CUSTOM MADE: How to turn your dorm into a home
The Syracuse University new student checklist states that every freshman should remember: twin sheets, a surge protector and floor pillows when packing for their dorm room. But sometimes it takes more than the essentials to make a tiny dorm room feel like home.
Pictures are a great way to start your decorating process. Whether they are photos of friends and family or magazine cut-outs, pictures add color and personality to any room. They can remind you of fun memories or remind you of your favorite hobbies.
The key is to tape them on the wall in a fun way – such as in the shape of a star or a spiral. Target’s dollar section has wall stickers, picture frames and detachable hooks to help you with this project.
Abdoul Cisse, an incoming freshman, said the hooks from Target can also be used to hang baseball hats, which adds personality to your room as well.
‘I’m bringing a few posters and newspaper articles, but mostly I’m going to be hanging a bunch of my hats on the wall,’ Cisse said, adding that they brighten up an otherwise lifeless space.
Since repainting a room isn’t an option, another way to get more color is with yards of fabric and duct tape. Fabric can cover a whole wall of your room with a color or print and can be easily purchased from Jo-Ann Fabrics and Crafts off Erie Boulevard. While fabric doesn’t usually cost much, you can find reams in the store’s sale section for about a dollar. Once the fabric is up, girls can organize jewelry and hang earrings on it.
While it can be nice to buy things to decorate your room, La-Vonna Shettlesworth, a junior psychology major and a member of the Goon Squad at Day and SkyHalls, says it can be just as nice to decorate on your own.
‘Personally, this semester I’m planning on putting my goals on my ceiling,’ she said. ‘I’m going to be writing them on construction paper and making it pretty with markers, sharpies and bubble letters.’
This idea not only saves you the trouble of trouping over to CVS or Target, but it can also help keep you on track. A study on written goals by Harvard University found that students who had clear-written goals earned, on average, 10 times as much as their counterparts. The money you save can’t hurt, and Shettlesworth said, ‘this artsy project fills up the last empty space in your room.’
Published on August 26, 2009 at 12:00 pm
