As I mentioned in Monday’s post, I  spent last Sunday decorating my daughter’s dorm apartment.  She moved in just a few weeks ago and when I went to see it, the place was looking pretty bad.  She asked me if I would help brighten it up. Of course, I was happy to agree to this!  My daughter and her roommates gave me carte blanche.

So, I wanted to get the dorm room decorating done in a week, but it ended up taking me two weeks to plan it and get the items I needed.  I did this on the smallest of budgets…mine, lol.

This is what the entry hall looked like when I first saw it.  As soon as you walk in you see that closet at the end of the hall.  It doesn’t have any doors on it.

I used a shower curtain and rod to cover up the closet. I also added a runner on the floor and art on the wall.

This is the living room before.  I had rearranged the furniture in this room before I took this picture.  When I first got there, it was arranged awkwardly.  These before pics were all taken with my phone, so they are bad.  But it is a good representation of how the place felt.

I used a painters drop cloth to cover the sofa. Remember this inspiring post on drop cloths? I put a throw blanket over the chair that I picked up at Home Goods. The pillows were taken from my house, as were the pictures on the wall.

Another before shot taken from the kitchen area looking into the living room.

I told you about the tray on the coffee table on Monday, the end table in the corner as well as the art in the hall were given to me by a friend (thanks, Robin!).

The white rugs are two small Ikea sheepskin rugs I ordered from Amazon, and they are the most versatile little decorating accessory.  You can use them on the floor or draped over a chair or bench,  I love these rugs. The kitten sleeping on the rug is my daughter’s most recent rescue. She is a HUGE animal advocate and rescues kittens almost weekly.

Here is the corner of the living room.  The TV and lamp were all squashed together on that little table.

The TV is missing in this picture, because they sometimes move it into the bedroom to watch.

Here is another super-blurry shot of the corner of the living room and view into the hall.

This is the kitchen before, it was kind of dreary.

I added the plant in the corner to give the space some life and put a curtain on the window to soften the space. I picked up some removable wall decals to help fill up the large wall.   The colorful tablecloth and the frames are from Wal-Mart.  I spray painted the inexpensive frames blue to tie in with the tablecloth and existing chairs.

I printed the art out at home, you can find these free kitchen printables here.

Here is another cute printable I found somewhere online, perfect for dorms.

Another sad wall I added some pictures to.

I made the print in the blue frame (which was part of the set of frames from Wal-Mart that I spray painted).  If you would like to print this for yourself, just click the print button under the graphic.

Print

A big thanks to my daughter and her roommates for letting me decorate for them!  I had so much fun with this project!

Just a reminder, next week my blogging friends and I are kicking off The Ultimate Cookie Exchange!  We have been working hard on this for weeks, we have lots of prizes (including cash!) to give out, lots of recipes to share, link ups, and we are even hosting our first Twitter party!  You can also follow me on Facebook for reminders and we  have a Pinterest board you can follow here.  We hope you’ll stop by and help us spread the word!

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