink drawers.
I would probably change the rug to something that picks up on the grays and blues that are common between the bedding and the art.
Carrying that color scheme through, you could make a covered bulletin board with coordinating fabric and get some magazine holders and desk accessories to match.
When I was in college I bought a huge piece of plywood for super cheap and covered it in fabric. It acted as colorful "wall paper" that I could nail things into rather than using double sided tape. I was able to use the rest of the fabric to make pillows for my bed so it tied the whole room together.
If they won't let them use sticky tack, I doubt they will let them use 3M hooks, unfortunately.
Do you have any molding around your walls? They make molding hooks you can use to hang artwork without making any holes or anything.
You could also add some contact paper to the faces of your dressers and other dorm furniture to spice up the colors from that lame wood color.
3M tabs should work fine, as long as you're careful when you remove them to not pull off the paint. The poster ones are good, but they work like double sided tape, and are harder to get off. They make ones with velcro that can hold a simple lightweight frame - probably up to 8.5" x 11" or so.
Aside from that, I'd get a couple more lamps, maybe a floor lamp or two. That way you can avoid ever turning on the awful dorm overhead fluorescent lights. That harsh lighting on white dorm walls is the worst.
I always felt like lighting was the quickest way to transform a dorm room. Lighting was so bad in our dorms, just one huge fluorescent in the middle of the ceiling. We hung up fabric on the ceiling to kind of dampen it, and then bought a bunch of lamps to make the ambience more inviting.
If you can't have a traditional rod, can you have a tension rod at least? We all just used tension rods and got cute bright curtains. The whole set up would be pretty inexpensive.
Also, if you can't put anything in the walls (cinderblock? I'm guessing?) what about the ceiling? Can you hang a tapestry or piece of fabric, or christmas lights if you're only putting holes in the ceiling?
As for the furniture, you could always use double sided tape and hang up a bunch of unframed photos or postcards, there have been cute examples on here before.
Best of luck!
curtains and bed skirts and lighting.
a sheer drape or a short valance can be held up by a 3M product. A bedskirt seems to be a rare dorm item and really helps differentiate from your neighbors. both of these items can be done in the same or coordinating fabric along with a throw pillow and floor seating (pillow/bean bag) in that same fabric.
Editing down the visible possessions that are not in your color palate (stick to no more than 4) and repetition of color or shape or line, a few different lighting options and you should be good.
I'd alternate out the bedding - you'll get sick of seeing each one after awhile. I'd probably try to get a small chair for the room - you said you had a single and I think one would fit - since nothing is worse than having to sit on your bed or an uncomfy dorm desk chair all the time.
Oh boy. Lighting, organization, and color. Splurge on things that you'll need anyway (nice three ring binders) and save on things that work out just fine (Ikea boxes, for example; if you want to keep with the green) and just keep things neat.
My strategy has been to keep things multicolored otherwise you really notice how crappy the wood is, how gross the tile looks, all that. And I hate plastic bin storage just because it makes me feel like everything is cluttered (sorry to be a hater; just my opinion). So--I'd go for a different storage route. Leave it in the hall and I'm sure someone will find a use for it! (or bathroom, or whatever).
As far as framing goes, frame with Ikea frames and just prop up on your desk or your chest of drawers. Problem solved! No holes at all.
The only change: Switch to a blue rug. There is a $49 option from Urban Outfitters (OU Rug) and would work.
The blue will tie everything in nicely.
And a tension rod for curtains.
What makes this seem like a pratt dorm?
Pratt has exactly the same furniture pieces.