Image by Peter Alfred Hess, Flickr
For the next 8 months, your dorm room becomes your home. Sadly, most schools prohibit painting dorm walls, making it a little more difficult for you to truly make the room yours. However, your uninspired space can be spiced up in ways other than just changing the paint colour. Check out these tips on how to decorate it, without breaking any rules:
- Posters/artwork: Get posters of your favourite movies and bands to show your personality through your space. Show your artsy side with artwork that speaks to you. Looking for more of a design piece? Choose a theme and get posters of different sizes and complementary colours to create a stunning effect. Instead of just taping them onto your walls, consider putting them into picture frames to add a bit of dimension to the room.
- Wall decals: If you’re more of a minimalist and cringe at the thought of huge pieces of paper hanging on your wall, wall decals are an excellent alternative. You can get anything from inspiring quotes to unique designs. They’re like tattoos for your wall that can easily be peeled off at the end of the year (or if you regret them after a week).
- Wall tapestries: If you have a huge blank space that’s just begging for an eye-popping piece, consider wall tapestries. Urban Outfitters sells some excellent tapestries, posters, and decals that are sure to make a statement.
- Wall collage: Instead of buying something, make it! Take old posters, photographs, postcards, typography, or anything else you have lying around that you think will work well together and layer them on top of each other. This is a great way to bring a piece (or pieces) of home with you to college. Karen Kavett (aka xperpetualmotion on Youtube) has made several hip and trendy wall collages. Check her out to get some inspiration for your next dorm room renovation!
- Peel and stick chalkboards: Super cool in any space, they’re excellent for the artist inside you – and are great alternatives to writing things down on your hand. Combine several of them to make a chalkboard wall that you and your dorm mates can doodle on. They are easy to remove and won’t harm most surfaces.
- Washi Tape: Easily described as decorative masking tapes, washi tape comes in different sizes and designs, is extremely versatile and can be used anywhere from adding pop to your door to transforming your plain side table. HGTV came up with 10 amazing ways to use washi tape in your room.
- Rugs: Don’t forget about your feet! A good rug can make your room a lot cozier and homely. Who can forget what The Dude repeatedly said in The Big Lebowski… “That rug really tied the room together!”