10 Dorm Decor Tips You Need To Make Your Dorm Room Your Own

Dorm decor tips are a necessity when cultivating your ideal college experience! Here’s a list of our top 10 pieces of dorm designing advice!

1. Tapestries

Ever get irritated by the blandness of a bald wall? Go get tapestries! These giant wall blankets are the perfect way to fill up large amounts of space with art rather than nothingness. Just get one or two flower patterned pieces for a clean, refined look, or go with the stoner style and line your walls and ceilings with a visual cacophony of trippy multi-colored patterns. Whatever floats your boat. Unfortunately, however, you may not be able to get these at any old superstore like Walmart or Target (or K-Mart in my case). For tapestries, you’ll have to go to old-school music stores, head-shops, or online.

2. Posters

Unlike tapestries, posters are better for more specific designs and taking up smaller gaps on the wall. You can definitely find a plethora of tapestries with tie-dye or flower patterns, but maybe not as many with your favorite band logos, video games or TV shows. Also unlike tapestries, posters require a little work. Framing your posters can also help them last longer! Similarly to the tapestries, you may want to get posters from headshops, music shops, and concerts.

Note: use command strips and hooks. Many dorm rooms have policies against the use of tacks or anything that leaves marks or holes, and if you disregard these you could potentially lose your security deposit.

3. Electronics

Electronics are an important part of dorm decor tips. If you’re a gamer, you’re sure to have a sizable setup – and any dedicated gamer certainly wouldn’t want to part with their toys just because of school. Even if you’re not a gamer, there are many important electronics that the new generations need to get through the day, all of which take space and one kind of setup or another; whether it be a sound system, entertainment system, music studio, or whatever. Just don’t be a Neanderthal about your placement. If you have a soundbar, don’t just leave it on the floor. Suspend it from the wall or the ceiling, or get a stand. Make things organized and keep them off the floor. Having to run an obstacle course from your TV to your bed can mess with your psyche after a while.

4. House Plants

House plants can be a great way to add a bit of life to your room. Sure, you’ll have to water this dorm room decor, but everyone needs a little responsibility, and it will be worth the nice aesthetic, not to mention the chance to circulate all that stuffy carbon dioxide. You can get the plants and everything you need for plant care at nurseries or any other store with a garden section. Dumb Cane, Cast Iron Plant, and Peace Lillies are a few examples of house plants that are super low maintenance, as well as aloe Vera and other succulents. Cacti are good dorm plants too.

Heads up: if you have a cat, don’t bother with succulents and cacti. Between the chewing and the urinating, they won’t last long.

5. Small Furniture

Obviously, you don’t want to bring a full couch or an office desk to a dorm room. Yet without any furniture (or what little furniture you get with your room), your living space can feel a bit desolate and unwelcoming. As far as dorm decor tips go, especially if you’re low on funds, hit up the thrift store – Arc, Goodwill, whatever you have nearby ought to work. You can get all manner of things for next to nothing that will add a little character to your room. Why as I write this now I sit next to a compact little high school desk that I got for $12 and a new bungee chair I got for $20.

6. Bored Games

No not board games, bored games. Like a home-base version of those little basketball hoops you can attach to office trash cans. Maybe a small basketball hoop or a dartboard can fill in some of the gaps in your room, and give you something to do while you work out that writers block.

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7. Mounted Storage

If you have a door in your dorm room, you can use mounted storage. Hang up just about anything in your room: clothes, shoes, books, knickknacks, or whatever else you want to suspend. It definitely saves desk and shelf space and it’s far more organizational. You can get wall-mounted, rack-mounted, shower-mounted and door-mounted storage from pretty much anywhere- Office Depot, Walmart, Target, etc…

8. Holiday Mods

If you’re a big fan of decking your room out for the holidays, regardless of how little space you have at your disposal, this section is for you. Getting seasonal dorm room decor is synch when you start to get the hang of using as little space as possible to the fullest. For dorm policy-friendly decor, check out the seasonal discount section. Little strings of lights or paper cutouts can go along your wall and even posters and tapestries. You can also get small boughs of fake seasonal plants to deck the walls with, and little trees to put on top of a table or your mini-fridge are an adorable little addition as well.

9. Curtains

Of all dorm decor tips, this may be the most underrated! Unless your dorm room is brand new or refurbished, odds are your curtains are utter trash. Luckily, you don’t need to screw anything in to fix this. Pretty much any superstore should carry non-screw curtains. You can utilize this to dress up your windows, but also separate spaces within the room itself.

10. Hobby Corner

Even if school is your entire life right now, let’s be honest, you need a hobby or you’re going to go crazy. Therefore every dorm room should have some space dedicated to hobbies. Set up a small desk in the corner with all you’re hardware if you’re a gamer or set up an easel and a small stand if you’re into art. If you’re into working out maybe have some light equipment like a punching bag, some dumbbells and a yoga mat for example. Not only does this give you a space for self-expression, but the space in itself says something about you to those who roll through.