Looking for cute dorm room ideas to make your new space pop?
Your dorm is your home away from home. It’s a cozy space where you can express your personality and a quiet place to study all in one.
Chances are your dorm room is old, dull, and lacking any kind of decoration when you first arrive. Considering the amount of time you will spend in this new room, you want to do a little decorating.
But most universities place heavy regulations on decorating your dorm room. These universities require you to decorate in ways that will leave their walls unchanged and without damage. This often means no paint and no nails.
Don’t worry! There are many cute dorm room ideas and easy ways to decorate your dorm room without breaking your school’s rules.
This article contains 15 cute dorm room ideas that will leave your room unscathed at the end of the year.
Let’s begin!
Before You Begin
Before you spend any hard earned money on decorations for your new room, make sure you know your university’s dorm decoration regulations. Check with your school’s Housing and Residence Department for information on where you can learn about these regulations and answers to any other questions on your mind.
Once you know these regulations, you’ll know which of these cute dorm ideas will work for your new room.
1. Take Your Bedding To The Next Level
Your bed is the focal point of your college dorm. Your dorm room proves no exception to this rule. Express your personality with photo bedding.
Choose a unique duvet cover or comforter that displays the things you love most, from places you’ve been to your favorite animal. We offer high-quality bedding that fits a variety of interests. There’s no better way to individualize your dorm room.
You can even use your own photographs to customize your bedding. There’s no better way to individualize your dorm room.
2. Use Paint Swatches and Samples For Accents
You can use paint swatches for a number of cute dorm room ideas like accent walls, murals, and other arts and crafts throughout the room. Paint swatches and samples are free and easy to find. Visit your local home improvement stores like Lowe’s and Home Depot.
You can use paint swatches to create gradients on your wall or rainbow patterns. These can take up as much or as little space as you’d like.
Not that into rainbows or gradients? Other cute dorm rooms include creating chevron, stripes, mosaic and polka dot patterns with paint swatches. These patterns take up a lot less time and small space to create.
Want to create a project that you can take home with you? You can hang paint-chip pictures, calendars, or garland with command strips. Command strips stay on the wall with self-adhesive strips and cause no problems when its time to remove them.
3. Make A Fun Photo Collage
Choose your favorite photographs to create a wall of awesome memories. You can assemble and hang photos in a number of fun ways.
Assemble photographs in a heart shape for a wall accent. Other cute dorm room ideas include hanging photographs from a clothes line or ordering your own custom canvas wraps of your favorite memories.
Whichever you choose, ensure that any tape used is safe for your dorm walls. This includes dorm tape and blue painter’s tape that won’t damage your walls or your photographs.
The best part? You can add new memories to your photo collage as the year goes on.
4. Use Washi Tape For Custom Designs
Washi tape is made from natural fibers like bamboo and hemp or Japanese tree barks like mulberry, mitsumata shrub or the gampi tree. Most people confuse washi tape for simple masking tape. Yet washi tape is durable, strong, and more versatile than masking tape.
Use washi tape to make your room one of a kind. Section your door into five sections and use washi tape to create geometric patterns.
You can also use washi tape to personalize your mini refrigerator in the same way. Stripe designs with gold washi tape are a great way to give your refrigerator some flair.
5. Curtains Pull Your Room Together
Do-it-yourself window treatments are an inexpensive way to dress up your dorm room. Hand a dowel road with self-adhesive hooks. You can customize curtains or use a long, gauze scarf. Use ribbon or rope to tie your curtains back.
6. Hanging Plants
Since your dorm room is short on space, you can suspend a planter from exposed pipes, desks, or your bed. Greenery and flowers brighten up dull dorm rooms and can improve your air quality.
Don’t forget to take care of your plants by watering them!
7. Pinboards
Pinboards are a great compliment to your wall art and don’t require nails. Purchase hexagonal corkboard and paint it in a color scheme you love. Hang them from your wall using command strips.
Fill these corkboards with your favorite photographs, concert tickets, or magazine clippings. Oversized push pins are a fun way to add variety to your room. Hang jewelry from these corkboards to free up storage in your dorm room.
For a more personal touch, use spray adhesive to adhere a map to a piece of corkboard. Pin photos of your favorite memories in places where they happened on the map.
8. Wall Decals and Murals
Wall decals and other wall art are perfect for dorm rooms. They’re easy to apply or hang, remove and even reuse for the next year.
You can choose a wall decal or a super interesting Egyptian mural to express your interest by choosing a favorite sports team, animal, or flower. Your options don’t end there, you can find wall decals of just about anything.
9. Make Your Mat Multi-Functional
Your yoga mat doesn’t need to sit in the corner of your dorm room. Decorate your mat to make it a focal point of your room.
Use painters tape to create a geometric pattern. Fill in the exposed space with a paint marker in the color of your choice. Seal the mat with a waterproof sealer. Make sure it dries completely before you start your morning stretches. If you want you can get a custom size floor mat to fit the exact space in your dorm room.
10. Mix and Match Patterns
One of our favorite cute dorm room ideas is to mix and match patterns throughout your room. This creates dimension among your decor so that your room never looks dull or flat.
Need some inspiration? Mix floral patterns with geometric patterns anywhere in your room like in your throw pillows.
11. Use Wall Stickers On Your Dresser Drawers
Wall decals are not just for your walls. Repurpose your favorite wall stickers in a pattern you love. Size and cut them to fit your dresser drawers or any other surface you feel needs a bit of color or a heightened personal touch.
You can even use this idea to create a cute desk surface.
12. Hang A Tapestry
Wall tapestries are another form of wall art you can use in your dorm room. They make your space feel cozy and look cool. Hang them at the head of your bed to replace a headboard.
13. Think Of Your Closet As A Blank Canvas
Think of your dorm room closet or wardrobe as a blank canvas. While you can’t paint this surface you can make it your own by applying a removable chalkboard panels to the door.
You can use these boards as memo boards, grocery lists, or quick means of communicating with your new roommate.
Use decorative, patterned washi tape for an adorable accent.
You can also use removable wall stickers on the door of your closet for an all over face lift. We recommend combining these two ideas for an ultra cute dorm.
14. Use Clothing as Decor
Your clothing is a great expression of your personality. Use your fashion like a piece of art. Hang a bag or a favorite jacket using over-the-door hooks to create a trendy touch.
You can switch these out and even use them as a way to plan for the next day by hanging out tomorrow’s outfit.
15. Create A Gallery Wall
You might not have nails at your disposal but you can still create an art display in your dorm room. Use removable adhesive strips to hang photographs and wall art.
You can find inexpensive art in many places. Thrift stores are an incredible resource for vintage photographs for mere pennies. Create a record wall for an even more unique touch.
Use decorative tape like washi tape to make your prints and posters pop or purchase canvas wraps to add to your gallery wall.
Make Your Room Feel Like Home With These Cute Dorm Ideas
There are many ways to decorate a bland dorm room without leaving a mark on your walls and violating university rules.
Use these cute dorm ideas to express your personality and interests in many different ways. You don’t need to break the bank to make your dorm room an exciting space to spend time throughout the school year.
Need inspiration or want to shop decor for your new dorm room? We can help you customize almost any element for your new dorm room decor. Contact us today!