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Maybe it’s the October style weather, but here at Scoop we are definitely gearing up for school starting back up. Its coming fast. And if your baby is college-bound, you don’t have the luxury of waiting til last minute to get her your stuff together.
But no stress. We did pretty much all your work for you. We scouted out the best ideas for decorating that notoriously difficult space, and we can point you in the best direction for quick, painless, unique and a-mah-zing dorm decor. And just like that, you’ll be back to enjoying your skinny girl margaritas by the pool and checking your phone every 5 minutes to see if she’s texted.
Without a doubt, the cutest and most helpful resource we came up with for dorm decor is the website LEIGHDEUXDORM.COM, an online bedding and furnishings shop with unique, elegant style and lasting quality goods.
Not only are all the LeighDeux designs the perfect mix of upscale preppy and fresh (as opposed to the nauseating repeats of endlessly similar Lily and Vera), they are all perfectly coordinated and organized. These talented people did all our work for us. All you all have to do is settle on a basic color (and possibly consult the future roomie) and DONE.
The pattern-mixer in me keenly appreciates how easily items can be mixed and matched. Four years is a long time for an 18 year old, after all; she will most likely end up wanting to mix things up in her bedroom – whether she gets a roommate with a new style, is initiated into a sorority house, or just gets tired of looking at the same things the same way…
LeighDeux is fool proof for this. Everything from the duvets to the curtains to the pillow cases to the lamps can be mixed and matched pretty much effortlessly. They have 10 color palettes for every bright young thing out there, and 11 vibrant patterns that would go with each easily.
The big trick with making a dorm room cozy – and you can take it from me, I graduated just 4 years ago – is you really cannot add too much vibrant color.
Most dorm rooms boast cinder blocks for walls, open pipes everywhere, and hideous cement or slab floors. Your daughter will be curling up here on cold November evenings with a movie after a long exam day, or with her laptop open all night armed with a case of Coke Zero and Peanut M&M’s for a rager of a last-minute 12 page paper. It is the best gift you could give her to enrich this time in her life with cozy, cheerful decor. Decor that is also pretty much guaranteed to blend well with anything her roomie could show up to school with :). Except maybe intense Duck Dynasty camo. But lets NOT go there.
LeighDeux makes rugs that are large and perfect for covering up an ugly cheap floor, as well as smaller throw rugs ideal for adding a little accent here and there.
The combination possibilities on the site are so much fun and so big, without being overwhelming and too hard to decide. Win win WIN.
LeighDeux also thinks of the practical things like, hello, storage needs based on living in the small space of the dorm with the questionable organizational skills of an 18 year old. They make decorative bed-skirts also guaranteed to hide an army of shoes, textbooks, and dvd cases to be swept under there when a new crush stops by unexpectedly.
TIP: When planning for the under-bed storage, be sure to pack or send some BED LIFTERS from The Container Store to make more room for more stuff.
You are welcome. 😉
LeighDeux also makes coordinating privacy panels in each color combo – the better for covering up that closet-full of dirty laundry piling up for Fall Break the weekend.
[And speaking of laundry, if you invest in something cute like this, it’ll serve as an accent rather than an eyesore.]
There are a few more tricks to a perfectly perfect dorm room without breaking the bank. They are:
1) Lots of stickies & adhesive hooks to hang wall art, photo collages, posters, jewelry trees and more, since nails are improbable at best. And Washi Tape, to create wall “frames” and deco shelving.
2) Pillow-Gluttony…Headboard pillows (layered for color and comforts sake), regular head pillow, throw pillow and bolster pillow. Absolutely essential.
3) Bring Your Own Lighting.
My roomie and I had this so under control we never turned that overhead light on once. Lamps are key here… cue the coordinating creations from Leigh Deux…
Also, Christmas lights or string lights of any [electrically safe] variety make the WHOLE HUGE DIFFERENCE.
They are mellow enough that most people can sleep with them on, but bright enough to light up a lonely all-nighter.
The best option we found for these comes from Urban Outfitters.
The copper wire makes them more decorative even when turned off, and much less “Here Comes Santa Claus!”
4) Spray Paint is your friend. Nothing transforms the ordinary into the cuteness at a lower cost that a can of KRYLON. Check it:
PS: this cute earnest little packing list from a college bound youngster has some great suggestions/reminders that the orientation packages probably won’t think of!
