<p>I'm really excited about getting an apartment this semester but the room is kind of plain and I want to make it my own. </p>
<p>Any ideas? I'm not really good with this kind of stuff..I can only think of posters/pictures.</p>
<p>hmm, just run into it with your car.</p>
<p>Are you getting a dorm room or an apartment? If you are getting and apartment, ask your landlord if you can paint–sometimes paint makes a world of difference. I recently started remodeling my home and it’s turning out to be a lot more cozy and welcoming.</p>
<p>Pictures and wall decor work nicely in a room, also some area rugs are nice. Top it off with a few lamps and you’re set. Matching colors also feel comforting. Posters are tacky, I’d avoid them at all costs.</p>
<p>Lighting is everything IMO. The typical ceiling mounted center lamps are god-awful, they make the room look like an institution.</p>
<p>Easy, just take things from your old home and bring them to your new home! It saves you money and at the end of the year you’ll just take it home and put them back again.</p>
<p>Stuff I brought from my bedroom to tiny Manhattan apartment: desk chair, desk lamp, office supplies/organizer, floor lamp, bedroom rug, armchair, picture frames/posters, little stuffed animals, decorations and knick knacks, books, gadgets, bedding - basically by moving all your old stuff to your new home, it’ll feel just like home again. 
Only don’t bring too much stuff.</p>
<p>I’m a paint-a-holic. I painted my dorm, I’m painting my new apartment, the only place that wasn’t painted was my current apartment.</p>
<p>Painting can make a huge difference. My dorm looked like a prison cell, after I painted it, tossed in some rugs, and a couple floor lamps, it felt like my bedroom from home.</p>
<p>Yeah, and a lot of landlords/schools are glad to let you paint your room, as long as they approve the color.</p>
<p>To make my dorm room anything close to resembling home, I would need to play a tape recording of Daddy yelling and Mommy screaming.</p>
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<p>I’m sure that could be arranged, so long as you don’t disturb the neighbors. </p>
<p>Now I have a new objective in the college search: a school that will let me paint my dorm room. ;)</p>
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<p>I disagree. The posters ALL OVER our dorm walls are the only thing keeping it from looking like a dungeon (coincidentally, the nickname for our living room…we have apartment-style housing). The posters also go with our mixed personalities, but show what we have in common at the same time as we coordinated most of them.</p>
<p>Besides the posters, we have what we call “The Wall”, where we went to the SSU bookstore and got several feet of butcher paper. We stretched it out and pinned it to a long, blank wall in the hallway from the living room to the two bedrooms, and we write funny sayings/quotes/situations/anything else on it. We’ll divvy it up at the end of the year or decide who gets it, as we’re living close to each other again next year and will probably have another one.</p>
<p>Postcards are cute & cheap, i def agree with the lighting- makes a big difference. Also, pics of u and ur friends & family on a bulletin board or in pic frames.</p>
<p>Here are some fun removable wall art stickers:</p>
<p>[Wall</a> Slicks Removable Decals, Stickers by Modern Wall Graphics. For Kids, Home Decor, Baby](<a href=“http://www.modernwallgraphics.com/]Wall”>http://www.modernwallgraphics.com/)</p>
<p>If you only have blinds, you can easily add a valance. We used those sticky hooks and a lightweight curtain rod, as we weren’t allowed to put any holes in the wall.</p>
<p>I would carefully review your school’s housing policy before you go out and start shopping though. My roommate bought and showed up with tapestry that she couldn’t use because they’re against the rules here.</p>
<p>you can paint your dorm??? that’s so freaking awesome…well, as long as they approve right? i’m so telling my roommate right now!!!</p>
<p>just think about what stuff you enjoy, what makes you tick and walk into an art supplies store, buy paint, crayons, whatever, and draw it. instant art but its also special b/c there’s a meaning that you identify with. that’s what i’m gonna do. </p>
<p>and if you can’t paint walls, you can paint your furniture(or get furniture in colors/woodtones you like), you can hang up wall panels and curtains that reflect your style, you can put up photographs, pictures. posters seem a little bit youthful and might make you feel a little young, but maybe you can mount them onto whiteboard and make a fram for them to “dress them up”. </p>
<p>there’s so many ideas and possibilities. :)</p>
<p>Some schools will allow you to paint your dorm as long as you choose from an approved list of colors. My school does, but most people don’t do it because the beginning of the year is so busy nobody has time.</p>