Decorating Your Dorm Room on a Budget

Your dorm room is probably the first time you get to decorate your room yourself. As exciting as that opportunity is, you probably don't have the cash to turn your room into a souped-out Austin Powers pad. So, as much as you want that fur-covered rotating bed, save that dream for later and check out these tips to deck out your room on a budget.

1. Bedding: Given the smallness of most dorm rooms, your bed will most likely be the largest and most noticeable piece of furniture in your space. Make sure that you pick out a bedding set that you like and that won't easily show stains. You can use the patterns and colors in your bedding to help you in figuring out the room's color scheme.

As you search for bedding, remember to confirm that the set matches the dimensions of the bed in your dorm. Colleges often have extra-long beds, so normally sized bedding may not fit. You can find extra long sheets at Target and Bed, Bath & Beyond.

Decorative pillows are an easy and inexpensive way to add color and character to a room. You don't have to buy pillows that exactly match your bed set. In fact it's more fun to include contrasting pillows; they'll give your room a little more personality.

2. Wall decorations: Posters are an obvious choice for wall decorations. To make them look nicer (and to help them last longer) you can frame them with cheap frames available in most art supplies stores. For posters that have unusual dimensions, you can look for do-it-yourself frames that enable you to choose the dimensions of the length and width. You can check them out at pictureframes.com.

When you're shopping for posters for your dorm room, think about what you want to display. As Matthew Ritger from the Dartmouth says, you don't want to fall into the trap of buying clichéd posters (no Audrey Hepburn, Animal House, naked women, or depictions of drugs and alcohol). Here's link to his hilarious article: http://thedartmouth.com/2007/09/19/arts/dormdecor/

A fun and cheap way to decorate your wall is to purchase fun and quirky postcards and tape them to the wall. Museums often sell sets of art postcards that you can purchase together. Mirrors can be great wall decorations and also make the room look larger. Use a bulletin board to display photos, concert tickets, and other memorabilia for a great personal touch to your room.

3. Storage: Cement blocks to prop up your bed are a cheap way to give you more space to store your stuff. Also, plastic crates can be a fun, cheap, and colorful way to store your stuff.

4. Lighting: A desk lamp is a necessity, but Christmas lights strung on your wall can add a soft glow to your room.

5. Places to shop: Bed, Bath, and Beyond, Target, and Ikea are the obvious choices for purchasing bedding, decorations and furniture, but you should also check out Urban Outfitters, especially during its sales. UO has fun, cheap decorations ideal for dorm rooms. Delia's also has cheap décor for girls. Thrift and consignment stores have fun, one-of-a-kind items to decorate your room. Art supplies stores supply inexpensive frames. The Container Store supplies all kinds of fun storage supplies with plenty of cheap options for college students.