Decorating Your Home Away from Home

As any college student knows, college dorms are not the homiest of all places. They are typically bare, white cinder block walls which are not fun at all, but there are many fun ways to personalize your room and add color! Here are my favorite inexpensive ways to decorate your dorm room wall:

Photographs:

A great way to personalize any room is by adding pictures to it! Especially in your dorm room, pictures remind you of all the good times with your friends and family at home and as the year goes on you can add pictures from the semester to your wall. Photo collages are a great way to seem crafty and make your picture collage unique!

Photo Collage:

Photo collages can be in any pattern or shape that you like!

Meghan Ermi, St. John Fisher Dorm (Rochester, NY)

Arranging your photo’s into the shape of words makes the photos look inspirational and gives them more meaning. This idea doubles as a photo collage and a piece of art on your wall! You will be sure to get compliments on this photo collage style!

Kelly Forstbauer, SUNY Fredonia Dorm (Fredonia, NY)

Simply arranging your photo’s into a large group on one of your walls is also a great way to spice up your room and give that homey feel to such a boring white dorm room wall. You can also try adding bright, colorful construction paper behind the pictures to make them pop against the bare walls. This will draw attention to your photos and will be sure to start conversation with friends!

Canvas Pictures:

Using canvas photos are a great way to make your room more personalized and will be sure to remind you home and maybe your mother in particular, or at least it does to me! You can buy canvas pictures at Wal-Mart, Bed Bath and Beyond, The Christmas Tree Store and many other places starting at about $5!

Leah Cripps, SUNY Fredonia Dorm (Fredonia, NY)

Posters:

Posters are a great way to express yourself because you can buy a poster with pretty much anything you can think of on it! They are a great way to tie together a room or accent a wall. At Fredonia, we have a huge select ion of posters in our book store which is a great place to start looking, though they are a little pricey. Other great places to look are at craft stores, such as Michaels, Wal-Mart, the Paper Factory, or online at websites such as Amazon, which may be cheaper than your school book store.

My room, SUNY Fredonia Dorm (Fredonia, NY)

Quotes:

Using quotes for your wall is a great idea! I’ve seen students use pictures to write out quotes or get wall stickers that have quotes on them, but here at Fredonia our walls are cackled so stickers don’t usually work out as well. This year, one of my suitemates showed me another great way to decorate your walls using quotes. She wrote out quotes with colorful markers in different fonts on index cards and arranged them on her wall above her bed. This idea will definitely ensure you have a great day, every day! Who wouldn’t when you could wake up every day to an inspirational quote by your favorite person?

Kelly Forstbauer, SUNY Fredonia Dorm (Fredonia, NY)

Post Cards:

Using post cards to decorate your walls is a unique and cheap way to add style to your college dorm room. This summer I visited New York City and bought ten post cards for $1! I placed them on my wall above my bed in-between my pictures to remind me of the amazing trip!

My room, SUNY Fredonia Dorm (Fredonia, NY)

I hope these decorating tips help you to personalize your dorm room and make it the perfect home away from home for you! How did you decorate your dorm room or room at home to let your personality shine through?