Useful Tips for Decorating a College Dorm Room
The new school year is just starting and it is time to start packing for college. One of the fun things about going to college is 
decorating your dorm room. While this may not be the most important academic priority, your dorm room will become your home over the next 9 months and it is a reflection and extension of yourself. The great news is that it does not need to cost a fortune to decorate your dorm room. Here are some easy DIY tips to make the entire process fun and affordable.
Dorm Room Bedding: Buy a Matching Set Online
Most dorm rooms are equipped with an extra long single bed. This bedding size can be very hard to shop for in regular retail stores. The average person isn’t looking for extra long dorm room bedding. Shopping online from a reputable online website like RHL.org is an excellent way to get a fantastic price and a great look for your dorm room.
Shopping online also makes it very easy to pin your college decorating ideas directly onto a Pinterest pin board before buying anything. The pin boards let you share your decorating ideas with your future roommate (if you know who it is) and pinning your ideas lets you easily collect a scrapbook of styles and ideas for decorating that you can look at all together in one place before buying anything.
Accessorize Your Dorm Room with Color and Lighting
The dorm room bedding set provides a perfect color pallet from which to choose accessories. Because dorm rooms are so small it is a good idea to choose only one or two colors to build on. This will give the room a coordinated and polished look and keep it from feeling cluttered.
Alternative lighting is one of the most important things to start with. Choose a good reading lamp and also some additional accessory lighting. Get creative! Accessory lighting can be created using everything from old strings of Christmas lights to creating funky lampshades out of starched fabric and chicken wire. Have fun with lighting and it can become both useful and a design element in your dorm room.
Rugs
A nice rug is an excellent addition to a dorm room. Traditional rugs are often too large and too expensive for the small space so 
this is a great item for DIY. Painted or stenciled canvas can create an excellent dorm room rug. Inexpensive small bathmat rugs are also the right size for most dorm rooms. In addition, carpet remnants provide an inexpensive DIY alternative. Most rug stores will let you have the pick of small remnants for free. Collect two or three colors, cut them into shapes and glue them with liquid nails onto canvas and you can have a custom rug for almost nothing in less than an hour.
DIY Art for Depressing Dorm Room Walls
Some dorms let you paint over the colorless boring dorm room walls but many universities have very strict rules about all the things you cannot put on the walls. Check the dorm rules before diving into buying expensive posters. Consider taking walls 3D by adding 3M removable hooks. These can be used to either hang art or hang useful things like tennis rackets and book bags into interesting arrangements. Shelves made from driftwood are another useful alterative for making productive use out of wall space. Place square mirror tiles at the back of the shelves to create extra interest and add the illusion of space. Live plants, dead tree branches, strings of shells, and flags all make great wall art for very little money.
Try to finish your dorm room decorating planning before school commences. Once classes start there is usually little time to either shop or decorate.
Amanda Greene is author and brand manager for RHL, leading online supplier of residence hall linens. Amanda enjoys sharing tips and insights for decorating rooms, be it dorm rooms, or bedrooms.
