Your room is your sanctuary. It’s the place where you start your day, it’s where you study, get dressed, bring friends, binge watch Netflix, and lay your head down at night. If you spend so much time in one place, shouldn’t you make it special? Apartments and dorm rooms especially are known for feeling cold and plain. Having a warm, cozy place of your own really can help you refocus and unwind after a stressful day.
If your living space is still lacking, you’re in luck: here are a few extra touches to breathe life into your room!
1. Add Ambient Lighting
The fluorescent lights that come in most rooms are functional, but can make your place seem sterile. Adding lamps, lanterns, or string lights sets the mood and makes for a cool place to hang out.
Lots of college students invest in string lights for their rooms, but most underestimate their power! String lights are so versatile and come in a variety of colors, shapes, and sizes, the options are limitless. If you’re crafty you can also customize your own mini- shades for your string lights. Check out some cool ideas here.
You can line your walls with them or hang them from your ceiling
You can drape them over shelves as a makeshift lamp
Utilize them to hang your favorite pictures
2. Adopt a Friend
When I first moved into my freshman dorm, I brought along my Betta fish, Toby. Over the last few years, my roommates have all caved and adopted their own fish friends. Fish are known for having a tranquil, calming effect, and act as a focal point for the room. Bettas especially are beautiful, inexpensive, low maintenance, and can live for several years.
Creating a habitat is fun and allows you to get creative. Pick an interesting jar, vase, or container and some pretty marbles and use them to add pizzazz to your desk. Your guests will love to visit, and it’s nice to come home to your own little pet.
3. Cultivate Your Green Thumb
Bringing some of the outdoors in will make your space feel more inviting and homey. Houseplants have been proven to help reduce stress, increase productivity, enhance attitudes, and improve air quality. Aside from the mood enhancement, plants add a nice pop of color to your space. You can pick out cute pots at a garden store, craft your own, or you can reuse old bowls, bottles, and containers.
Succulents come in many shapes and sizes and are easy to find around town. Generally, they are pretty easy to take care of- just make sure you give them plenty of light and make sure that you don’t over-water them.
If your room doesn’t get any light, lucky bamboo is also a really popular low maintenance option.
Other choices like Pothos and Snake Plants can survive in lower light, and are forgiving if you forget to water them from time to time.
Mint plants can be found in any grocery store and are honestly impossible to kill. Mint will make your room smell fresh, and you can also pluck off a few leaves to throw in your water bottle.