Dorm Decor: Making it homey

One thing I knew for sure when I found out I'd be living in a dorm was that I had to make it pretty. If I'm going to be spending the majority of my time in one room, it has to be somewhere I'm happy to be.

Obviously, I had to do this on a pretty strict budget.

I started with my sink area. I decided that a bath mat would be a fun way to add some color to the room, while also keeping the industrial carpet from getting damp and growing mold. I saw a cute purple one at Marks & Spencers for £8, but held out. I'm glad I did, because I found an even cuter purple one for £4 at Primark. As if I needed another reason to love that store!

I looked around for some kind of storage for my makeup, extra shower products, and random crap, and ended up finding this five-drawer tower at Argos for £17.49. Argos is definitely a store you should check out if you're living in Oxford and on a budget. You go online, place your order (without having to pay online), go down to the store when you're ready, and pay and pick up your stuff. Bonus: there's no penalty if you order something and then don't ever pick it up (I got a little overly ambitious in ordering decorative storage solutions, and by the time I got to Argos I realized I'd rather have the £9.98 than a cute set of wicker baskets).

I also went back to Poundland and picked up a shower caddy. It's like undergrad all over again! You can tell from my decor choices what my favorite color is, no? The rest of my suitemates have left their shower stuff in the bathroom on the windowsill. While that's fine, one of them has started leaving his or her stuff in the shower itself, which I think is rude. But I'll probably write more on my inconsiderate suitemates later.

The next order of business was lamps. As you can see in my previous post, my lighting was limited to a single, energy-efficent bulb glaring bleakly from the ceiling, and an institutional fluorescent light above the sink. I personally feel that light can make a huge difference in the feel of a space, which is one of the reasons I made sure to ask for a south-facing room (the window in the room is really awesome; it takes up the whole wall and lets in a ton of light whenever the sun does decide to shine).

To perk things up, I went back to Argos and got this set of two fuchsia lamps for the unbelievable price of £11.98. I love the bit of color they add to the room! I also had to do something about the bulb in the center of the ceiling, as it was horribly depressing. I went to BHS and snagged a very neutral lampshade (I wanted something more fun, but the crystal chandeliers were out of my price range. Maybe for Christmas!).

Finally, in a bold move, I decided that the curtains had to go. I went back to Linens Direct in the Westgate shopping center, and they had some gorgeous curtains, but I would have ended up paying almost $100 total, and I wasn't sure I cared THAT much.

On a hunch, I checked Argos' website, and found curtains at a reasonable price. I'm really happy with the way they brighten up the room, and make it feel just a little more like mine, instead of a generic dorm.

Dorm Decor: in which coffee

Ok. Obviously, living in a dorm room, I don't have my own kitchen. I'm lucky that the kitchen that I share with my suite mates is pretty decent; it's a good size, I get my own half of a mini fridge and half of a mini freezer (well, in theory. In actuality I get about a quarter of each because my suite mate hogs them).

Now, I knew from the get-go that there would have to be a way for me to make coffee in my room, without having to see or speak to anybody else. The last thing in the world I need is to try to make conversation pre-caffeine.

My goal was to create a little coffee station not unlike the ones found in hotels and B&Bs, while spending as little money as possible.

So, click back to the previous post for a reminder of what I was working with.

It was around this point in my decorating that I discovered Poundland, the English version of a dollar store. It's pretty much a dream come true if you're having lame fantasies of creating a coffee station in your dorm room on a budget.

I snapped up two adorable purple paisley coffee mugs, a vintagey-looking tea tray, and a glittery purple scarf.

Then I went over to Boswells, where I picked up a kettle for £15 (even with my student discount, I obviously paid too much for it!) and a hinged glass jar for £2. The jar was to store my coffee "whitener" (feel free to judge; I needed a way to doctor my coffee without leaving the room!) in a way that was airtight and more attractive than a box of coffee "whitener".

Behold, the finished product!

Cookies go in the drawer, and extra coffee and whitener go in the cabinet, along with the wine and wine glasses.

Not bad for the pound store!