The Top 5 Best and Cheapest DIY Dorm Room Hacks

Dorm rooms are home away from home when you’re at college. You want your dorm to feel homey and cozy and cute. You’ll be spending a lot of time in your dorm room and so, naturally, you want it to reflect you and your personal style. Here are some easy, DIY dorm room hacks!

Check out these fun articles, too:

• Easy DIY Home Decor Hacks to Make Your Room Look Bigger
• Where to Buy the Best Jeans Under $40? (cute and trendy!)
• How to Dress Like Bella Hadid on a Budget

DIY Dorm Room Hacks

1. Personalized pinboards
2. Flower wall
3. Cushions/Bedding
4. Personalized vases
5. Fairy Lights Photo Wall

1. Personalized Pinboards

Pinboards are practical and can be super personal while adding color and character to your dorm room!

There’s so much you can do with a pinboard, like paint it a bright color to make your dorm room more colorful or pin pictures with friends and family. Pinboards are super practical, too, because you can pin important papers and to-do lists while still making it cute and fun!

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You can DIY any basic pin board with colored pens and poster paper. A great idea is to pin plastic flowers on the edges and make a little flower board.

Check out these affordable pin boards:

• Amazon ($13.99)
• PbTeen ($12.99 – $40.99): PbTeen has amazing home decor accessories, including pinboards! They have plenty of options, though they can be a bit pricey – this pinboard is currently on sale and one of their most affordable options.

2. Flower Wall

A flower wall is the ultimate DIY dorm room hack! They are fun and easy and look adorable. Dorm rooms are dull and boring and a flower wall is the perfect way to spruce up your room. This is also super convenient because it only requires flowers and tape so there’s no mess and you won’t be breaking any dorm rules by drilling into the walls.

Making a flower is super easy: just tape your flowers onto the wall and where one flower stem ends, tape the next flower. Start from the top of the ceiling and bring it all the way down to the floor. Super easy and inexpensive!

I would recommend using fake flowers because they never die or shed their petals so it’s no mess and they’ll always look beautiful.

Here are some cheap artificial flowers from Amazon to get your flower wall started:

• Artificial Rose Flowers (24 Heads): $12.99
• Colorful Daisies: $12.98

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3. Bedding

The bedding you use can completely change the vibe and look of your room. This is super important for a dorm room, which tends to be dark and, let’s be honest, kind of depressing.

The ultimate dorm room bedding colors are white and light pastels. White makes every room look more chic and stylish, but you have to be careful about staining because white gets dirty super quickly.

If you want to DIY your dorm room further, use statement cushions on your bedding. Even if your bedding isn’t that great and you don’t really like it, if you use the right cushions, you can make your dorm room look really chic.

Take this dorm room as an example:

This room has plain white bedding, which already makes the room look a lot brighter and bigger, but the cushions and throw blanket really elevate the space.

One of the best places to get bedding for college students is Urban Outfitters. Urban Outfitters has some great bedding deals for students that are cute and fun but still affordable. Here are some super cute bedding options from Urban Outfitters:

Morgan Floral Duvet Set ($59.00)

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Myla Floral Duvet Set ($69.00 – $79.00)

This adorable floral duvet set comes in two colors – taupe and charcoal – depending on the vibe you want.

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If you’re not into these duvet sets from Urban Outfitters, a great place to check is TJ Maxx and Marshalls. I love TJ Maxx and Marshalls for bedding and home decor, because they’re super affordable and always have a large selection. If you’re on a budget, check out these two stores!

Pro Tip: Check out several branches of TJ Maxx and Marshalls because each branch usually has a different selection so you’ll have a lot more variety!

4. Personalized Vases

Vases are such an easy way to make any dorm room more personal and mature and make an easy and fun DIY dorm room project for the weekend.

You can personalize vases, water bottles, paper weights, pencil holders – practically ANYTHING!

And the really great thing about DIY’ing vases is that it’s all up to you. All you need is paint and some paint brushes and the options are endless.

You can paint the whole vase one color, or you can draw patterns, or you can paint a picture, anything really. Use these vases as inspiration:

Here’s a great article on DIY color blocked splatter painted vases by A Kailo Chic Life.

5. Fairy Lights Photo Wall

Lighting can completely change your dorm room. First, you need to decide if you want warm or cool light. Warm light is more yellow and orange toned while cool light is whiter and brighter. Personally, I like warm light more because it’s more romantic and cozy, but decide for yourself!

The easiest and most inexpensive way to make your dorm room more fun with lights is fairy lights.

Practically every girl has fairy lights in her dorm room, but if you want to do something unique and different with them, try a fair lights photo wall!

Hanging polaroid photos or photos of your best college moments is personal and cute and makes your dorm room so much more homey.

Another way to use fairy lights is by writing phrases or words with them. Use your lights to write a word special word to you, like dreamer, and make your room more cozy and cute.

Another cute idea is to write your name in fairy lights, so that whenever anyone enters your dorm room they’ll know it’s yours!

If you liked this article, you’ll love these articles on this summer’s most popular trends and DIY hacks to make any room look more expensive. Check them out for the best styling tips this summer!