5 Ways Your Dorm Can Look Like Pinterest

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It’s already the end of spring semester, and your dorm room is…depressing, to say the least. Your posters have fallen down and you’ve been forced to take the streamers off your walls. Guess it’s time to start thinking about next year’s decorations. You don’t have to be an interior decorator or an art major to add a little class to your humble abode. Here are a few ways to display the pictures you’ve accumulated over the course of the year.

1. Washi tape frame

Washi tape is made from paper and covered with beautiful designs. Think scrapbook paper in tape form. Best of all, it’s like masking tape (a.k.a. it won’t hurt your wall). Go to town on a blank wall in your room and create your own “frames” from a few different colors. No nails or impossibly sticky putty needed. Not artsy? Not a problem. Stick with making a simple rectangular shape, and the tape will do the rest.

2. Photo garland

If you don’t want to put tape on your photos, grab some string, yarn or ribbon and a bunch of clothespins. Simply clip your pictures to the string and instantly brighten your room by hanging the garland along your wall. You can also tie it to a bedpost or anchor it to your desk. And if you want to get really crazy, hang it through the middle of your room (above head height) so you can display double the amount of pictures. But make sure you hang it high enough, otherwise your friends will walk into your room and literally not know what hit them.

3. Wall collage

Dakota Connell-Ledwon

Dakota Connell-Ledwon

This is ideal if you have a ton of pics. You’ll have to use tape or putty, so don’t pick precious, one-of-a-kind pictures—print some out from Facebook or have your parents send you some (copied) vintage family ones. Pick another blank wall and get creative. You might want to lay your photos on the floor first so you can figure out how you want to arrange them. Go for a collage where you cover up the edges of each photo with others, or make a mural and line them up neatly, or make a shape like a heart or your school’s logo. You should probably get a friend to watch or help you put it up, just to make sure that heart doesn’t end up looking lopsided. 

4. Corkboard

Again, if you’re ok with damaging your photos, corkboards are great ways to display pictures. They’re endlessly customizable—you can get boards in different shapes, cover them with colorful paper and even get unusual looking pins to keep your pics attached. Corkboards are handy because you can keep layering pictures over old ones; and when the year is over and you’re packing up, you’ll have a ton of happy memories to sort through.

5. Make your own frame

If you prefer to cover your walls with posters or you’re not allowed to stick nails or putty on them, consider making a few unique frames to hold your formal pictures or hilarious polaroids. You can buy cheap, undecorated wooden frames at any craft store. Then, get to work painting, bedazzling and otherwise making your frames pop. You can find them in all shapes and sizes too, so you’ll have a variety to squeeze into any small space you might have on your dresser or desk. Kitschy is good—think the ridiculous, hand-painted frames you used to give to your grandparents for Christmas. Only instead of a picture of nine-year-old you doing something embarrassing, use a silly picture from a formal.

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A Floridian learning to survive in the tundra that is the Midwest. Sophomore English major at the University of Notre Dame. Goal in life is to be a cross between Jane Goodall and Walt Disney.

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