Are you moving into your student accommodation this winter? There is an age-old cliché that a dorm room must remain a huge mess to show you’re indeed a student. But, contrary to this, a clean and relaxing space makes for the most enjoyable experience. Why? Because your home decoration expresses how you feel and live.
A well-decorated space is comfortable and appealing, puts you at ease, and eliminates anxiety. Think of your dorm room as your home away from it. Throughout your stay, you will learn, dine, entertain, rest, and socialize with other students in your room. As a result, it won’t hurt to make your space inviting with cute decoration ideas. Below are 15 popular room hacks to improve the way your dorm room looks without blowing your budget.
1. Explore different lighting
Lighting tops the list of simple room hacks you can adopt. It serves a functional purpose in the interior of study room, and aesthetics by adding depth. Thankfully, you can explore different lighting options for your space. They include string, artificial strobe, warm white, natural, ambient, task, or fairy lights for reading.
2. Get creative with your bookshelf
Books are some of the most famous culprits of a mess in a student’s accommodation. With a little creativity, you can repurpose items, including old belongings, into a bookshelf. You can make a wall-mounted, a free-standing, or a ladder bookshelf at one end of the room. More importantly, choose an arrangement theme that matches your accommodation’s aesthetics and fix a focal point. You can personalize it with framed pictures for uniqueness.
3. Reduce clutter with a drawer
Don’t just leave your clothes lying around; create a drawer for your clothes. If your room does not have drawer space, you can cut cardboard to the size of a drawer and use dividers or store-bought inserts to separate it into compartments for easy storage.
4. Poke holes in lampshades for starry effects
Transform your lodge into something out of a Disney movie by poking holes in your lampshade. This is one of the most intriguing room hacks. Also called the starry night lampshade, you can create different patterns and designs on the lampshade. This way, when the light comes on, it reflects off the holes and projects onto nearby surfaces.
5. Create a message board for reminders
Students live hectic lives around classes, tests, assignments, and deadlines. With so much on their plate it only makes sense to have a board with all the things to do. If you need to write a research paper, prepare the space around you and put up the ideas on the board. Or, organize a process of research paper writing online, and note down the deadline for yourself. This way, you can keep it close to you, and it is also neater compared to covering every inch of your accommodation with sticky notes.
6. Make your wallpaper
Peel-and-stick wallpapers appeal to an indoor space and are also easy to use and remove for use elsewhere. But if you want to save money, you can make your wallpaper with sheets of fabric and liquid starch.
7. Lean towards tapestry
If you fancy textile art, add a tapestry to your room. It doubles as a form of insulation and decoration for the room. You can use the simple design as a seat cover or curtains, hang it from the ceiling, or as a statement wall.
8. Use a cork board
A cork board is traditionally used for pinning documents and papers. However, you can personalize it as one of the best room hacks into a storage space for accessories. Instead of dumping everything in a drawer or around your room, create a cork board inside a wardrobe or cabinet to save space, track accessories, and ensure a minimalist appearance.
9. Add decorations to your headboard
Headboards make the bedroom extra dreamy and are one of the fun room hacks. Depending on your personality, you can choose different furniture styles, colors, and themes to give a more visual appearance. For example, you can try cool mood lighting ideas or anything you fancy.
10. Add a couple of cushions
Throw cushions are comfortable and improve the bed area’s appearance. Instead of standard cushions, you can choose a slogan or throw cushions for decorative purposes. Regardless, feel free to choose any related theme and design you want.
11. Make a statement with your rug
One of the ways to personalize your rug is to paint it. Visit a second-hand or thrift shop, buy a rug, and paint it in any design, color, or pattern you like. But if you don’t have enough time, you could buy an already-painted rug.
12. Make everything bright with washi tapes
Washi tape is a unique masking tape you can use to decorate anything and everything. The tape has hundreds of uses for arts, crafts, and DIY projects. Use it for decorating papers, cupboards, shelves, books, photo frames, and posts or as wallpaper.
13. Use personalized hangers to make your wardrobe inviting
If you have an open closet, use customized hangers that match your accommodation to hang clothes. Visit a nearby hardware store to shop for unique hangers. Alternatively, you can spray your hangers with different colors or even use washi tapes on them for a luxurious look.
14. Invest in a pot plant
Indoor plants increase creativity, eliminate air pollutants, reduce stress, and improve moods. Besides, everyone needs something to care for. Since pets and similar living things are not allowed, bring a few indoor houseplants to your dorm room. However, only keep an indoor-friendly plant in your room.
15. Keep electronics off the floor
Laptop and phone wires on the floor add to the clutter in the lodge. Instead, tidy your wires with command strips, cable staples, tape, and zip ties. You can also create a central cable storage box where all stray electronics go.
Conclusion
There are more room hacks on how to decorate your accommodation than the ones we mentioned above. However, these tips and dorm room ideas are inexpensive and easy to incorporate into any space. Although decoration is not a piece of cake, take your time with your student room design, and you will be impressed with the result. We recommend you start with simple and easy ones like lighting and work your way around more technical hacks.
