3 Unique Ways to Turn Your Dorm Room into a Home, Experts Share

Your dorm should be your second home, but it’s hard to imagine that when you first step into that empty space.

Looking around the room, it might not seem like there’s much potential for personality—white walls, empty drawers, and a flat, uncomfortable mattress don’t say much. But let our editors steer you in the right direction.

Three Spruce editors share stories of their time in college dorms and how they turned blank sheets of paper into rooms filled with unforgettable memories.

Mia: Things come and go, but memories last forever.

The summer before my senior year, my dad accidentally gave me all his dorm decorations.

Please take a moment and mourn the loss of all my stuff. I used to keep it in plastic bags in the garage, and my dad (thankfully) accidentally put it all out on the curb for donation.

When did I realize that, you may ask? A week before moving in.

I didn’t have much luck when it came to college living, from erratic roommates to a 7th floor dorm with no air conditioning (always a comfortable 86 degrees). I was looking forward to my senior year, when I would finally live in the nicest apartment building on campus with my closest friends in an a capella group.

So even though I had just lost all my precious belongings, I was determined to have a good school year and create a dorm that felt like a home and a refuge from the crazy college life.

My mom and I made it a point to replace all of my dorm essentials with speed. Thanks to multiple trips to Target and HomeGoods, we were able to purchase new bedding, towels, and pillows, carefully vetting the options that remained after the August dorm shopping frenzy.

I got many of the decorations you can see in my room above, from the gray comforter to the jute and gold woven rug.

As I shopped frantically, I began to realize that the individual characteristics of items meant very little to me. A comforter was a comforter, a pillow was a pillow.

I would (unintentionally) give it all again if it meant I would always have the support of family rushing to go shopping with me the week before move-in day, irreplaceable memories made with friends inside dorm walls, and the safest respite from the chaos that can sometimes happen in college.

Your dorm feels like home when it’s filled with love. Luckily, none of my photos or mementos were in those donation bags, and having them arranged in my many dorms has always meant the most to me. I lie in bed at the end of a long day, look around at the photos around me, and instantly feel a sense of peace that I can’t find anywhere else on campus.

That’s my most important advice—keep your dorm filled with the things that make you most comfortable, and always label your trash cans and bags.

Sara: You don’t have to spend a fortune to create a dorm you love.

Like many others, my college required freshmen to live in on-campus dorms and share a temporary living space. I was excited to move in and start the new semester, but my dorm room was one of the original all-female dorms—they were a long time ago, and everything had seen better days, to say the least.

Living in such a historic dormitory comes with strict decorating rules: no holes in the walls (even pins!) and no damage to the paint (it turns out it’s dangerous to scratch old walls).

With these strict decorating guidelines in mind, I went to Pinterest and searched for dorm room inspiration. I found a lot of great dorm room decorating ideas, but many of the options were not feasible due to space issues and wall decor limitations.

I thought about temporary wallpaper and wall stickers, but on a college budget, I couldn’t afford that kind of expense. So I turned to wrapping paper as a temporary wallpaper to accent the wall on my side of the room. It’s an easy and stylish way to add personality to an empty space.

I find that wrapping paper with a random, loose-fitting pattern works best for this dorm room decorating tip. I used black floral wrapping paper for my first attempt and it turned out great!

Putting it on the wall was the tricky part, as I used double-sided gift wrapping tape or blue glue to hold the wrapping paper firmly to the wall. This dorm-friendly wall decor tip is a simple solution that can last the entire semester but is easily changed for holidays and seasons without having to buy seasonal decorations that I don’t have room to store in my shared space.

Years later, I still use this cheap wall decor trick in my apartment after I graduated from college and it still works just as well as it did then.

Jane: Find what resonates with you right now

When decorating my dorm room, it was important to me to create a warm and welcoming space as soon as I walked in, whether it was after class or the library. Since this was my home away from home, I wanted to make sure to use bright colors to lift the mood and lots of texture to create warmth throughout the space.

As a freshman, since everything is so new, I wanted to preserve important memories of family and friends in my space.

I printed out several different photos and edited them with the same VSCO filter, so they all had a cohesive look when arranged together. I lined them up on the wall and hung a boho-inspired dreamcatcher in the middle to break up the photos.

Since my school is near some pretty and quaint towns, I always try to explore on the weekends to see if I can find any valuable finds.

There is a local farm and nursery that has the most beautiful plants and flowers, so I often go there to pick some seasonal flowers to give my room a little green. This is also a subtle way to change your room with the seasons without changing too much of your existing decor.

When I entered my third year of college, I knew I wanted to renovate my space because I was moving into a new building. While I loved all of my photos and decorations from years past, they didn’t match the person I was becoming at that time, so I knew I needed to find the right inspiration.

I looked through Pinterest and Instagram and saved tons of potential ideas, so I could narrow it down as moving day got closer. I wanted my space to lean toward minimalist with a touch of pastel, so it could still feel lived-in.

I used clear pushpins to hang each stem and tried my best to line up each row. In the middle, I used Command hooks to hang a small mirror so I could easily reflect the natural light from the window across the room.

As for the bedding, I said goodbye to the blue bedding in favor of a bright and airy white bedding set, which highlights the entire space and lets the walls shine on their own.

College is all about personal growth and every year you will notice small changes in yourself, which is completely normal. It is important to create a dorm room that reflects these changes within you, so that you always feel at peace when relaxing, studying or just hanging out with friends.

Whether it’s changing the entire furniture in your home or changing a few things, respect who you are and what you like, so you never have any regrets after graduation.