How to Pimp your Dorm

[Iglio]

Hey guys, i'm going to be entering college next year and as such I'm wondering how I can pimp my room out and am looking for advice on how to keep my mac set-up kickin kick-a**! Pictures welcome! [i know there is a thread about dorm set ups too ]

 

[Pili]

One word of advice, don't make your room a hang out room. You will regret it the entire year after the first month or two. Beyond that concentrate on making it comfortable first, lots of carpet, warm colors, get a lamp with a lower kelvin bulb (most dorms only have the crappy florescents), etc.

Keep the setup simple and portable so you have less to worry about when your not there.

 

[Ryan1524]

Avoid using the fluorescent light from the ceiling. Get some desk and study lamps. This will instantly make for a warmer environment. Carpet, duvets and obviously Posters.

 

[zioxide]

One word of advice, don't make your room a hang out room. You will regret it the entire year after the first month or two.

lies.

Beyond that concentrate on making it comfortable first, lots of carpet, warm colors, get a lamp with a lower kelvin bulb (most dorms only have the crappy florescents), etc.

agreed. decorate the room with posters, pics of you and your friends, etc. get curtains.

i'm thinking about getting a couple of different colored lights this year to splash off the white walls to add more color and warmth to the room.

Keep the setup simple and portable so you have less to worry about when your not there.

agreed. you won't spend much time using your computer anyways (except for papers). there's always way more fun **** to do in the dorms. don't bother with huge external monitors (unless you get an LCDTV that doubles as a monitor) or tons of other useless peripherals.


oh, and not really a decorating thing, but one necessity: lots of fans. dorm rooms get wicked hot.

 

[Pili]

Oh yeah, dorms are the dustiest places this side of the Sahara. Getting a small air filter made a huge difference for me.

 

[messedkid]

Keeping the bathroom door open and letting a hot shower run can heat up your room in minutes. Very effective if you like Rainforest type temperatures in the winter time.

Black light type light bulbs + Liquid Detergent (Tide) used to write on walls. Get your newly impressed friends to sign your walls. It worked for me. (see attached)

 

[michael.lauden]

that's pretty disgusting.


just go to ikea. problem solved. there isn't much you need to do to 'pimp' any room.

just have a desk with a computer and gaming console and have a stereo you can plug it all in to underneath...

that way music, movies, games and all your computing needs are met in one small area

ikea is probably has the best value for the $

 

[BPresley321]

Hey guys, i'm going to be entering college next year and as such I'm wondering how I can pimp my room out and am looking for advice on how to keep my mac set-up kickin kick-a**! Pictures welcome! [i know there is a thread about dorm set ups too ]

Wow, based on this post and your signature, you have a lot to learn about college...and life.

I would agree with the above poster. Hang out in someone else's room.

 

[tman07]

Black light type light bulbs + Liquid Detergent (Tide) used to write on walls. Get your newly impressed friends to sign your walls. It worked for me. (see attached)

that is AWSOME!! Wish i would have know that... guess im going to have use it next year

What we did (and we had an awesome room, mind you) is hang rope lights across the top of the room and used that as lighting. Made for perfect mood lighting, and about 12390784 times better than the florescents. haha

Also, we acquired stop signs and other road signs from garage sales and such and that made a nice addition to the walls as well.

 

[Iglio]

Wow, based on this post and your signature, you have a lot to learn about college...and life.

I would agree with the above poster. Hang out in someone else's room.

How so?

 

[messedkid]

that's pretty disgusting.

Oh, it was. Looked awesome though. Even the RAs for our floor, who lived right across the hall, loved it.

Note it is not visible (or at least not until you're about an inch from the wall and are actually looking for it) in normal light.

 

[exabytes18]

Now I'm sure 99% of schools don't allow this, but I went to one that did. Kids were allowed to paint the walls (not the ceilings) anything they wanted from black to white to graffiti. Since the dorms rooms were a little bit wider than most (still just 2 people per room), they also allowed you to build a deck (like an actual wooden deck). You could have multiple tiers. Quite a few people built a deck in half their room, moved the mattresses under the deck and then put their desks on top. It's really cool.

Now, it really doesn't offer any more efficient use of space than lofting the beds, but there is a certain novelty about it.

Being a strictly engineering school, it was all encouraged. Check out what you can and can't do though. Think outside the box.

 

[Emulsion]

I kept everything in tubs with wheels on the bottom under my bed. Be organized! I had 3 tubs under my bed. Food/OfficeSupplies/CleaningHygine. It was a blessing to just Lift up my comforter, and wheel out the tub I needed. Keep in mind my bed was at least 3 feet of the ground.

Bring a good chair. The Chairs they give you in the dorms are nasty, and uncomfortable. Its best to put it in the closet upside down.

Don't buy a dormroom trashcan. All of the places selling dorm furniture sell these small ass trashcans. I ended up having to empty it twice a week, in which I would have to walk across the dorm, and upstairs to the trashshoot (Our room was in the basement). Get a bigger trashcan.

Don't get a nice comforter/Sheets. Stuff happens in college...

Get elbow length gloves for cleaning up these incidents.

Don't get a stupid marker board Calendar, use iCal.

Maybe a towel rack or something? We had a hook on the inside of our closets that just made everything moldy smelling...

Lots and Lots of Air fresheners. When roommates prepare their herbs, for cooking of course, the whole room/hallway smells.

More air freshener because if you do visit "Jane", the hallway to your room will smell, eventually getting you arrested. (roommate should have listened)

Don't sell herbs on campus. There are undercover cops on campus. I don't care if you're selling to your best friends roommate. He might be a cop. There was a cop on our campus that was living in the dorm and pretending to go to class, networking, and finding dealers to get busted. And you will get arrested. (other roommate)

Do not care alcoholic beverages in shop bags in public. Get a backpack.
You will get arrested... (...me this time)

Get a big umbrella, you'll need it for the monsoon season.

Get something to boil water with, because this is the only thing you will be doing.

Get a huge surge protector. I only had 4 wall outlets to myself.

Have a blast.

Don't get arrested.

Make sure you're roommates aren't total D Bags.


Dean

 

[Ryan1524]

^ I agree with EVERYTHING he said, thankfully he's less lazy than me to type it out.

I agree with everything except the sheets thing. You want to keep your bed half-decent too, for the other half of the 'incidents' that are typically more fun and less messy (or can be as messy) in college. Nothing worse than bringing a date back to your room to a stanky ghetto looking bed.

Additionally on that note....and also useful for mood and late night studying: Dimmers.

If the room don't already come with one (or three): A mini fridge, for all your BEvERage purposes.

 

[Emulsion]

^ I agree with EVERYTHING he said, thankfully he's less lazy than me to type it out.

I agree with everything except the sheets thing. You want to keep your bed half-decent too, for the other half of the 'incidents' that are typically more fun and less messy (or can be as messy) in college. Nothing worse than bringing a date back to your room to a stanky ghetto looking bed.

Additionally on that note....and also useful for mood and late night studying: Dimmers.

If the room don't already come with one (or three): A mini fridge, for all your BEvERage purposes.

Yeah that's true. But I was referring to the night my roommate was puking faceup, drunk in bed sleeping. Let's just say trying to get him up and into the shower/changed wasn't a pleasant experience.

I can't eat/smell munchies to this day...

 

[nomar383]

Bring a good chair. The Chairs they give you in the dorms are nasty, and uncomfortable.

Its best to put it in the closet upside down.
Don't get a nice comforter/Sheets. Stuff happens in college...

Get elbow length gloves for cleaning up these incidents.

Yes, a good chair is a must.

And lmao at the glove comment

 

[Iglio]

Thanks! That was very informative...and nice set up

 

[alphaod]

Yes a plush expensive chair a plush.

 

[quagmire]

Ah... dorm life how much I don't miss it.

Anyway, depends on the restrictions your college has about certain things. How big is the room? We had quite a decent sized dorms and lots of people put up posters of women having umm minimal clothing. Have you talked to your roommate at all?

What I suggest is to keep it nice and simple. Get a foam pad for the mattress because they are the worst things you'll probably ever sleep on. Earmuffs if your roommate is a snorer/sleep talker( though it can be entertaining to listen to what he is saying). And build a barrier in between your beds when you sleep. My roommate literally threw pillows and stuff at me in his sleep. Put posters up that pertain to your favorite hobby/interests. And get a small stackable storage system. Came in handy for me.

Here is a pic of my dorm room when I first got in. It didn't change much. Besides it getting messier and messier because my roommate never cleaned worth a crap. He ruined dorm life for me.

*is so happy/thankful/appreciative to have a 1 room apartment for my sophomore year this year.

 

[Apple all life]

Lots and Lots of Air fresheners. When roommates prepare their herbs, for cooking of course, the whole room/hallway smells.
Dean

For cooking of course

 

[OutThere]

I've had 7 dorm rooms over the course of 7 years of boarding school and college, I have pictures of my best setups somewhere but I'm having trouble finding them. I'll post if I find them.

There's been some good advice in the thread. In all of my infinite wisdom ()I will suggest:

• Warm floor/desk lamps. Forget about the fluorescent ceiling lamp it sucks. I replaced mine with 48" blacklight tubes soph year of college, great for pregaming.
  
• Big leather highback deskchair. A pain in the ass to get it to school, yet beautifully ass-pain free for the rest of the year.
  
• Cheap blankets/sheets. Your bed is a couch as much as a bed, and will be abused.
  
• Maximum quantity of posters. I've picked up a few at the fall term poster sale every year since '02, and can completely cover the walls of a large room in posters. Takes the edge off of cinderblock walls and makes your room feel like your room.
  
• Rug. If your room is tile floored, you'll want it.
  
• Folding camp chairs. I got a few at Dick's for $5/each a while back. You can stash them under your bed and instantly have seating (with cupholders!) for a lot of people if you want.

One word of advice, don't make your room a hang out room. You will regret it the entire year after the first month or two.

That's totally personal preference. I love having people in my room all the time, even if they're just laying on my bed reading a magazine while I'm on the computer. All of my friends know that if my door is unlocked they don't have to knock. I don't do any homework in my room, only in the library, so I can separate the two and still get things done.

This year I'll finally be out of the dorm and into a college owned apartment in a nice old victorian house facing campus.

 

[OutThere]

Found a pic of my freshman year dorm room setup. Not a great pic...I think I was trying to crop my roommate's side of the room out of the frame. Note the desk lamp, tree lamp, lots of posters, cheap bedcovers

 

[UMHurricanes34]

Our dorms didn't have movable furniture so it wasn't super easy to make the thing inviting. Cold, crappy, and cracked countertop desks and the built in closets that were like locker room lockers.

Some tips

• One wall had the modem and wires on it, get a framed poster or art print and place it in front of it. Nothing more uninspiring than a big black box with wires going everywhere. Not sure how this works in other dorms, but it sucked in ours.
• Get some green life. I had bamboo, but any kind of pet grass or a bonzai would be great.
• Gig posters. If you're into music like I am, gig posters are a great way to show visitors your taste and personality. A lot can be taken from taste in music.
• Sheets: I got a VERY thin comforter and ended up ditching the flat sheet because it gets so unbelievably hot in the rooms. Get fans, we had 3 industrial strength going full-steam 100% of the time
• Lighting, get a desk lamp and maybe some color LED's. We had LED strips behind our TV and I used a desk lamp because the fluorescent lighting is just downright oppressive and depressing. We also had string lights (chili peppers) going around the top of the walls for calming subtle light when watching TV or whatever.
• Rug. Get a big rug and cover as much of the tile as possible. Some of our dormmates even had their entire room carpeted, we had a large area rug running under the lofts. And yes, the chairs SUCK.
• Curtains to block out the light. Blinds are usually provided, but they barely block out any light. Late classes? Sleep in, get some curtains.