How to Style Your Room To Be Authentically You

Written by Sara Holsing, Class of 2020

Your room at college is going to be your humble abode and home-away-from-home. It can also be your safe space, chill zone after a long day, or study area for all the homework you have to do. Either way, your room is a special place for you and the possibilities for decorating are endless! Here are some ways you can decorate your room to make it authentically you!

Choose a color scheme

An easy thing to start with is asking yourself, what is my favorite color? Even if you don’t want everything to be baby blue, you could branch out to multiple hues of blue or pastels. From there, you can buy your bedding in the color scheme of your choice and configure your decor to match. Some websites can also help you identify themes and sort bedding, furniture, and decorations accordingly.

Hang pictures of friends & family 

When you’re at college, you’re likely going to miss some of the friends and family that you have at home. To help, you could print out some pictures of them from your at-home printer, from a Fuji camera, or get them developed at a drug-store. There are so many options that you can do with photos from frames to collages to just hanging them on string lights (which can add ambience to your room)! 

Paint your room

This might not be an option at your college or university, but if it is, take advantage of it! If you have a roommate, you could decide on a color together that you both like and take a weekend or a day to paint your room together. You don’t have to paint the whole room either. One accent wall might just be enough to make your room feel more unique. One student at Etown did this with her roommate and said that painting their room together “made it more homey and fun. It was also a good bonding experience!”

If you can’t do paint, removable wallpaper is your friend!

Some schools don’t allow you to paint and that’s okay! You can improvise and buy some removable wallpaper. Just like paint, you could choose to do one wall or all of them. But you can also cut out certain shapes that might have been harder to do with paint if you’re not an art major. These shapes could highlight pictures or other hanging decorations you have!

Add your favorite scent

Most colleges do not allow candles (for good reason!), but that doesn’t mean you have to give up on your signature scent. Bath and Body Works sells wall flowers where you can plug them into your outlet and there are so many scents to choose from. Grocery and drug stores also sell inexpensive plugins and there are traditional room sprays, too. Having a light scent in your room can add a small touch of personalization that makes your room welcoming and fun to be in.

Your room can be anything you want it to be and remember, there are endless possibilities to make your room authentically you . Don’t be afraid to get creative or search Google for inspiration. Happy decorating!