Dorm Decor Picks for The Fall

August 12th, 2010

My freshman year, I didn’t know my roommate, so we chatted before school started about what items we were both bringing to the dorm, though we still brought to college our different styles.

After my freshman year, it was fun to take shopping trips with my friends to find fun but cheap furniture, bedding, posters, and other items for our dorm room or apartment. I still have one part of a set of candleholders that I bought with my best friend, Stacy, for the room we shared in our apartment (we also bought matching bedspreads).

There’s so much cool stuff to buy for college, but of course, you don’t want to blow your budget so you have nothing to spend on textbooks, food, and another costs that pop up during the semester. Of course, hitting garage sales and thrift stores is a good way to find cheap items, but you may want some new items as well.

Here’s a look at five affordable, practical, and funky items for dorms. They’re all things you can justify to your parents because they’re needed for storage and basic living.

1. Storage containers. Forget plain and boring. You’re going to need to store school supplies, makeup, class notes, and other items, but you can do so in a stylish way. The Container Store’s geometric floral boxes ($19.99 for a set of four) have cute prints that can add pizazz to your organization efforts.

2. Pop-up hamper. I hated doing laundry in college (well, I hate it now, too), but at least this pop-up hamper is easy to haul back to your parents’ house or the Laundromat, and it collapses when everything is nice and clean. Versions like this spiral pop-up hamper ($9.99 at Bed Bath and Beyond) come in colors like fuchsia, green, and blue and hold a whopping three loads of laundry. By the way, Bed Bath and Beyond is having a “Home Sweet Dorm” Sweepstakes with a grand prize of $10,000 in cash, a $5,000 Bed Bath & Beyond gift card, and a personal consultation with HGTV Designer.

3. SlouchBack. Space is limited, especially in dorms, so you may not have room for a bed and a couch. Andrew Goetting, a 2008 graduate of Roger Williams University in Rhode Island, knew that too, so he created the SlouchBack. It inflates and turns a bed into a couch, saving space and helping you with your all-night viewing of “Gossip Girl,” playing XBox with your roommate, or watching college football. It inflates in 30 seconds, has a micro suede cover and costs $99.99.

4. Tools. You’re growing up and need to learn not to rely on your parents to do everything for you. Even having a set of tools handy can be helpful. Why? Because you never know when something is going to fall down or break down. Take it from my college experience. The furniture in my freshman dorm included a large wooden bookcase that was attached to the wall. I had a bunch of books, picture frames, and other items on the shelves until one day when it all crashed to the floor. I could have used a hammer and nail right then, but I instead had to wait a while for someone to fix it for me. The items from Little Pink Tools, such as the $59 tool pouch and belt with a hammer,  pliers, screwdriver, and more, seem to be a good choice for the chic college female, plus 10 percent of sales are donated to breast cancer research.

5. Drawer chest. You’re going to want to have items that can be pushed out of the way when all your friends are in your room and also close by when you’re in a hurry to make it to that early class. And let’s admit it, you’re probably going to have too much stuff to fit into the dorm furniture your school provides. So items with wheels are a plus, like Target’s chest with casters ($59.99 for five-drawer, $34.99 for three drawer).

Let us know some of the stuff you have purchased for your dorm, too!

–Lori Johnston

Entry Filed under: College Dorms,Just for Fun,Pop culture & college,Relationships