Decorating your room for under $5 is made possible thanks to Pintrest’s do-it-yourself dorm projects. Moving into a new apartment or dorm can be a hassle, and buying new furniture and décor can be expensive. These three DIY projects are easy and fun solutions to eliminate the stress of decorating your room.
With difficulty levels ranging from easy to about medium, all of these projects can be done in less than 45 minutes. The clothesline photo display allows you to put up as many pictures as you desire while eliminating the expense of buying frames for each photo. The shoebox cord organizer allows you to put an old shoebox to use for a more organized charging station. To save even more space and organize your school supplies, stack left over cans wrapped in cute ribbon and duct tape to create the pyramid supply holder.
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Clothesline Photo Display
Photo clotheslines easily dress up a bland wall and are easy to make with just photos and a string to hang them on. | Razan Beidas/The Cougar
This is a cute, easy, and low-cost way to personalize your dorm or apartment with your favorite pictures. All you need is some yarn, clothespins and pushpins. If you want to add your own touch, paint the cloth pins to match the color theme of your dorm room.
Measure and cut the yarn in the desired length. Then, make an open knot on each side of the yard. Use the pushpins to pin the yarn to the wall. Finally, clip the pictures to the yarn using the clothespins.
I loved the overall old-timey vibe this photo display gave my room. A fair warning, the clothespins cause dents in the pictures over time, so I would recommend using this project for pictures off the printer or even funky Polaroids to give your room a vintage look. Overall, this project is easy — the hardest part being that it took two people and a couple of tries to hang the yarn in a perfectly straight line.
Shoebox Cord Organizer
By gathering chargers in one location, it reduces the challenge of cords and consolidates the locations needed for re-powering devices. | Razan Beidas/The Cougar
Having an organized charging station would be ideal to eliminate the stress of constantly untangling wires. This project I found on Pinterest seemed like the perfect solution.
First, find an old shoebox. Be sure to find a box with a high enough height to be able firmly secure the box shut with all the chargers inside. Next, cover the box in old fabric or wrapping paper. If you’re a talented gift-wrapper (unlike me), this step will be a breeze.
Poke four holes, and use eyelets to outline each hole in the box. This step turned out a little messy for me, but I was able to fix it by hot gluing the eyelets, purchased at Michaels Crafts Store for $4, into the holes. Scissors did not to do the job well for meb so I would recommend using a knife or razor tool to cut the holes out. Cut a hole in the back of the box for the power outlet stick to go through. The power stick outlet cord was a little large, so I skipped the step of adding an eyelet to the back hole. Be sure to find a shoebox that will fit the power outlet stick — after some shifting, I was able to fit my outlet stick in the shoebox, although it was a bit tight. Lastly, decorate the box to match the theme of your dorm room. Overall, this project is moderately difficult.
Duct Tape Pyramid Supply Holder
The pyramid supply holder adds life to a room and can be completed in under 15 minutes with minimal supplies. | Razan Beidas/The Cougar
This pencil cup pyramid is cool and saves a lot of space while organizing all types of school supplies. First, I got some cans from the recycling bin and wrapped them with duct tape. Although the duct tape looked a little messy on the first cans, I got the hang of it by the last can and was able to perfect it without any creases in the duct tape. Be careful, the inside rim of the can may be sharp, so be cautious when wrapping. Next, I outlined the cans in different ribbons to cover up the remaining silver that I wasn’t able to cover with the duct tape.
Lastly, I glued two cans to each side of the Mason jar, and then glued two to the top in the shape of a pyramid. I decided to use a mason jar because I didn’t have enough cans, it worked out just as well and added a little accent to the design. I didn’t expect the cans to be as easily secured to the Mason jar, but the hot glue gun did the job well. I enjoyed this project because the main focus was to have fun designing the cans, which made the project easy.
