Hey guys... I need some help here.

I have a very big dorm room all to myself and I am constantly redecorating to try to get the look I want. However, I'm just plain stuck at this point. Here are the issues:

--My walls are disgusting offwhite cinder blocks with lots of gunk from years past on them
--We have those ceiling tiles with the little holes in them -- also covered in gunk and with little pieces ripped off them
--We have ripped up brown speckly carpet.
--I can't add any furniture that's bigger than 15x15 inches
--We are not allowed to paint anything, hang fabric on the walls, or hang *anything* on the ceiling.
--I'm mega broke (but this is a priority, so I can spend a lil cash)
--I would break some of these rules but I'm an RA so I feel that I can't enforce any rules that I break.

I can't stand this look that I've dubbed "dorm room chic". I like when things match, I like very earthy stuff, and I've done the best I can so far (nature prints, inspirational wall hangings, coordinating bed linens, etc) but I'm sort of stuck. Anyone have any ideas?

Love Rebecca

wow, those are some really bs rules, imo.

so does no hanging fabric on the walls mean that you can't do the paste it up with startch thing either?
(as in:
http://discuss.gromco.com/mwforum/topic_show.pl?id=2385#20440 )

maybe you can paint a floor cloth in a leaf shape or something?

if it would work in your window you can make a glass shelf thing that sits in the window frame. get two boards and some pieces of glass, make slots in the boards, then slide the glass in and set it in your window and fill with knick-knacks.

this might sound kind of weird and i just thought of it now, but maybe you can make sort of a canopy bed by extending the posts on your bed with sticks, and then drape some nice fabric from them?

that's all i got right now.

I'm going to guess the "no fabric", "no hanging anything from the ceiling" thing is a fire issue.

(Not that I ever accidentally set fire to an Indian bedspread I had tacked to the ceiling. No, not me. <cough, cough>)

Okay, back to the issue at hand. My honest preference would be a free-standing fabric screen room divider from cloth and stretcher bars, but I fear that flies in the face of the 15x15 rule.

The idea of doing a canopy is intriguing, as would be the idea of creating a little "tent" or canopy over part of the room. Perhaps make that a cosy little "spot" with a beanbag chair and an area rug underneath. Possibly use some bamboo poles, and tie them together to form a yurt or teepee shape? Hmmm...

Also, what if you attached a pole between two walls, and hung lightweight stuff from it? (Bead strings, scarves, even pictures.) Sort of like a shower pole setup, if you follow what I'm saying.

I don't know what your school's policy is on Xmas lights, but I used the cool-touch white lights and fake vines strung across the ceiling together. They were attached to the upper part of the walls with those removable 3M hooks, and I sort of zig-zagged them back and forth across the room. It lowered the height of the room (my walls were really high) and obscured the ugly ceiling a little. I also tried to cover the walls with paper stuff as much as possible. (I used old calendar pictures.)
Decorating dorm rooms is hard. You're so limited. Chickclick.com had an article about that in their teen section I think, but I remember not using any of their ideas. Maybe someone will have some radical, innovative new ideas! :)

I'm not sure if this will help, but maybe something here would work for you:

http://www.digsmagazine.com/lounge/lounge_post-posters.htm

Another idea along with hanging various forms of "art" on your walls: you could use those 3M hooks on opposing walls, string thread/wire/yarn/etc., and hang postcards, photos, photocopies of photos/postcards (you get the picture...) on the string using clothespins. maybe? hope this helps or inspires help!

-Aimee

About ten minutes ago, I got this cute idea for an xmas present for my friend. You can make string curtains, *You know, like the love beads that hang in doorways and windows* except using strings of fake Ivy/flowers. You can use small flowers in any color, and bigger ones at the bottom. I'm into the earthy thing too, so I have candles and wall scrolls everywhere. Maybe you could have a window herb/small flower garden too? Okay, well, that's about it, have a great and lucky time!
~Shannyn

if the walls are cinder block painted things, you could probably do a pattern on the wall using the tissue paper starch thing. i would do a test patch first though; if the walls are glossy it should come off fine, othewise it may stick and screw up the paint.

one thing i did in my apartment to sort of separate the vanity area from my bedroom was got a tension curtain rod (like 3 bucks at walmart) and put some paper lanterns on it. while living in the dorm i achieved the same effect by stringing the lanterns up (just nail a string)-- and then in the spaces inbetween i hung photos/cards.

may i also suggest huge posters or paintings. this is probably obvious, but lots of people cover their walls with 20 small things, and i think it is much more peaceful to have a few things that you can really look at. i am a painter, so i put things up that i just finished in the hallway-- 3 or 4 largeish paintings. It gives them room to breathe and never fails to impress. i'm a firm believer that everyone has artistic talent (and i'm sure you do since you're on this site)... so think of a theme and play with the paint. medium sized canvases are not terribly expensive, and it will be fun. Or to color a wall quickly and without paint or cloth you might try getting butcher paper (or otherwise large paper) and fashioning some sort of bulletin board thing out of it.

as far as your carpet goes, you're probably stuck with the brown. look around though. i found this heart shaped 'rag rug' thing at urban outfitters once ($10... amazing for UO) and i think it is supposed to be a bathmat, but i put it in my room and its much cuter (and much cleaner) there. or you could look at a remnants place and cut cute, simple shapes out and place them on your floor. (I once saw an entire rug fashioned out of taped together remnants).

Good Luck. Make your dorm your home.

The remnant rug thing works-- i've made several by piecing together similar and complementary shades in squares.(from small to large). Covering a large portion of the room with a rug like that would probably make you feel better. I really like the latern idea, but it might count as hanging something... I would suggest making a massive collage with a theme which would cover an entire wall. Not something tacky, a peaceful(maybe plantlife, or landscape) collage, with a color scheme, and definite style. Make toss pillows to match, maybe a cozy sit-on-the-floor or bean bag area, and have two kinds of lighting-- what you use to work(bright), and what you have for ambience(dim, and warm). These things have helped my place look together.
meli

Thank you guys for all your great ideas...

So far I've done the contact paper squares on my windows thing (which ended up also serving to keep all the people who walk by on the path outside my window from seeing me changing or sleeping, since I like to keep my curtains open) as well as starched tissue paper on one of my walls. That breaks another rule (only 20% of the wall can be covered total), but it's not one that we *ever* enforce.

I'm still contemplating how to hide my ugly ceiling. I can't attach anything to the ceiling itself, but there must be a way. My favorite plan would be to use an idea from the tv show Trading Spaces with panels of fabric... But that's rather expensive and would be tricky with a light fixture hanging a foot down into the room. So now I'm thinking of trying to do something like what is done for a Sukkah for the Jewish holiday Succot. A sukkah has a roof of branches and leaves that are usually set on beams of some sort. Any ideas on how I can do this in the room?

Also, I forgot to mention that I have big white pipes in my room... Pipes with water from the bathroom rushing through them. Ugly, ugly pipes. Any idea how to make them... less ugly?

As for a rug... I did a lot of looking and am currently contemplating a gorgeous shag 4x6 foot rug that is $30. For those of you who did the remnant thing, where did you find them?

Thanks again sooooo much for your ideas. They are faboo and I'm working on implementing more of them. This place is looking better and better and less and less like a 20 year old's institutionally issued room.

Keep em coming!

Love Rebecca

Ugh. I had white pipes in my dorm room too. I took glow in the dark stars and made a nice shooting star patter on them, at least it looked nice in the dark.

A little thing I did was use a pretty postcard as a switchplate cover. Just cut a hole for the switch, and use some tape on the back to secure it. It was a neat little thing.

Yesenia

"We have those ceiling tiles with the little holes in them -- also covered in gunk and with little pieces ripped off them"

i'm assuming you mean the ceiling tiles that are held up by a metal grid.
i've seen people decorate them by measuring out paper in the same size as the square and just placing them under the tile. you can do lovely textured paper squares in green and natural or do all blue cloud painted paper.

Shannyn and JellyL had great ideas...my dorm room is also much the same...huge, with the cinder block walls that have disgusting cracks in them, and my dorm room hadn't been used sine like the 70's so i have astro-turf carpet....the only difference is i have a roommate who is incredibly creative and talented so I get a lot of ideas from her lol. our furniture cant be bigger than 24x30 inches, so there's another difference...but near the beginning of the year i went to some garage sales, and lemme tell you i found some ugly furniture...but it only took maybe 1-2 hours to fix them up, especially if you go to an elderly folk's garage sale you can find some really retro furniture that either would be cool to keep or easy to fix up...my roommate did all of the furniture related stuff...but if you are low on cash here's a good, cheap way to make a table...i did it myself so it's easy and fun!
http://www.tanashabitat.com/casa/0103181of4.asp
good luck ;)
-kc

Could you wrap your pipes with something? Crepe Paper, fat ribbon, scarves, etc.?

Rebecca, I doubt that you would be allowed to do this, but some other people might like to know this...If you take the ceiling tiles out, you can paint on the opposite side and it turns out very well. Two of the rooms in my house have painted ceilings, one's a tie dye pattern and the other is marbled. It looks really cool! Also, nifty curtians can go a long way to make a room feel homey. I have giant windows in my room, and I found gauzy lime green curtians at a thrift shop. I tacked them up with push pins and it looks really nice.

You have some strict rules at your school, sheesh! I live in an on-campus house, so we technically have the same rules as all the dorms but no one really ever checks on us. i have scarves tacked up around the edge of my ceiling, so they make a kind of border along the wall. it looks very cool, maybe you could do something similar with the starch and tissue paper?

I completely agree that little thrifted things can add so much to a room. I found a small handhooked rug at a thrift, it's brown with godawfully tacky giant pink flowers on it. I love it :-D

Hm, interesting ideas, again... Let me clarify about our ceiling though. We don't have the kind of tiles that are set in a metal frame. They're just... square tiles. Common to many high school classrooms. They're permanently up there.

I'll have to think about how I can cover them without it being something "attached" to the ceiling.

Love Rebecca (who is getting more annoyed with fire code rules every day)

just a couple more thoughts...

maybe use a piece of burlap as a floor covering. not so comforting, but relatively cheap and a natural look.

you could wrap the pipes in twine. though standing there looping string around a floor to ceiling pipe could get old pretty fast. how 'bout a moss pipe (trading spaces style, again :])

maybe for the ceiling you could use those hooks at the tops of your walls and run wire across to make a grid to hold something(?) up by.

I, too, am confined to dorm space, but I'm actually pretty satisfied with it. What makes my room seem more homey is the color coordination we have, and our use of indirect lighting. We have 4 lamps in different parts of the room (the flood light time, like desk lamps, not the kind with shades), and we've turned them upside down, so the light bounces off the walls & ceiling. It gives the room a nice glow, not too harsh or too dark, and the circles of light make the walls a little more interesting. And when you need to study, just turn one of the lamp heads downward to shine on your work area. Also, we brought our own carpet, and that definitely brings the room together, so I'd suggest making that investment. Hope this helps some!