Canisters!

Create canisters like this to store things on your desk or around your room! Use it for make up brushes or pencils and pens. I use these around my entire room and they’re all different. Remember nothing has to match! The different designs will add depth to your room!  

You can even make your own! I made one this summer and used beads and ribbon. It's simple and you can get as creative as you want. I used regular glue and it worked just fine! It didn't leave white marks, so my canister looked clean and properly made!

Social Network Bundle

I don't usually promote this but it's for an assignment!

Check out all of my pages that have to do with decorating:


http://decoratingblog235.tumblr.com/
http://facebook.com/decoratingblog 
http://twitter.com/decoratingblog

Pictures, Pictures, and more Pictures

Always add pictures to your space! It lets visitors see who you are and reminds you of home. You don't always need frames. Its as simple as taping pictures above your desk. Make sure to post them somewhere where your guests can see them! It's awkward walking into someone's room and having to look around items to see pictures.

Add Bright Colors to Your Room

Check out another blog that I follow religiously:

http://laurenconrad.com/blog/cat/decorate

Lauren Conrad has amazing tips for decorating. She lists a tons of DIY decorations and shows reader exactly how to make them.

Spring Cleaning

Need to start your Spring cleaning? Here are some tips that will help you stay organized: 

• Throw away and file unnecessary papers
• Get rid of things you don't use/wear (I know no one wants to give away clothes, but sometimes its completely necessary!)
• Add bright colors to your room
• Use candles to add a calmer feel to your room
• Store away your winter clothes (while were waiting for this warm weather)
• Rearrange your room for a fresh start to Spring and Summer 

Decorations

Where do I begin?!?! I'm going to keep this post short because everyone has their own style!

You can get anything you desire for decorations. I would suggest covering your walls as much as possible, it makes the room feel more homey. My roommate and I got posters from the bookstore on campus and covered most of our walls.

Obviously, bring pictures from home! I think, in order to make your room really comfortable, you need to have collages. Almost all my floor mates (that were girls) had pictures upon pictures. It spices up your room, reminds you of home, and lets your new friends see your old ones!

Something that added a little more of a cozy feeling to our room was trinkets. We used to go to local Dollar Tree and pick things out that went along with upcoming holidays. It was great, everything was a dollar and we were able to get so much stuff! It added a fun touch to our room. You don't have to decorate for the holidays, most of my floor mates didn't, but instead they used candles and little statues to decorate.

If you join a club or sorority, decorate away! My floor mates who rushed sororities had so many decorations that resembled their sorority. It adds a more personal touch because it shows something you're proud of. Plus, all of the decorations are so cute!

My roommate and I went a little crazy and we decorating our entire doorway with cut out pictures from magazines. Trust me, it took FOREVER! But the end product was amazing, we loved it! It was the first thing people pointed out when our door was open or they walked into our room. We definitely made it our own room with our own style. Luckily we liked the same thing but even if your roommate has different taste than you, that doesn't mean you can't make your room cute!

Desk Space

Organizing your desk space is important for doing your homework properly and comfortably. Until my freshman year, I never did my homework at my desk. I always did it in bed or in the living room. I found that doing my homework on my bed was almost in possible. Since my bed was lofted it was hard to get everything I needed up onto my bed and if I forgot something I did not want to get down to get it! I would suggest setting up your desk space to make yourself comfortable. You're going to be spending a lot of time in that spot!

Some items I would purchase are:

• Folder organizer- You can use this for more than just folders. Folders, notebooks, index cards, important documents, etc. can all fit in this box. They come in many different materials, some are wired or cardboard. The cardboard organizers come in different colors. You can get whichever color to match your room! 

This isn't the prettiest organizer but you can get the idea from this picture! This one is especially cool because it's doubled and can hold more documents. 

• Pen and Pencil Organizer- This is very similar to the folder organizer. These are useful in order to keep all your essentials in order and together. There's room for anything you need to put in it. 

I would suggest getting your own printer at school! I don't know how it is at every other school but at URI it's a pain to go to the library and print. Plus you have to pay 10 cents for every page! 

Storage Essentials

The next most important step in creating a cozy dorm space is finding good storage products. Stores like Bed Bath and Beyond, Target, Hobby Lobby, etc., have many different selections. Bed Bath and Beyond has a great college shopping section on their online website. Here's their link in case you want to do some online shopping!

College Shopping

Some items you should look for are:

• Stackable bins
• Collapsable bins
• Shoe organizer
• Over the door hanger
• Plastic containers
• Closet Shelf Organizer (these are GREAT) 
• Shower Caddie
• Scarf Hanger

The list can go on and on. I think the best product is stackable bins. They come in almost every color. It's easy to match them to the products you have already bought. Last year I used them to store food that I had in my room. There are very small and don't take up much room. It's easy to fit a lot! I also used the bins to store my shoes, although I didn't stack them it saved a lot of room in my closet and I was able to fit another set. Below is a picture of what my closet looked like with all the bins.

The collapsable bins are also really useful. Instead of taking up drawers in my dresser for my undergarments, the collapsable bin was smaller and fit everything I needed. They also add a cozier touch to your room instead of having bins after bins after bins. These also come in many different colors. (A small hint, not everything in your room needs to match. Me and my roommate had completely different colors and everything went together great! If you coordinate colors too closely your room will be too much!)

The closet self organizer (picture below) is amazing. This product saves SO much closet space. It's almost like having another dresser. You can fit as many articles of clothing as you want. Mine weighted over 40 pounds, I couldn't even move it unless I took the majority of my clothes out. I would suggest getting a semi-expensive one to be sure it doesn't break.

It's completely up to you what you want to use for closet items! I brought my entire wardrobe with me to school. (How could I not?!) Before I realized that the closet shelf was the best organizational tool for meI had a clothes rack under my lofted bed. These are easy to use and move. You can make then short, tall, put them on top of each other, anything you please! 

Another cool product is a scarf organizer. Most stores have them... It's a hanger that has over 15 holes where you can put your scarfs! It hangs in your closet just like a normal hanger would. I attached mine to an over the door hanger just because I have a lot of scarfs. This saves A LOT of room. I used to fold them and put them in my shelf organizer but I found it was too messy and hard to get to. Below I attached a picture of what mine looked like!

I hope this post helped you with ideas for organizing your dorm room! Take a look at the Bed Bath and Beyond website, they also have a lot of cool ideas.

Room Layout

First and foremost I want to say that rearranging the layout of your room helps a lot with creating a cozy space. Depending on where you go to school, obviously the rooms are different!

Lofting beds is always a good idea. It creates more space in the room and adds a personal touch. Whatever you decide to put under the lofted bed adds to the coziness of your room. For example, I used a lofted bed and had my desk and clothes racks in the designated space. (My closet was TINY!) There wasn't much room underneath but it made my desk area way more cozy. I felt like I was sitting in my own little box... my roommate used to say it was my own world. I attached a picture below of my room so you can have a general idea of what it would look like. You can always higher the lofted beds as well! My picture below shows my lofted bed before I made it higher. Sometimes the loft is just to low to fit anything under!

Me and my roommate realized that lofting our beds and stacking our other furniture made our room more spacious. We had the little three drawer dressers... instead of having them separated in the room, we stacked them! It was a little hard to reach into the top drawer but it created A LOT more space.

Another good technique is finding furniture that is already in your room to utilize. Most college students bring TV's. I know I needed one. Utilize whatever furniture you have first, before going out and buying new stuff. Putting your tv on top of a dresser or desk shelf is always beneficial. However you want to organize your room, organize it! After worry about the decorations. The layout of the room is the most important!

Here's the link to another blog that I found useful. It shows different layouts of the room. Most of the furniture in the pictures was the furniture they gave at URI. It may be a little more helpful for you to understand what I'm talking about!


Room Layout Ideas Link!

Blog Description

This blog is going to contain different ideas on how to decorate a dorm room. I will post pictures and little excerpts of advice for my bloggers. My posts won’t be too long but easy enough to scan until you can find what you want. Hope you like my ideas and they will be put to good use! Enjoy!

About Me

Hi! My name is Andrea. I’m 19 and a sophomore at the University of Rhode Island. This year I live in an off campus house, but last year I lived in a dorm. Obviously dorms are gross. At the beginning of the year I had one roommate. When I first walked into the room it was cement floors and walls, one bunk bed, a lofted bed, three desks, and three dressers. There was nothing to the room; it looked like a square box. Being away from home, all I wanted was to make my room cozy. Fortunately for me, my roommate felt the same way. All year long we always found new ways to spice up our room. We loved buying decorations and organizing essentials. We probably rearranged the furniture twice a semester. Our room was so cozy and our floor mates loved being in our room.

I’m making this blog because I know how bare and boring a dorm room can be. Creating a cute and cozy space really added something to me and my roommate’s college experience. We loved our room so much we would text each other over Christmas break saying we couldn’t wait to get back. It was weird, but I loved the space I created at college. I wanted to upload different ideas to help other college freshman figure out how to perfect their space. This page is going to consist of different ideas and guide lines to creating and personalizing a dorm room. I will post pictures of different products and how to usefully use them. I also hope to show you ways to add a personal touch to your room.