You’ve decided to live on campus and stay in the heart of university life. Great idea! Now that you’ve followed our what to pack checklist, and figured out your essentials for move-in day, it’s time to think about design. This might be your first time living out of home, or living somewhere you can decorate yourself. Living on campus is your opportunity to make your dorm room completely yours. We’ve put together some easy ideas for decorating a dorm room – so you can DIY in style.

Cover your dorm room walls in stylish art

Art has measurable effects on the human brain. It broadens our horizons, increases our creativity, and stimulates the happiness chemicals. It also looks cool – and using the space on your walls saves space on the floor for all the important stuff.

When decorating a dorm room, try displaying of your favourite band or movie character, or ask your friends if they’ve done any sketches you can have. Head to an op shop to find beautiful pre-loved art at a great price (you’ll be supporting a local charity too – win-win.) You could even put up your own art in a fancy frame with a museum-style tag!

Remember the good times with a photoboard

Living apart from your friends or family for the first time can be challenging. You’re never too far away to think about them or reach out with a text. Adding photos of your loved ones helps you feel close to them. Then you can keep adding to your collection as you make friends on campus, showing off all the amazing connections you’ve built.

Try investing in a mini Polaroid camera or another instant camera. Snapping photos on real film and printing them out is really fun, and they can sometimes capture genuine moments better than tweaked and edited photos on a screen.

Vertical space is king when decorating a dorm room

Much of the ground space of your room is dedicated to important furniture: your desk, chair and most importantly your bed. That just means you’ll have to get a little crafty with how you use the upward space – that is, the verticality.

Easy dorm room décor ideas like tall and skinny cabinets or bookshelves can be slipped in anywhere and can make any space look interesting. Add things you won’t use often to the taller shelves, and keep your most-used belongings down low. Plus, using a combination of different heights will make your décor pop.

Freshen up your room with easy space-saving plants

Plants can be wonderful roommates. They add colour to your living space, make the air cleaner (which helps you think better!) and provide a little eco connection.

Some plants are better suited to indoor environments than others. If you’re a gardening novice, have no fear! Here are some dorm room plants that thrive indoors.

• Cacti are extremely compact, beautiful, hardy, and only require watering once a month!
• Herbs like basil, mint or parsley grow easily and can add a little something to any meal.
• Anthuriums, begonias and peace lilies survive (almost) anything and add a pop of colour.
• Fiddle leaf figs and other ficus trees add verticality without sacrificing much floor space.
  

Keep it bright with colours

If one thing keeps brains happy and creative, it’s colour. Your living space is yours to create and design, so it should represent you! Show off your favourite shades, or make it a rainbow. Try putting up a flag on your wall to show off your colourful culture or identity.

This isn’t to say that if you’re into monochrome, you can’t have a fabulously personalised room. Black décor can be really sophisticated. Just make sure there’s a little something that stands out, like a splash of bright white or even muted cool colours like blues and greens.

Decorating a dorm room with parts of home

Being away from home can be emotional sometimes. Sure, you’re out living your best life, studying what you’re passionate about and getting ready to change the world, but it’s okay to feel a bit flat when you don’t see your loved ones as much as you used to.

Bringing a little piece of them with you into your dorm room can help. Whether it’s a family photo on your photoboard, some cattle tags arranged in a rainbow, a hoodie you ‘borrowed’ from a friend or the pottery you made in school, little meaningful décor pieces in your dorm room are an easy way to bring parts of home with you to campus.

And remember, if you need extra support or just want someone to talk to, there are student support services available to you the whole time you study with us at Charles Sturt!