Build Your Dream Dorm with DIY Décor
By Guest Dev
August 29, 2017
Workspace Optimization
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There’s no place like home… Except when you live in a dorm room that’s identical to every other dorm room on your floor or in your building. Let’s face it, living in a cookie-cutter dorm room that offers little inspiration is a boring reality. So it’s no wonder that you can feel homesick or find yourself working to spend as little time as possible in your dorm…but it doesn’t have to be this way! With a little creativity, adding some flair, some style, and some personality to a dorm room can be both simple and cost effective. Want proof? This summer, we decorated a small section of our Back to School Pop Up event space as a dream dorm room. With the help of design diva Sarah Gunn we took a DIY approach to décor and came up with a few simple projects that you can use to make your dorm space the best that it can be:
Buying art to put on your walls at school can be both challenging and expensive. For starters, finding pieces you like that are the right size can require hours of flipping through prints and canvases at local décor stores. On top of that, these pieces are often pricy. So here’s the trick: use online stock sites to find an image that you love, and then print it on canvas or as a poster. Here are a few images Sarah loved and printed on canvas using our Print & Marketing services:
• Beach huts
• Row houses
• Baby’s breath
• Balloons
• Lollipop
• Door
OK, so putting up actual wallpaper in a dorm room isn’t a good idea, especially if you’d like your deposit back…but you have to do something to dress up those bland bricks and beaten drywall, right? Here’s the trick: you can make your own removable wallpaper using large-scale prints and 3M Command Strips, which will hold up the prints and remove cleanly without damaging walls. In our space, Sarah used Print & Marketing Services to print multiple 36x72 banners on plain matte paper with this lovely tropical pattern that could brighten up any room!
A simple, inexpensive way to jazz up a dorm room is to print fun images on nice paper or cardstock and put them in frames or arrange them on a corkboard. At our Pop Up event, we used Epson Eco-Tank printers and printed images and quotes we found online. These added some visual interest without adding a lot of cost to our space.
So you’re out in the world experiencing adulthood and independence for the first time and you’re making memories while you do it. You’re probably also shooting and sharing everything with your smartphone...which is great, but you’re missing out on a rite of passage when you make those memories: printing photos that can be used to personalize and decorate a space. The HP Sprocket is a tiny printer that can easily fit in a pocket or purse and prints smartphone photos on the go. The photos from this little printer are perfect for decorating shelves and corkboards and we definitely had a lot of fun with it at our Pop Up event. These prints are the mementos that can last almost a lifetime, so don’t pass up that chance.
Like canvas prints, throw pillows are an expensive décor item. Generally, the more fun the pattern or print on them, the more expensive they are. Luckily, it’s easy to make and personalize your own with inexpensive plain canvas throw pillows and permanent Sharpie Fabric Markers. The possibilities are endless with this project! You can find a stencil that inspires you or just go freehand—either way the results are sure to be uniquely stunning.
Your turn—what will your dream dorm look like? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook. And to view more of the great products Sarah used in the dorm space check our website.
1. Canvas Prints
Buying art to put on your walls at school can be both challenging and expensive. For starters, finding pieces you like that are the right size can require hours of flipping through prints and canvases at local décor stores. On top of that, these pieces are often pricy. So here’s the trick: use online stock sites to find an image that you love, and then print it on canvas or as a poster. Here are a few images Sarah loved and printed on canvas using our Print & Marketing services:
• Beach huts
• Row houses
• Baby’s breath
• Balloons
• Lollipop
• Door
2. Wallpaper
OK, so putting up actual wallpaper in a dorm room isn’t a good idea, especially if you’d like your deposit back…but you have to do something to dress up those bland bricks and beaten drywall, right? Here’s the trick: you can make your own removable wallpaper using large-scale prints and 3M Command Strips, which will hold up the prints and remove cleanly without damaging walls. In our space, Sarah used Print & Marketing Services to print multiple 36x72 banners on plain matte paper with this lovely tropical pattern that could brighten up any room!
3. Paper Prints
A simple, inexpensive way to jazz up a dorm room is to print fun images on nice paper or cardstock and put them in frames or arrange them on a corkboard. At our Pop Up event, we used Epson Eco-Tank printers and printed images and quotes we found online. These added some visual interest without adding a lot of cost to our space.
4. HP Sprocket
So you’re out in the world experiencing adulthood and independence for the first time and you’re making memories while you do it. You’re probably also shooting and sharing everything with your smartphone...which is great, but you’re missing out on a rite of passage when you make those memories: printing photos that can be used to personalize and decorate a space. The HP Sprocket is a tiny printer that can easily fit in a pocket or purse and prints smartphone photos on the go. The photos from this little printer are perfect for decorating shelves and corkboards and we definitely had a lot of fun with it at our Pop Up event. These prints are the mementos that can last almost a lifetime, so don’t pass up that chance.
5. DIY Throw Pillows
Like canvas prints, throw pillows are an expensive décor item. Generally, the more fun the pattern or print on them, the more expensive they are. Luckily, it’s easy to make and personalize your own with inexpensive plain canvas throw pillows and permanent Sharpie Fabric Markers. The possibilities are endless with this project! You can find a stencil that inspires you or just go freehand—either way the results are sure to be uniquely stunning.
Your turn—what will your dream dorm look like? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook. And to view more of the great products Sarah used in the dorm space check our website.