Outside the classroom, a large amount of students’ experiences in college are spent in their residences. For those living on-campus, experiences and memories made in their dorms and residence halls are highly treasured for life.
With your dorm room serving as your home away from home for the next several years, it makes sense to give the room a personal touch to make it a more livable and productive space but also an attractive one that gives comfort and expresses your individuality and serves as a piece of home away from home.
With this guide, let’s run through a few tips to keep in mind as you settle in or reinvent your college living space.
On-Campus vs. Off-Campus Housing
A major consideration for incoming college students is their choice of housing. Universities, especially the larger ones, typically have several halls that serve as on-campus housing. The alternative to these gets lumped together in what is called off-campus housing and can be anything from rental houses to apartments, communal spaces, etc.
These two options are complex topics and have their own set of advantages and disadvantages. To briefly mention some key differences, on-campus housing frees the student from worrying about utilities and rent but can be generally more expensive.
Off-campus living can be cheaper overall, depending on a student’s chosen accommodation, but they are in charge of paying rent & utilities, budgeting food, and looking around for the ideal accommodations. There are other differences, and it depends on a student which one they find most suitable for them.
A Note on Dorm Room Restrictions
A key thing to remember when it comes to decorating or redecorating dorm rooms is that there is typically very little room to move around, literally and figuratively. A typical dorm room will already have necessary furniture like beds and study tables, and maybe also a fridge and microwave.
This leaves little space for anything else to be added on, and bringing in too many things into the room will start to make it cramped quite quickly, and moving and rearranging furniture might not always be possible.
Another key thing to remember is that dorm rooms are governed by strict laws on what students can and cannot do and use when it comes to decorating. These rules are meant to ensure students’ safety and well-being according to prevailing standards for materials, fire resistance, and others.
These can feel very restrictive on one hand, but these present limitations that can stretch students’ creativity with what they can do with little.
10 Practical Tips for Decorating Your Dorm Room
Decorating (or redecorating) your dorm room can either be a creative exercise or a stressful (yet avoidable!) challenge. Here are some practical tips to keep in mind:
Stick to the rules.
Your stay in a university’s residence hall is subject to a long list of rules designed to make your and your fellow students’ stay in them safe, enjoyable, and conducive to learning. The same extends to what you can do with your dorm room décor.
Before you start, it’s important to be mindful of the rules and policies regarding room décor. Dorm room rules usually clearly set out what materials, accessories, and pieces can be used.
Rules vary, but applying a new coat of paint is usually prohibited, as is using screws and nails on the walls. Dorm room rules are also strict on things that can cause a fire (flammable décor, lights, extension cords, electrical appliances, etc.), as well as décor that can obscure windows and doorways.
These rules may feel overly restrictive, but they are there for a very important reason: to ensure your safety as someone staying within the university’s premises.
Remember: your roommate is your collaborator, not your competitor!
Universities usually have a pre-matching process, but depending on the luck of the draw, your roommate can be a proverbial match made in heaven or your pet peeves personified. Think of it as an exercise in working with others, which is an important life skill.
As someone you share a room with, it makes sense to run your design ideas with them first, as well as to set agreements beforehand regarding the details (what décor would fit, what each of you can provide or work on, etc.).
You might even want to collaborate on your pet’s space… if it’s allowed! Pet-friendly colleges are available if you or a roommate are interested in getting a small pet or bringing your furry friend from home to college with you!
Remember, your roommate can be a valuable source of ideas and not just someone standing in the way of your design goals.
Keep it simple… but impactful.
As previously said, most dorm room rules do not allow you to make overly drastic changes like repainting or even making holes in the walls with nails and screws, so you’ll have to stick to simpler goals.
Simple doesn’t mean boring, though; maybe you can try a unique conversation piece, such as a small piece of sculpture/art, a small trinket shelf, a couple of posters, anything that can be the focal point of the room and tie everything together visually.
Design with comfort and ease of work in mind.
Whatever your design intentions, always keep in mind that your dorm room is primarily your (and your roommate’s) living and working space throughout your stay in college. This is its primary function, so you should design with the goal of ensuring your room’s comfort and ease of working in.
Whatever you do, your dorm room should be livable and something you look forward to going back to after a hectic stint at the classroom and library.
Get creative with maximizing storage space.
You and your roommate will invariably have a lot of stuff between you, and a small dorm room can get cramped quickly if you both don’t keep on top of storage. Dorm room design should go beyond being merely visual and extend to the functional to serve the goal of making it livable and conducive for work.
Fortunately, there is no shortage of resources online that deal with tips and hacks to make the most of your dorm room’s limited space.
Hit the thrift store or flea market.
Many big box stores have a lot of décor items on offer these days, but if you want to go for a conversation piece (or pieces) to make your dorm room truly unique, you can’t go wrong with living sustainably by hitting the local thrift stores and flea markets. These places are full of trinkets and pre-loved items that you and your roommate can repurpose and breathe new life into.
Best of all, these unique pieces are sold at very college-student-friendly prices (you can also haggle), and the hunting around is also a very rewarding part of the whole experience.
Include something that reminds you of home.
Homesickness is a constant thing to look out for, especially for freshmen and those who are particularly attached to their favorite hometown spots and hideaways. It never hurts to bring a couple of things from home with you, be it something from your favorite hobby, a favorite blanket, maybe, or a couple of small photos of pets and family.
It is a good way to bring individuality to your space in a way that connects you back to home. The sky’s the limit here, but do draw the line on things that are practical to bring and keep in your dorm room.
Keep ease of cleaning and maintenance in mind.
Many people treat their room cleanup time as a time to relax and reset for the next set of tasks. Cleaning has a psychologically therapeutic value to it, as it’s a conscious way of overcoming the entropy that is constantly trying to take over your room.
Cleaning, however, shouldn’t take up too much of your precious time. Students generally have limited free time as things are, what with the constant deadlines set by coursework, extracurricular, and other commitments, so you should design your room to be as quick and easy to clean as possible.
The same should be true of décor; avoid overly complicated pieces that gather dust quickly (potentially turning your room into allergy central) and take forever to clean. Arrange things in a way that makes it logical to clean up and put things away every time, and make cleaning up a breeze.
Decorate or install something that can be taken down easily.
If, for some reason, another redesign seems to be in order, or you’ll have to move residence halls (or move off-campus) in the middle of your stay in college, you’ll have to take down whatever you put up. Most dorm room and residence hall rules, after all, stipulate students be responsible for restoring their rooms to a state cleaner than when they moved in, and this entails not leaving anything behind.
You should also keep in mind that at the end of the day, your stay in your dorm room is temporary, and having to pack up and move is inevitable and can happen anytime.
Don’t take it too seriously!
Have fun decorating! Your time in your dorm or residence hall is only a part of your overall college experience, so don’t let your decorating wins or woes take center stage. Your personal aesthetic choices should not ruin your relationship with your roommate.
As with other things in life, you need to take a step back and let go of some things in order for those creative juices to start flowing and for the best (collaborative) design ideas to take hold.
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