If you’re a student, you don’t need me to tell you that back-to-school is right around the corner, which means it’s dorm prep season! In my college days, we did not have functional storage furniture, bed risers, or Command Strips. Freshman year, my college furniture consisted of an old couch from the Salvation Army, if I was lucky, old hand-me-down decor. It’s come a long way, but decorating a college dorm room is still a challenge. So I thought to myself, if I were a college student moving into a residency hall, how would I decorate my space? Let’s dig into some clever dorm room ideas to help make your new space feel like home.
Dorm Room Decorating Ideas On A Tight Budget
While not everything in this post will be cheap, nothing listed here is out of this world expensive. Keeping sustainability in mind, most of these decor items should easily transfer out of your dorm room and into your first college apartment. While designing these spaces, I wanted to keep them modern, playful, yet clean. You don’t need a lot of stuff in your dorm room, but the stuff you have should be functional. Side note: a great way to create a cohesive space is to chat with your roomie and agree on a color scheme, but the dorm room designs below are fairly simple, so they should work even without a set color palette.
1. Ella Vine Floral Duvet Set — This floral pattern is a great look for less option for my all-time favorite House Of Hackney Artemis wallpaper. For sheets, I’d grab some plain white percale sheets from Target (they also come in a pretty peach color that I think would look smashing with the duvet).
2. No Nails Pin Board—If your room doesn’t come with a bulletin board or if you want an extra-small pin board over your desk, this round no-nails one is the perfect option.
3. Cotton Bed Skirt — This is slightly unnecessary, but if you want to hide the clutter under your bed, this is the perfect solution.
4. Metal Table Desk Lamp—This lamp is great because if it gets bumped, it’s made of metal and won’t shatter into a million pieces. Plus, it has that mushroom decor vibe with a modern twist. If height is an issue, you could also go with this frosted globe lamp.
5. Tabletop Picture Flip Frame — If you take photos with an Instax Mini, this flip frame is perfect for displaying those special memories.
6. Beats Pill Bluetooth Speaker — This portable wireless speaker has a battery life of up to 24 hours and a built-in microphone.
7. Velvet Channel Back Chair On Wheels — This desk chair is incredibly comfortable and is available in 12 different colors.
8. Bellwood Caddy — Keep your everyday essentials organized with this cute caddy. Perfect on your dorm room desk or dresser.
9. Narrow Storage Shelf—I love its modern look and curved corners, and it comes in six different colors.
When it comes to decorating your dorm room, you must consider vertical space. The first thing I would do is loft at least one bed (because every college experience should include scraping your head across a popcorn ceiling…ask me how I know). Move your desk underneath the loft for extra space, and add string lights for some evening ambiance. If you don’t want to build your loft out of wood, you can purchase a loft kit from Amazon.
My roommate lofted her bed, and I placed my bed frame perpendicular to hers between the two desks under the window. My bed was used as a desk chair, giving us added floor space—so much so that we had room for a full-size sofa.