I never had the experience, but for those who have had the opportunity to live in a dorm, my sympathy is with you. The cramped and chaotic quarters are far from an environment conducive towards the intended educational purposes. Being crammed into a small room with passive aggressive neighbors seems like it would be more than a little difficult to make the educational monies worth their while. Imgur user mlennox81 moved into his dorm and immediately decided that something had to be done. After walking into a mess of a room, he decided to clean things up and worked out a plan to turn the chaos into a home suitable for a proper education.
There’s nothing like ruining the excitement of moving into your dorm by being confronted with a nasty mess!
Apparently the previous tenant didn’t find it necessary to clean up after themselves or take all their belongings.
Google Sketch-Up was used to create a quick mockup of the room. A couple of measurements were all that was needed to make sure that everything would fit into the room as planned.
The walls were in need of some attention. Picking at the peeling wallpaper quickly turned into a much larger project than anticipated.
Decades of shoddy paint and wallpaper work resulted in hours of work that he had not planned for.
Blue walls evoke the sea and the sky, and is believed to have a calming effect. In my opinion, that’s perfect for a dorm room. It gives you a place to escape the chaos and pressures of the academic world.
Even thought the old, nasty carpet was hiding some pretty amazing hardwood floors, they again had to be covered as per the landlord’s stipulations.
As with most college students, a limited budget was a contributing factor. Using the internet to teach himself about carpet installation, the cheapest available carpet would now cover the floor of his new home. It may be cheap, but at least it’s clean and new.
Let the building begin.
Mlennox81 has chosen to utilize a Murphy bed kit to help open up the space in the dorm room.
Here’s the Murphy bed with a fresh coat of paint.
Once the bed is in place, it just looks like a cabinet or a wardrobe sitting against the wall.
He took a shelf, which was donated by a friend, and painted it to match the bed and the rest of the trim in the room.
As part of the shelf, he decided to fashion a charging station for easier access.
The charging station frees up some space and clutter usually encumbered by the unsightly cords.
You can clearly see that the closet could also use some help.
Storage space is an extremely valuable commodity in a limited dorm room environment. Once the rest of the shelves are put in, the closet upgrade will be complete.
Now that the work is done, he can pull down the bed and enjoy a job well done.
Making a house a home is a difficult feat. Even more difficult is turning a small dorm room into a place that can actually nurture your educational needs while you complete your studies. I believe that this transformation was adequate in accomplishing his goal. A little extra space goes a long way in the overall comfort and ‘homey feeling’ that is a necessity, whether you’ve chosen to live in a dorm while you complete your education or you’ve chosen the tiny home lifestyle for the duration. Congrats to mlennox81 for his successful completion of his dorm DIY project and best of luck with his studies.