The Designer in You - Fun Craft Project to Spice Up Your Dorm Room

There are ways to spice up your dorm room by going to the store and purchasing an all ready made item. But what a great way to get talk among your peers going when someone asks, "Where did you buy that?" And you are able to reply, "Oh, I made it." Not only will this give you a chance to show off your creative side to your peers, but also give you something personalized in your dorm that no one else has.

Paintings

Have you ever gone to an art museum and saw something as simple as colored squares overlapping each other? Or perhaps you just saw a mesh of color put together and it was called art. Well of course it's art. It's a self-expressive piece.

Head out to the store and buy some painting canvases. Acrylic or oil paints will do the job nicely. You don't have to paint something that actually looks like anything you can describe. But if you all ready picked a color scheme to your dorm room, perhaps emphasize on those colors. Or, if you want to go a different route and choose an accent color and use that for your paintings that would work too.

You can frame your work, or just have it up on your desk.

Make Your Walls Unique - With Fabric

Most dorm rooms will forbid you to do anything to the walls. But there are wall hanging adhesive products out there that are easy to apply and take off when the year is done. You may need to attach some kind of string to hang the fabric off of and evenly distribute the weight of it.

There are wall hangings you can buy, but why not make some of your own?

Pencil / Pen Holder

There are many things you can do with this. If you are into woodworking, you can get a piece of wood and began to make a uniquely shaped pencil holder and drill in the appropriate sized holes for each pencil. Or you can make just one large hole to fill several pencils.

You could also use products around the house such as actual cans (be careful of the sharp edges) or a plain mug. You can glue fabric, lace, and buttons, or you can decoupage and paint.

Bedding

This one might take a little more work, but it really can spice up your dorm room. One thing you can do is sew up your own blankets and pillows.

Go to the fabric store and pick a few types of fabrics you like and think will go together. Pillows are real easy.

1. If you are making a square pillow, just simply cut two equally sized pieces of fabric. (Note: Make sure you cut the pieces slightly bigger than the size of the pillow you want.)

2. Take the two pieces and have the colored side facing each other.

3. Sew around the edges of the pillow, but leave a couple of inches open.

4. Stuff the pillow with stuffing that you can buy at your local craft store.

5. Close the pillow shut by carefully hand stitching it shut.

You can really go crazy with designs on this, but this was just a simple pillow.

As far as blankets go, you can make your own quilt, or if you're not as good at sewing then use an old blanket as your guide and sew the new fabric on top. It'll give a pre-existing blanket a whole new look.

Curtains

Curtains are always nice to have in a dorm room. Not only do they increase privacy, but also can regulate how much light is coming into your dorm room. Some dorm rooms aren't going to come with the best of blinds to protect from afternoon sunrays.

Curtains can give your dorm room a polished look if it all comes together. You can choose your own fabrics, and add your own tassels at the ends if you wish as well. Depending on how you put your curtains up, you can also choose your own unique curtain rings to hang them up.

If you aren't a very crafty person, there are still plenty of ways to spice up your dorm room. Choose a theme, or a color that you want to emphasize on, and a few accent colors when you start your shopping.

Remember, college is that time to find yourself and to truly express that. A blanket dorm room with white walls is not very exciting. So even if you decide to not be crafty, find something that will make your dorm room unique and a pleasant place to be.