So this is a blog post that has been a
very long time coming (considering that I moved into college for junior year at the end of August!). I did a
dorm room tour post during my sophomore year (which was my first year at my current college), and it got a lot of positive feedback. I have been excited to show y'all my room for this year, but I have put it off for a few reasons! The first is that I will be honest and say that I'm not exactly a neat freak. ;-) My side of the room is usually pretty messy, so I had to wait until a weekend when I actually cleaned my side to take these pictures. And secondly, although the dorm that I live in this year is nicer than my old dorm in many ways (No more communal bathrooms! Whoo!), one major downside to my new building is that the lighting is
terrible. Both the natural and artificial lighting!! That is why I rarely take pictures for Instagram from inside of my dorm room anymore, and when I do they're highly edited. Anyways, on the afternoon that I did these pictures it was an exceptionally bright afternoon, I had still had to use the flash on my camera for many of them.
First up- my "closet!" Another thing that I hate about the building that I currently live in is the fact that we don't get real closets. It makes no sense to me- last year I lived in dorm for sophomores, transfer students and exchange students... and we had HUGE closets. (You can look at last year's dorm room tour post
here!) But now that I am living in an upperclass dorm all that we have are these little armoire things which kind of remind of the pieces of furniture which often hold TVs in hotels. Haha! Anyways, mine is absolutely stuffed to the brim! #fashionbloggersprobs. I keep all of my winter coats on command hooks by the front door of our dorm room (which is actually on my roommate's side so won't be shown in the post), and I have about 75% of my summer clothes in a huge Rubbermaid tub underneath my bed.
You can see that on the floor of the "closet" I keep some clothes folded- those are all of my workout clothes and my winter vests! In the drawers under the "closet" are all of my t-shirts, swimwear, and cold weather accessories like gloves and headbands. Above the closet are my crafting and scrapbooking supplies! Back when I was crafting for my Little last semester I kept some of the craft supplies for her up there as well. The large Charlotte Russe bag is what I keep all of my holiday decorations in. :-)
This is my bureau! This is always probably one of the messiest areas of my room- I always try and keep it organized but it just never stays that way. ;-) My TV is on my bureau (since my bed is right across from it), and I keep all of my earrings, bracelets and rings there as well. And vitamins/medicine! Gotta have all that. Behind my bureau I hang any cards or letters of encouragement from family, friends and sorority sisters. Some of these notes go back to a few years ago when I was in high school! I love my card wall, and it has gotten so tall that I have had to start hanging cards in other parts of the room.
To the left of my bureau is my desk! Both of the windows in my dorm room are on my side of the room, so my desk gets good light at some times of the day (like I said earlier, the natural lighting in this building is weird). I am unique in that I
never do homework at my desk! As you can see from the pictures I have kind of turned it into a make-up vanity area. I also keep a lot of my decorations on the shelves. My desk space adds a lot of color to my room, and I feel that it really shows off my personality! (PS- the Valentine's balloon that's in these pictures was from my roommate, isn't she sweet?)
This is the first year that I had a shoe rack, and I have it to be so useful! I can't remember if mine is from Target or Walmart, but I know that both stores (and probably anywhere like Bed Bath and Beyond) sells shoe racks that are this size. I keep all of my necklaces behind the shoe rack on command hooks. They are somewhat organized by color.
And here is my bed and my little attempt at a gallery wall! My bed this year is lofted, and it's the first year of college that I've ever had a lofted bed. It took a lot of getting used to at first (during the first few weeks I used to have to do a running jump to get into it), but now I honestly love having an elevated bed. My bedspread is actually the bedding that was in my bedroom at home in Maine when I was little!! And my comforter is Ralph Lauren (my mom found it at TJ Maxx two years ago).
This year I tried to make a little gallery wall with various decoration things that I had saved up, and I'm so happy with how it turned out!! It features a couple posters, some shopping bags from my favorite stores, a canvas, and my Lilly Pulitzer painted "A" from an Etsy shop. To the right of it are a bunch of pictures of my friends and family. The bottom of the pictures start at my sophomore year of high school, and the top pictures end this past year at Christmas Break!
Weird fun fact about the pile of stuffed animals on my bed: all of those are stuffed animals that I've gotten since high school graduation, and none of them have names. All of my beloved childhood stuffed animals are somewhere at home in Maine. :-)
Lastly, here are a couple little things that I stuck on the front door of my "closet." I don't really like to leave any spaces in my room uncovered. Some of the decorations on my "closet" include my recruitment name tags from sorority recruitment this year, concert tickets and tickets to various school events, stickers, etc... it doesn't take a lot to be creative and find things to decorate dorm rooms! :-)
I hope you enjoyed the tour of my dorm room! It might have looked itty bitty from the angles that I took the pictures at, but my room this year is actually quite large. I didn't show off my roommate's side in these pictures, but between our sides together and our little "entry-way" (which has our microwave, fridge, and where we keep our coats), our room isn't that small for a double room. If only I just had a real closet!! A girl can dream...
xoxo Miss ALK