A college dorm room can be essential to young people’s developing identity and sense of styleespecially because this space is generally their first real home away from home.
HGTV recently mined its popular interactive website, “Rate My Space,” for ideas about how to transform what is often a dull, lifeless little room into a warm, personal place for studying and socializing.
And just as students are now putting the finishing touches on their tricked-out dorms, the network will continue to collect pictures and tips for its dorm room gallery at .
Still stumped for dorm room decorating ideas? Angelo Surmelis, host of the “Rate My Space” spinoff show on HGTV, has advice for creating inventive dorm rooms on the cheap.
“Color is one of the easiest ways to make an impact in any room, and dorm rooms are no exception,” he says. “Since painting walls is usually out of the question in most dormitories, finding new, inexpensive and creative ways to add color is the key.”
Here are five more ideas from Surmelis for taking the average dorm room from drab to fab.
Get inexpensive canvases and paint them all a single color or a few different complementary colors. Cover a wall with the canvases for added interest and a great color focal point. They are also easy to repaint if you get tired of the color(s) you used. Group a few canvases together for major impact.
Fabric can have a similar effect while adding texture. Stretching colored or patterned fabric over canvases, corkboards or simple plywood boards cut to custom sizes and shapes will not only give your room instant color, it will give you an extra design element that can influence bedding, pillow and accessory choices.
Most paint and wallpaper stores have inexpensive remnant wallpaper. Frame interesting papers with ornate thrift-store frames to give the room an instant style that’s personal, chic and unique.
To maximize dorm-room space, use furniture pieces that can double as storage — like ottomans that open up, beds with pullout drawers and stackable, vertical storage units.
Use your walls to their fullest potential. Simple shelving or even cubes (that you can customize with paint or wallpaper) can add instant interest while providing storage that keeps surfaces neat and clean. Salvage yards are a great place to find alternative brackets for your shelving.
Think about furniture scale. Try not to fill the room with a lot of small pieces, as the result is usually a feeling of clutter. Fewer, well-chosen pieces can create the illusion of a larger room. This way you may be able to have something of larger scale, like a great comfortable chair.
