michaela baker

Welcome back to the blog and another post about college life. Today I’m sharing tips and tricks I’ve gathered during my two years living in a dorm. I have loved buying things for my room and being able to decorate it.

I kept my comforter, decorations and theme pretty much the same for the last two years, so I decided that this year it was time for a mini makeover and I’m taking you through it on the blog.

Here is what my room looked like last year:

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As mentioned before, I am a Resident Mentor so I get a room to myself. I had two desks, one that I used as a beauty desk and one as a super desk for studying and work, two closets, dressers, etc. As you can see, my theme was blue and yellow. I loved the setup of my room and the decorations stayed pretty much the same throughout the year.

I am going to be living in the same room next year so I decided I wanted to decorate a little differently just so the room would have a “new” feel to it.

Decorating (or revamping) a room can be a daunting task but I have loved it so far. It has been fun so tonight I’m sharing with you the process I’ve been going through in redecorating and planning.

I created a Pinterest board for inspiration and organization.

I like having a Pinterest board so that I can save all of my ideas or decorations. On my board this year I have mirrors that are similar to ones I bought, a lamp I have, gallery wall inspiration, decoration ideas and more. It keeps my ideas organized and my theme in order. Searching room inspiration on Pinterest even gave me more ideas for my room. It is also a cool way to see decorations and colors together before buying them.

I started shopping in May.

If you’ve read any of my dorm room blogs, you know I am a big fan of beginning dorm room shopping early. I find you have access to more goods early in the summer than in August. Also, if you’re having to buy your dorm room decor, when you shop a little at a time it won’t hurt your bank account as much. I find that when I shop a little at a time, I know what I want the next time I go out shopping and impulse purchases are minimized. So far, I’ve only made two shopping trips and will probably only make one more to finish all my decor.

Shop sales and use coupons.

This may be a no-brainer but sales make a huge difference. If you begin shopping early, you can find the best deals! Craft and hobby stores often have coupons on their websites so I always check there before I checking out. Matter of fact, almost everything that I’ve purchased has been on sale or I used a coupon to buy it.

So here is a preview of the new theme of my dorm room. Feel free to scroll thru the gallery and after I will explain some of the items.

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My new theme will be navy, pink, orange, green and gold. So I know I named half of the rainbow but I am color coding around the first picture in the slide show. Pink and orange will be used sparingly in the room with the main focus on blues and greens. Gold accents will come through primarily in decor.

Hopefully you can see the theme coming together.

Each bed will have a navy comforter and one of the perfect pink and orange pillows I found at Target. These pillows were on sale for $7 too!

My plan to tie in the green will be through succulents and small plants around the room. One succulent will be planted in the blue-stoned bowl.

As far as gold goes, you can see my lamp is gold and I found these cute hanging octagon mirrors at Home Goods. I plan to hang these above my beauty desk. 

Another gold decoration I am adding is a terrarium and I’m not using it for plants…

I’m using it for K-Cups! Okay, I know this is probably extra but I thought this was a super chic way to store my k-cups. These are super popular right now too. Thinking outside of the box, or in this case the terrarium, turned out to be a cute decoration!

One last project I am working on for my room is a bar cart. I am going to use it for storage beside my sink in my room. It came in a cream color from Ikea but I spray painted it gold. I have one coat done and just need one more before it’s finished. This is still a work in progress.

That is a preview of my new dorm room theme! I’m so excited to get back to school and decorate my room. I hope you enjoyed this post and I can’t wait to show you the final decorated dorm room in August… which will basically be here tomorrow because Summer is flying by!

Are you redecorating anything? What do you think of my theme so far? Let me know in the comments below!