Tag Archives: dorm room

college planning, dorm life, parenting, Uncategorized

Making the dorm room feel like home

 

Going away to college is exciting for students everywhere, yet many find themselves plagued by feelings of homesickness long after settling into their new dorm room. This is a perfectly natural feeling. After becoming accustomed to one set of surroundings for so long, it can be difficult to adjust to a whole new environment. If you find yourself missing home day after day, one of the best things you can do is try to make your dorm feel more like home. A bit of creativity and some clever decorating can make your dorm feel much more comfortable and help to ease your homesickness.

dorm room

Personalize your surroundings

College dorm rooms are not designed to feel like home. In fact, they are often purposefully bland and unassuming so as to be as palatable as possible. Think of your dorm room as a blank canvas. Look around and you’re most likely faced by white walls, utilitarian furniture, and perhaps a minimalist kitchen. Not particularly inspiring, is it? However, adding a few personal touches to your dorm room’s bland decor can easily turn your dwelling into a much more comforting and inviting space.

Start with your walls

Unadorned walls can be terribly bleak and disquieting, especially at times when you are missing home. Remember, however, that your dorm room walls are bare for a reason–they are meant to be filled. Cover your walls with art, posters, or your favorite photos of family and friends. You may not be able to bring your favorite people and places with you to college, but you can fill your living space with warm reminders of them to make yourself feel more at home. If you have any favorite wall hangings at home, bring them with you. Nothing helps to make you feel more at home than a piece of your old room hanging on the wall of your new one.

Turn your bed into a sanctuary

Sleep is more critical than ever when you’re in college, and an uncomfortable bed could be standing in between you and your nightly rest. Whether you’re laying down for a night of shut-eye or just lounging around the room, it always helps to have a bed that welcomes you. Bring your favorite covers and pillowcases from home, and spring for a comfortable foam mattress cover if you need some extra cushioning. A comfortable bed will help you feel well-rested and refreshed every day, and that is very important for keeping your spirits high.

Use your decorating sense

Think of other creative ways to make your room more welcoming. Throw down an area rug next to your bed so that you don’t have to put your feet down on a cold, hard floor every morning. Set up lamps to give yourself a comfortable and soothing level of light in your room. Think about home decoration trends in your home town. Remember your favorite trends for home remodeling in St Louis, or whatever your home town may be, and apply them to your dorm room space. You don’t have to feel like an outsider during your college years, and if you make your dorm room comfortable, you’ll always feel at home.

college housing, dorm life

Helping your college student furnish their dorm room

Offers of admission are arriving and your college-bound teen is most likely already looking toward the future. Planning for dorm life now will prevent panic at the end of the summer.

College is such a fascinating time. If a student makes the decision to live on campus, for approximately four years of their life, they are able to live in a space that affords them total independence; at least for all of the months that they are enrolled in school. But while they are living in a dorm, they have to figure out how to furnish it in a way that will make them feel comfortable, while also being what they can afford.

If you have a college-bound student in your life who needs some help with furnishing their dorm room and you want to do it in a way that is both modern and cost-effective, we have five great tips for you:

Get the right kind of bedding. Dorm rooms already come with beds. Yet unfortunately, they’re not always the most comfortable. Thankfully, there are mattress toppers (even memory foam ones) that you can get for a really reasonable prices at stores like Wal-Mart and K-Mart. Also, make sure to get pillows that will support their head and neck and sheets and comforters that are preferably made from organic cotton or bamboo.

Purchase some really cool light fixtures. The overhead lighting in dorm rooms can tend to feel pretty institutional. One way to fix that is to buy some modern lighting fixtures. You can start by picking up a dimmer for the light switch, but don’t forget that places like Target and Overstock also carry some pretty cool looking light fixtures that don’t cost a ton of money. Then you can get some fluorescent light bulbs in colors like blue and green to add even more personality to their room.

imagesPick up some pictures. Depending on the college, sometimes the administration will allow a college student to paint their walls (so long as they paint them white again at the end of the school year). Whether or not the college student in your life is able to, it can feel so much more like their own space if they have pictures hanging on the walls. You can either have some of their favorite prints professionally framed or help them to build a picture collage over their bed.

Don’t forget about storage. Do dorm rooms ever have enough storage space? Usually not. Stop by your local container store to pick up some storage bins, baskets, totes or trunks? They are great for storing things like clothes, linens or even waterbed sheets. Or, if you want the kind of storage item that is multipurpose, opt to get an ottoman. That way, they can put all kinds of books and electronics inside, close it and then sit down or put their feet on top of it while studying or watching their favorite movie.

Add a refrigerator. Although all campuses have places where students can eat, chances are, there will be all-night study sessions that will require the need for a snack or two. While all of the things that we mentioned are important, an absolute essential item for a college student is a refrigerator. Not only does it store food, but the top of it can be used as a “tabletop” for an alarm clock or indoor plant. Plus, you can usually find a really good one for less than $150. It’s definitely a dorm room gift that any college student will enjoy.