It’s not always easy to make a college dorm room all your own with the standard res hall-issued furniture you’ve got in there. Sure, you can stack it up all nice and hang some fun pictures on the wall, but sometimes you want something a little different and cool to complete your pad.

Like a fun table, perhaps?

This awesome Bottle Cap Table is easy to make and will score you some major cool points from your friends, neighbors and maybe even your R.A. (as long as you don’t let him see you “collecting” bottle caps in your dry dorm). Plus, actually making the table is a party on its own: “Hey, let’s get a 12-pack of Miller Light. I have a craft project to do!”

What You’ll Need:
- Bottle caps
- Table
- Super glue (if the glue isn’t sticking well with the table, try contact cement)
- Resin (ex. Envirotex Lite)
- Masking Tape
- Aluminum foil
- Duct tape Read More »

It’s been a long night. The only thing on your mind is throwing the 12 decorative pillows (that your mom insisted you buy) off your big comfy bed and burying yourself under that warm, fluffy blanket.

You fight to keep your eyes open as you take the elevator up to your room. As you round the corner and get closer to your room you grow more excited to kick off your shoes, peel those skinny jeans off your legs (you swear they weren’t this tight when you bought them…) and take a one way ticket to Snoozetown.

And then you see it. Scribbled on the dry erase board tacked to your door: come back later.

The writing is messy, but the message is loud and clear. Your roommate’s got a boy in there and you are not welcome.

Angry, you stand there for a few moments taking it all in. It’s late on a weeknight. Everyone else is already asleep. And how long have they been in there?  Where the hell are you supposed to go? When can you come back?

You scan the hallway. Yup, everyone’s doors are closed and the hall is quiet. You are going to have to find somewhere else to pass the time. You take the elevator back down to the study room on your dorm’s main floor. You’re exhausted, but you decide you’ll do a bit more reading and try the room again in a half hour.

When you walk in you find another student in there reading on a couch. Read More »

Kanye West isn’t dead, people.

Joe Jackson milks MJ’s death for all it’s worth.

Bethenny Frankel’s got a (low carb) bun in the oven.

Cheap, amazing dorm room DIY.

Wanna have a threesome with Gerard Butler?

What jewelry is worth the splure?

We all know that painting the walls in your dorm room is a giant no-no. Hell, you can’t even hammer a nail into those things! But that doesn’t mean you have to settle for some BS Animal House poster for your wall decor; there is another way to show off your creativity and create a space that is both cool and easy to remove at the end of the year so you can get your security deposit back. Because that is a lot of money.

Enter: Paint Chip Art.

Paint chips – or paint samples, rather – are those little cards you can pick up from your neighborhood hardware/paint store. They’re out there for the taking so people can test out colors at home. But they’re good for more than just sampling colors; these free color palettes are perfect for decorating on a college budget.

I stumbled upon this eco-friendly decorating idea during class on Greenwala.com and was immediately inspired. I have big plans for the weekend (starting with a very important trip to Home Depot) and thought I’d share some of this inspiration with you. Decorating has never been easier! Read More »

No one's getting booty in this room. Trust.

It’s the Scout Motto: Always be prepared. But I don’t think my Girl Scout troop leader was referring to booty calls when she ingrained that piece of advice into my head.

On a college campus you never know who you’re going to meet… and then want to take back to your room… to get to know each other better. The last thing you want is to bring a suitor home one night and have them leave the next morning without their wallet because it’s lost in a sea of your dirty laundry (true story). Or worse, bring them home and have them remember they have “somewhere to be” (at 3 a.m.) after spotting your My Little Pony collection on your nightstand.

Being prepared for spontaneity may be an oxymoron, but it has safely guarded my dignity and late night encounters thus far. Here are a few life tips I have adapted in my quest to divide and conquer, without letting those boys see my Spanx. Read More »

So… it’s April of your senior year, and you’re meticulously filling out forms about your sleeping habits (why yes, you do tend to sleep at 2 AM and think 12 PM is ‘early’) and cleanliness habits to send to your future home for the next four years. Or, you’re a college freshman re-applying for housing with your dorm BFF/sorority sister/random classmate from English 101. Come June, you receive that nice envelope or automated email from Residential Life, hoping to get for what you asked for (please no early-bird neat freak!) And in that nice little slot, lies ROOMMATE: NONE. And your address happens to have an S by it.

Yup, you’re in a single. Obviously, a single room isn’t the image most conjure up when thinking about college dorms (and most freshmen aren’t lucky enough to get one), but they’re out there.

Nervous? Excited? Don’t really know what you’re getting into/how you’ll fit all your stuff into a 120 square foot box? Don’t worry; here are the pros and cons of life in a single. Read More »

So your dorm room currently sucks. As in, the paint is peeling off the walls, the bed springs squeak every time you turn (and that’s when you’re alone…), and the whole space smells like the house of that notorious old lady with a gazillion cats.

Ok, so we can’t fix those problems (try calling the R.A.), but we can make your room a little bit prettier and a lot bit more comfy! And all for next to nothing.

Your dorm room should be a much cooler home away from home; a safe sanctuary where you can study, play, and relax. A place where people can walk in, tell you how awesome it looks, then lounge on the floor eating cookie dough and talking about the other girls down the hall. And now you can have all that and more with our awesome find in Gonzalez and Smith’s book, Dorm Décor: The Zebra Felt Rug!

Materials:
Zebra rug template (download here)
2 yards (72″ wide) black felt
2 yards (72″ wide) orange felt
4 yards (72″ wide) cream felt
6′ x 2′ piece of 2″ grid pattern paper
Carbon paper and tracing wheel
Pencil
Scissors
Fabric Glue Read More »

We got your back, Ryan Seacrest!

Meagan still wants a millionaire. And VH1 will oblige.

We’re lovin’ DKNY’s fall collection.

There are lots of songs about balls….

Is God going gender neutral in the Bible?

Cheap, amazing dorm room DIY.

There’s a great many things to do and places to see in this world of ours.  As humans, our lives are pretty short (and if you party like I do, it’s probably going to be even shorter).  So we have to prioritize!  We have brains for a reason and that reason is…reasoning (well, at least some of us use them for that purpose: see comment about partying above).  Let me be your voice of reason as I show you all the things you should be doing right here, right now.

We’re always told “less is more.”  I’m sure a couple of you out there are familiar with the concept (it’s certainly true in the case of kissing and the amount of tongue insertion…and someone needs to inform that guy I made out with last night).  Recently, I’ve become more attracted to the concept of having less stuff.  This may be because I moved into a single room in the dorms that’s smaller than my walk-in closet at home, but I’d like to think that maybe something else is influencing me.  Perhaps it’s time for society to downgrade.

Think about how much stuff you really have.  Not just the clothes and the shoes (which, for me, is the bulk of my possessions), but every little thing.  Now think about what among those things you couldn’t live without.  If you think hard enough, it’s probably not a lot.  In fact, I’m betting you could live without 98% of your possessions (excluding the ones that, you know, make you smell better and whatnot).  So why not go for it?  Throw your stuff away!  Or, at the very least, donate it to a charitable cause (even though a bonfire of your former possessions is so much more demonstrative…and fun).  You’ll feel better – I promise.  Read More »

As much as you’d like to deny it, it’s time to pack those bags and head back to school! Whether you’re shacking up on campus in the dorms, going solo in your own apartment, or looking forward to a packed year in the sorority house, those blank walls can look pretty unfriendly. Even if you’re not the homesick type, jazzing up your empty wall space can do wonders in making you feel more at home in your new school-year pad, and you’re likely to find that even the most cramped or most run-down of places are a whole lot more bearable with a little added personality.

Look back on fond memories of last summer while you have new fun times in the fall with a wall photo sleeve, or mark your limited territory over on your side of the tiny dorm room with an initial marquee light fixture. No matter what cool and trendy wall decor you throw up, it may never be a four-star resort, but hey — it’s home!

Check out the slideshow at Stylehive for some fun and quirky wall hang-ups!