Dealing with cruddy dorm room furniture?

[TheBon]

I've had the best luck with 3M command strips: http://www.3m.com/US/home_leisure/command/products/mountingstrips.jhtml You can find them at pretty much any big box store like Target or Home Despot, er, Depot.

[rusty spork]

I was also wondering, what is suggested to help keep large posters up? I can hardly keep 'em tacked to my walls at home and I have tried almost anything.

at my house, i tried multiple kinds of tapes... double sided regular scotch tape doesn't really hold up... i found that the blue painters tape never failed and it never left any sticky residue.  i really did not like duct tape. it didn't hold for some reason and it left marks on my walls (at home)

just use a lot of blue tape... it will work (well, it did for me!)

[copodenieve]

Also as a former RA I highly recommend checking into the fine print again.  It will save you a lot of time and trouble, especially if you do something that has to be taken down right away.

With that said, I've seen a lot of creative ways of dealing with the dorm room and I myself have partaken in them.

Curtains: as said most schools have ugly vertical blinds, you can easily replace these (save the originals of everything to replace when you move out) or I took some cool fabric and draped them over the vallance thing to spice it up a bit.

Floor:  Floors are pretty easy to deal with...most don't have carpeting so a nifty rug would work wonders here.

Walls: Wrapping paper used as wall paper is amazingly wonderful.  Try not to go crazy patterned, something simple like bold stripes or solid is better and easier to match up.

Decor: Try no to get tooo cluttered, the space is undoubtedly small and it needs to be a place to relax, study, and have fun in.  If the walls are overwhelming you're going to have more difficulty relaxing.  Instead of plastering pictures all over the wall, the most tasteful rooms I've seen have a few pictures that have been blown up to larger sizes.  Or used a few more artsy posters, another option is to mount them on foam board and hang them-just makes them look nicer.

Furniture: Bring your own...a chair, a futon, something to add seating space goes a long way in making it more homey.  And go ahead and add a few pillows too.  As for uni furniture, the beds are easy to fix with lofts, or you can use fabric to cover the head and footboards.  Lofts are nice because you can paint and decorate the wood.  With desks, I don't reccomend the contact paper idea.  You can cover the tops of them with a colorful desktop calendar, or pictures covered over with plastic on top of that.  As for the sides, you can use tape and colorful paper or pictures to take away from the wood kinda look.  The chair can easily be fixed by bringing your own, most are very uncomy anyway.  Or use a chair pad and a simple chair cover tied with ribbon.

If you have a closet without doors you can use a shower curtain to hide that.

Just be creative and be sure to talk with your roommate, rooms that end up looking best are ones that were decorated together.  Think similar color palletes, even out the walls, etc.  And it's a good bonding experence.

As for wall hangings, go for the 3M hooks and tapes.

[Blackhearted]

What I had in my room at my parents' last year (and am planning on doing again this year), is making a black and white striped desk! I just alternated black electrical tape with white masking tape, and since my decor is fairly black-and-white themed, it worked quite nicely. I'd test how the laminate stands up to the tape in an inconspicuous area (like underneath) first, to avoid having to pay for the damages. Hereare some pics, to get an idea:

[flying_babyb]

OMG- I had to post this.
At walmart they sell this thing called a crash pad. they come rolled up in rolls. there kinda pricey at 40 bucks but there actully really confortable. Its ablout a foot or so thick and the size of a twin bed. It rolls up really well. It would make a nice bed. I slept on mine for 15 hours last night and woke up feeling fine.  One perk is if you take a twin bed fitted sheet and put it on there it fits darn nearly perfect. Thought I would share this with you. Its nice for family thats visiting.

[mellie_05]

what we have in our current dorm room, is wrapping paper. If you go to Dollar tree or Walmart, you can find solid colored paper. If your walla are like ours with a jutted out wall in one corner that houses the furnace/heater thingy, then it's cool to make it a different color. Plus, friends can sign your wall and then you can take it home at the end of the year!

[flying_babyb]

also I was thinking, have you guys heard of command ashivise? it works really well to hold things up. it omes in hooks too