5 Budget Design Ideas for Dorm Room

Living in a dorm room certainly has many peaks. If you study in Australia and picked a dorm to spend your student days in, you are in for a real treat. Dorms are an amazing place to make lifelong friends, have some fun, and study alongside fellow students.

However, there’ll probably be many who lived in the same room you are in, now. This means a lot of wear and tear, probably just the basic furniture, and many flaws in the furniture arrangement. It will also mean many restrictions in terms of what you can bring or install in the room.

Since a student’s budget is often not high enough to be able to open your pockets and buy fabulous furniture for a dorm room, many students decide to spend their days in a plain, dull-looking room. It doesn’t have to be this way. There are plenty of ways you can decorate your student room on a budget. Here are five amazing dorm room decorating ideas you may find useful.

Use Clothespins

Installing an array of photographs of your friends, family, and art you like in a room can give it an amazing, personal touch. But, frames are often pricey when you have to buy many of them. You will also probably be restricted from leaving holes in the walls.

What if I told you that you don’t have to lose your deposit when the year ends and still have photos on your walls? There are plenty of ways to make photo collages and insert them in your room decor. Clothespins are definitely one of them.

Hang a wire from one corner to another. Then, use colourful pins and clip your favourite photographs to it. This will add some colour into your room design, make the space more personal, and give it a creative touch.

Give Your Furniture a Second Purpose

Who says that you can’t turn a small dorm room into a fully functional living space? Most dorm rooms are small or you get a certain part of the room to decorate as you please (you probably have roommates, don’t you?). This means that you won’t have a lot of space to bring all the things you want, not to mention store all the items you need throughout the year.

Well, here is one of the most amazing dorm room ideas I have ever heard – make all your furniture has more than one purpose. Cerate secret compartments for storage, add boxes underneath your bed, turn that space in front of the window into a storage bench with some cosy cushions you can study on, etc.

There’s no limit as to how far you can go with repurposing the furniture. You can add storage in many places as long as you’re ready to dedicate some time on cheap DIY projects. To get such time, you might want to call a service and say help me with my assignment in order to meet the assigned deadline.

Use Removable Wallpaper on Everything

Removable wallpaper does not necessarily belong on walls only. Yes, it’s a very good way to cover the big stains and give your room a clean or colourful look. However, removable wallpaper can usually be installed on any straight surface, so why not make use of this? It is highly affordable and you’ll only need small pieces to cover the furniture in your room.

Get some removable wallpaper and put it on the top of your desk, on your nightstands, on the fridge, even the air conditioner. Then, before you leave the dorm room forever, you can simply remove the wallpaper without leaving anything behind.

Organize the Books by Colour

You’re a student, so you probably have many books inside your room. Instead of cramming them in the drawers or underneath the bed, put them out in the open and use them as part of your room decor. This will give you extra storage to put the rest of your items in, while the right combination of colours and some organization can create rainbow gradient along those empty shelves.

Make Use of Throw Pillows

Pillows are affordable and come in all sizes and designs. Don’t think that you can only use them on your bed! You can use throw pillows for many purposes. They will sit perfectly on your window sill, make your chairs more comfortable, and can even be used as extra sitting place when you have friends over.

The bed is the centre of your dorm room, so get some throw pillows to make it more inviting, too.

Conclusion

These five budget friendly tips for designing dorm rooms are just the beginning. Let your creativity take over and decorate the room you’ll be staying and studying in for quite some time.

Author’s Bio

Emma Rundle is an interior designer. According to Rundle, she got her inspiration for her career while in college. She says that, when you learn how to decorate on the smallest budget you have in your life, you’ll know how to decorate with anything.