As most of you probably know (I've said it enough times!), I moved to a new city last year to start university, which meant I got a brand new dorm room! Now, I don't know about you, but I'm all for bedroom decor and making a place your own, so naturally I got ridiculously over-excited at the prospect of having a new room to decorate! The thing with dorm rooms is that they're very small, and your university may well have rules as to what you are and aren't allowed to do with your room, as well as there already being furniture/wall paint/curtains! This can leave you with limited options in terms of decor, but today I decided to show you a few little things that I've done here and there to spruce up my dorm room and make it feel a little bit more like home. Enjoy!


Make it your own

The easiest option in terms of low-maintenance decorating is the wall! Tack up some photos and posters of all the things you love and your room will start to feel homelier in no time. For me, I've got more than one home in more than one country, plus I absolutely adore travelling, so I bought a world map at the university poster sale and pinned up photos of my various homes and holiday destinations around the map! I got the polaroid prints from a website called Instabear - they'll take your chosen photos directly from Instagram and print them as polaroids for you! No hassle whatsoever!




Add a bit of botany

I've always found that plants tend to make a place feel much more homely - not sure why, they just do! I invested in this cute little cactus as there was a plant sale going on at my university! Pretty convenient really. I'm terrible at looking after plants so a cactus is absolutely perfect for me, plus those little pink flowers on top are apparently "everlasting"!

Storage spaces

Since university rooms have pretty limited space, you have to make the most of what you've got. Storage is essential, but that doesn't mean it can't be cute! I've invested in a few lovely storage pieces that keep lots of my stuff together neat and tidy and even add to the decor of the room! This first piece is from WH Smith and I got it in a "buy one get one free" sale, so my flatmate and I got one each! It's great to store all kinds of things in, such as pens and stationery and even big notebooks.


I found this second piece at a charity shop - I'm pretty sure it's supposed to be a makeup or jewellery box because of the mirror on the inside of the lid, but I'm far more into stationery! The little compartments are perfect for storing fiddly things like paper clips, staples and drawing pins.


These boxes from Wilkinson's are just great for general use. At the moment, I've got one box with stationery stuff, one box with saved cards, cinema tickets and mementos of the like and one box with sweets, chocolate and all of my unhealthy snacks! The great thing about these boxes is that they fold down to be flat if you're not using them!


Finally, pen pots are essential, but that doesn't mean you should just grab any random cup! I'm in love with both of these pots. The first is from Wilkinson's and says "Let your imagination run wild" on an ancient-looking piece of fabric with a little string bow tied around it, and the second is from an independent shop. I love elephants and the colours on this pen pot are absolutely gorgeous!


Cushions and blankets for extra cosiness...

An easy way to make your dorm room feel more homely and cosy is to buy a couple of cute cushions or blankets! I was in love with this owl cushion from an independent boutique for a good few months before I actually saved up the money to buy it! The blanket, however, was incredibly cheap (still wonderful and warm!) and from Primark. Both fit wonderfully into my pink/blue/green colour scheme, which you may or may not have yet noticed...!


Bits and bobs

Finally, I have a few bits and bobs just floating around; it's lovely to have things that are just truly yours. In this photo, you can see a set of vanilla fragrance sticks from Primark (we're not allowed to have candles in our dorm rooms so I had to settle for these to create a nice aroma instead), various jewellery holders (the earring holder was my mum's and the necklace and bracelet holder I found in the corner of the pound shop! Talk about a bargain!), some cute fake flowers (see back to my paragraph on botany), a bowl of potpourri (a present from my boyfriend and, again, helping with the nice aroma) and finally a set of adorable little Russian dolls that I bought at a Christmas market this year! I had Russian dolls when I was a child so just couldn't resist when I found this little set.