Imagine walking into your barren dorm room and discovering plain eggshell-colored walls highlighted by fluorescent lights and brown carpet. A dorm room may be hard to work with because of unfriendly surfaces and harsh lighting, but the best way to ease yourself into your new life is to have the space reflect you. Here are some tips to add texture and warmth to any space.
If there is a window in your room, add window treatments. Whether you get curtains or blinds, window coverings can add a lot of color to your room. And guys, you can keep it masculine by staying away from sheers and blinds – stick to something opaque like bold blues, browns, black and grays.
“”I went mainly with a black and red theme, but I think guys can use dark colors and even light blues,”” said Saki Toor, a business management senior who lived in Villa del Puente Residence Hall his freshman year. “”Both the windows already had blinds. We threw a curtain on ðð- not for looks, just to block out the sun.””
When he was an RA in Stadium Residence Hall his sophomore year, Toor had more free space to be creative.
“”I threw a futon in there and made it look more like a studio house with more furniture,”” Toor said.
If windows don’t add enough lighting, and desk lamps just aren’t cutting it, you can add Christmas lights for extra overhead lighting. This will bring mood and ambience to your room, as well as a softer look against the harsh fluorescent lights.
Girls can even wrap translucent fabric around the lights to add more flare to the decoration. Guys can bring strong elements in with bedding or with extra pillows to create texture. Don’t be afraid to get pillows – you can get ones that aren’t full of jewels and sparkles.
While your bed is a dominant piece on which to build a color scheme, you should also make it as comfortable as possible.
“”We got her a really cute duvet cover with an egg foam and mattress pad to make it really comfortable,”” said Karen McGee, mother of Kerry Rose McGee, an undeclared freshman currently living in Coronado Residence Hall.
“”What she did was pre-picked everything out at Bed Bath & Beyond and scanned everything she wanted,”” McGee said. “”Then when we got here, we could just go and pick everything up.””
You can also bring a lot of your decorations, like rugs or posters, from home in order to add to your dorm room.
“”Make your dorm room look like your room at home, so you want to go home to it,”” said Quinn McClure, a regional development senior. “”I brought a lot of stuff from home like pictures and stuffed animals.””
If you need to, go to a Kinko’s and blow up your favorite photograph in black-and-white, or make a collage. This is a cheap and personal way to have a big piece of art as a centerpiece for your space. For guys, this can even be your high school football team photo or your favorite Jessica Simpson poster. Avoid having lots of little frames for your photographs – too many little images can be distracting.
Organization is the key to creating the illusion of having more space in your room. Focus on bringing your belongings off the ground with cool boxed shelves – they can hold your stacked t-shirts or your books. You can even put a plant on the shelf which will add greenery and life to your room,allowing you to feel closer to nature. Pot the plant in a vintage glass bowl from a thrift store on 4th Avenue.
And don’t feel like you need to cover every inch of space with your favorite CDs and figurines. Less clutter may help you concentrate when you are ready to study.
