Since I did a first-year dorm tour post of the space I shared with my roommate, Shannon, last year, I thought it’d be only natural to do a sophomore dorm room tour, too. Some things are the same as they were in our room last year, but now that I have a single room as an RA, there are a few new additions to fill up the space. Here’s the best shot of the whole room:
I wanted my room to have distinctly different areas and hopefully help me stay organized, so I grouped things together into a living area, bedroom area, kitchen area, and closet area.. Here’s my “living area”:
I love this rug because it’s soft and fluffy for people to sit on, and the futon adds some extra seating, too.
My bedroom area:
My kitchen area:
And my dresser & closets area:
Last year, I mostly used my room as a place to just do homework for an hour or two before bed once I got back from meetings or the library, or to hang out with my roommate from time to time. I wasn’t in my room much, but when I was, I usually considered my space to be my space, and I think that’s what I needed as I was trying to figure out college life last year.
This year, my mindset’s changed and I want my room to be an open space for friends or residents to be able to drop by and hang out. I’m all by myself in a big room, which is a really cool opportunity for me to keep my door open and be able to welcome other people in. (And get in the habit of always keeping my room neat…easier said than done!)Last year, I got a few emails and comments asking where I’d purchased certain dorm room items, so this time, I thought it might be helpful to include some of that information in the post.
Navy Blackout Curtain- Amazon. These blackout curtains come in lots of different colors and work so well for blocking out all of the sun while I sleep!
Navy & White Trellis Rug- HomeGoods*
Turquoise “C” Table- Bed Bath and Beyond. The exact one I purchased this year isn’t available online anymore, but this is a similar one.
Coral Throw Pillows- Target
Coral Backrest Pillow- Bed Bath & Beyond
Creamy White Futon- Walmart
Turquoise Throw Blanket- Marshalls*
Woven Basket- Marshalls*
Coral Storage Bins- Kohl’s. The ones I purchased last year are no longer available online.
Wooden Monogram- 22-inch plain wood monogram from Etsy and then hand-painted with acrylic paint from Michael’s.
*Unfortunately, HomeGoods and Marshall’s don’t list their products online.
Feel free to comment or shoot me an email (liv@healthy-liv.com) if you have any questions! Hope you enjoyed the little room tour.
Questions for you:
Does your bedroom have a color scheme?
Mine’s navy, coral, turquoise, and white.
Do you enjoy decorating?
I don’t necessarily get a lot of enjoyment out of the process, but I love having a pretty finished product!
Where do you like to shop for home decor?
Your room is so cute and welcoming! If I was a resident I would always come by (:
I love home goods!
HomeGoods is so great. Thanks, Hayley!
Your dorm room is absolutely lovely! The color scheme is my favorite element of it. You definitely succeeded on making it stylish and inviting 🙂
Your dorm room is too stinkin cute! I wish I had that kind of style when I lived in the dorms!
LOVE your dorm room! I love the decor and especially your little kitchen area. Whenever I was in my dorm room I always tried to keep the dorm room door open so that people passing by could stop by and say hi, especially during the first few weeks of school since it was such a great way to meet others and get to know others on my floor.
I’ve been keeping my dorm open whenever I’m in the room and it’s been a great way to meet people!
Your room is amazing! It is also huge and so grown up compared to all my rooms whilst I was at uni haha
Liv- I love your room! It’s awesome that you get your own space but still live on campus. I actually liked being on campus but ended up getting an apartment so that I wouldn’t have to share a room.
I currently moved so my bedroom doesn’t have a color scheme yet. I am searching for a duvet that is NOT hot (if you have a suggestion, please let me know!) and I think whatever Duvet cover I pick will set the scheme. My furniture is white and my headboard is beige so there’s lots of room for pops of color 🙂
I mostly shop for decorating stuff at Homegoods or Marshall’s because I’m not very good at decorating and don’t want to waste money. I’m like you… I don’t love it but I like the finished product 🙂
Marshalls and HomeGoods have some awesome finds!
I’d buy a duvet cover and then fill it with just a light blanket instead of a big, heavy, duvet or comforter. For my dorm room, I bought a normal duvet cover (the navy one on my bed) and filled it with just a really lightweight duvet. I don’t like being hot when I sleep, either!
Ooh great idea! Thanks so much!
Your room is beautiful! I wish my room right now had pizazz as close as this one. Seriously looks like you got a decorator do design it for you!
I love places like home goods and marshals or even target for finding affordable yet cute furniture or decor pieces!
My mom has a great eye for decorating and she was SO much help!
Can you come decorate my apartment? Haha. Seriously… that is the most gorgeous dorm room EVER! Way cuter than any I ever lived in!! I am all about neutral colors (BORING) so my apartment is a lot of white/gray/navy…. with the occasional pop of pink because YOLO. 🙂
If you hadn’t said a word I’d have never guessed you didn’t enjoy decorating. Your room looks welcoming, homey and just all around wonderful.
“And get in the habit of always keeping my room neat” <- this! I really like to think of great ways to style and organize my space but then … life happens ;).
I can totally relate! I’ve realized it doesn’t matter how well-decorated a space is if it’s a total mess, so I’m really trying to do better about keeping my area neat, but like you said…life happens 🙂
Your room looks so cozy and welcoming! My roommate and I have chosen our colour scheme to be a tealy-green, black and white! I also have some mustard accents in there as well (it’s prettier than it sounds). Best of luck in your first weeks of sophomore year 🙂
Ooh, those colors sound great together! My room at home is black & white with pink accents and I love it.
It’s so pretty and clean – I love it! I just bought all of my stuff and our color scheme is purple, navy, yellow, and gray. I’m so excited to move everything in and see how it looks!
You’ll have to post pictures on your blog! Sounds like a fun color scheme and can’t wait to see how cute it looks 🙂
Your room is huge! O.o
I’m going to be moving into my first real apartment in a few weeks, and I’m excited to finally get decorating! I never felt motivated to decorate in college because I knew I would have to take it all down again in less than a year.
I’ve been looking at Ikea for my decor needs, since I think you need a car to get to Homegoods here in Boston.
http://activelygemma.com
Yep, most of the other rooms on my hall are the same size with 2 people, 2 beds, 2 dressers, 2 desks, etc. so mine definitely seems big since I have my own room as an RA. Good luck with decorating your apartment, Gemma!
Wow, I can’t believe everybody’s going back to college! 🙂 Your dorm room looks like an amazing place to come back to, and it almost makes me want to come and visit. <3
Ahh I’d love that!
What an adorable dorm room!! My sophomore dorm room was decorated head to toe with sorority stuff…almost embarrassing 🙂
Haha! Hey, the good thing about college decorating is that you can do it however you want and not worry about still liking it 5+ years down the road. I’m sure I won’t have coral & turquoise all over my house one day but I’m enjoying it while I still can! 🙂
Your room could be a Pinterest model post! I love everything about it (except for the fact that it’s in a dorm haha)
I always tried to make my bed and keep stuff mostly clean. The things that built up were sweeping and cleaning my desk. The futon is great! My old RA had one of those too and it was cool to sit in while she helped me figure out my class schedules.
I can totally relate on struggling to keep my desk neat! That’s probably the biggest place where I toss things that I don’t know where to put…so by the end of second semester last year, it was a MESS.
Love your room! My color scheme this year is grey, blue and white.
Thanks, Sarah! Your color scheme sounds wonderful- very calming!
Ah, this makes me want to go back to college! I remember my RA in college had a great space and welcome environment for friends and residents. I love the navy and coral. How did you decide on that color scheme? Your kitchen area is so organized – that is genius, btw. You should do a mid-year update post to display any changes that have been made. You could do one of those “spot the differences” style photo comparisons. ☺
I got the color scheme inspiration when I saw a picture in a Crate & Barrel magazine last summer of a stack of towels that were a mix of white, coral/white, and seafoam green/white, and I loved how the colors looked together. I ended up going with turquoise instead of seafoam green since it was much easier to find things in turquoise (but I still LOVE seafoam green), and then I incorporated navy because I wanted a dark neutral color for things like a bedspread.
Thanks so much, Kristen!
SO CUTE! Wow your dorm has hard wood floors? The on campus dorms are like jail cells so I moved off campus after freshman year haha. Love the carpet and color scheme 🙂
I love these hardwoods! I bought a mini vacuum to keep them clean 🙂
Wow, your room is so cute! I feel like my dorm rooms were so blah and beige compared to yours. I wish I could hire you to come help me decorate my house.
Okay, your dorm is a dream. My college dorm never looked put together, but I always wanted it to look just like this! I don’t really have a color scheme in my bedroom yet… I’m newly married so we’re still figuring it out but we both like decorating 🙂
Thanks so much, Michelle! Good luck to you both with your decorating endeavors 🙂
This is hands down the cutest dorm I have ever seen!
such a cute room! i love your color scheme! xx, kenz
http://sincerelykenz.com
I have never been good with decorating, so I am envious of your skills. It’s always nice for your home away from home to feel quite “home-y”
Your dorm room looks lovely! I decorated the walls of my university room with cards and photos from home but I am literally going out apartment hunting in London tomorrow and will potentially be signing my first ‘adult’ tenancy agreement (scared much!)…
I am quite creative though so it will be fun to put a unique stamp on the place when I get it all sorted.
Good luck with apartment hunting! Yikes, signing a lease does sound like such an adult thing to do 😉 I have faith in you that you can handle it!
I LOVE your room! It is so gorgeous, and it is really pulled together! My room doesn’t have a color scheme because I share it. Plus it hasn’t been painted since we moved in nine (!!!) years ago, so although it used to be more pulled together, we’ve taken most of the other things out, so it’s more hodge-podge now. 😀
I love the end result of decorated spaces, but the process and all the options kind of overwhelm me. Maybe if it came right down to it, it wouldn’t be as bad as I think, I love so many different styles and looks, I’m not sure I could decide!
Your room puts my house decorations to shame. It turned out gorgeous. Come be my personal shopper please?
Your room looks amazing! So spacious! WAY bigger than my dorm rooms I’ve had! Love the colour scheme too 🙂 my colour scheme now is dark furniture, wooden floors, and turquoise and orange! Plus some white mixed in for a beachy theme! Quite similar to yours actually! 🙂
Ooh, that sounds cute! For now, I’ve got super light wood dorm furniture, but dark furniture will definitely be in my future 🙂
Wow, your room is so pretty; it definitely looks like a nice and comfortable place for your residents to stop by! 🙂
Oh my gosh, it’s huge and GORGEOUS!!! I wish I had the patience and willingness to decorate like you!
Your room is so cute! love the color scheme! I love to shop at home goods and target for my dorm/apartment decorations. They usually have some really cute stuff for great prices! (especially if you can find some things on clearance!)
YES! Target and HomeGoods both have such great stuff. The clearance aisle is the best even though I can’t always find something there because when I do, it’s a total steal.
I LOVE your dorm room! How cute! I am curious as to where you got the silver larger photo frames that are over your kitchen area. I would love to find something like that for my living room in my apartment.
Not sure if you take post requests, but I would love to know how you manage being an RA and blogger.
–Megan
http://www.lovemeganjune.com
Thanks so much, Megan! I purchased the silver frames at JC Penny last fall and I really like them- they’re reflective like mirrors, which is cool. And thanks for the post idea– I’ll add it to my list 🙂
such a beautiful dorm room! i lived in a triple my freshman and sophomore years and i’m sad that i missed out on the opportunity to really decorate my room due to the limited space. LOVE your color scheme!