Dorm Room Wall Decor - 10 Ways to Decorate Your Dorm Room Walls

This post is all about the best dorm room wall decor.

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Getting ready for your freshman year of college can feel like a whirlwind. You’ve probably been focusing on shopping for all of your dorm essentials and school supplies. But once you’ve picked up all of your dorm room essentials, now you can focus on the fun part – decorating!

There’s nothing more boring than a plain dorm room with bare walls. If you’re anything like me, you’ll probably want to decorate every single inch of your dorm room to really make it feel like home. The only problem is that dorms are so tiny, so there’s not too much space to add decor.

In a tight space like a dorm room, your best option is to focus on the walls. Adding some wall decor to your college dorm can do so much to transform the overall look of your room without taking up much space at all.

When you’re shopping for dorm decor, focus on things like wall art, posters, string lights, and tapestries. These dorm wall decor items can all be easily hung up without damaging the walls.

In this post, we’ll go over some of the best dorm room wall decor ideas that you can use in your room.

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Dorm Room Wall Decor Ideas

1. String Lights

dorm room string lights — Photo from Pinterest

Dorm room lighting is usually pretty harsh and fluorescent. Adding some cute fairy lights can create nice ambiance and help fill in a blank wall.

Fairy lights are perfect for stringing up on your walls, under your lofted bed, over your windows, and around your desk. Pretty much anywhere in your dorm room!

I always loved turning off the overhead lights in my dorm and just relaxing with the string lights on. It’s so much cozier than the overhead bulbs but still gives you enough light to read and study. We love some functional dorm room wall decor!

Tip: You can avoid damaging your walls by using command hooks.

2. Tapestries

Tapestries are an awesome damage-free way to add a huge pop of color and design to your dorm room. They’re cheap, lightweight, and easy to remove when you move out.

Plus, they cover up your bare walls completely. Pretty much exactly what you’re looking for when you’re shopping for dorm room wall decor!

Pick a tapestry that goes with your theme and it will tie the whole room together nicely! I love how the bright yellow tapestry above ties in with the throw pillows and nightstand decor items. If you’re not into bright colors, there are tons of neutral tapestries on Amazon as well.

3. Photo Walls

A photo wall is such an easy and fun way to decorate your dorm room walls! Print out some your favorite photos of your friends, family, pets, vacations, etc. and hang them on your dorm room wall.

You can also buy collage kits if you want to use pictures that are all in the same theme or color scheme. The Tezza kit is the most popular collage kit but you can find cheaper dupes on etsy as well.

4. Flower Walls

Adding a flower wall is a great way to freshen up the walls of your dorm room. There are a few different ways of doing this but I love how the flower wall above looks. A great option is to find cheap faux flowers on Amazon or in dollar stores.

Pick out flowers that go with your color scheme and either tie them together with fishing line or hot glue them together. Once you have a long enough string of flowers, hang them on the wall with command hooks or thumbtacks if your dorm allows it.

5. Posters

Posters are a classic dorm room decor option. Your favorite band, an inspirational quote, world maps, types of flowers — there’s a poster for just about anything you can think of. You probably won’t bring your posters with you when you move into your first adult apartment, but they’re perfect for your college dorm room.

I linked a few of my personal favorites above but the options are endless! My boyfriend got me the world map scratch off poster and I absolutely love it. It’s so cute and it’s a great way to commemorate my travels.

Posters are so cheap that you can rotate through a few of them throughout the school year if you get bored.

6. Macrame Wall Hangings

Macrame Wall Decor for Dorm Room — Photo from Pinterest

Macrame wall hangings are so cute and trendy right now. I love the boho look of this dorm room wall decor idea. Plus it adds so much texture to your walls.

You can find really cheap macrame wall art in tons of different colors on Amazon or in stores like TJ Maxx and Home Goods! Make sure you hang all of your wall decorations with command hooks so there’s no damage when you take it down.

7. Vines

This vine garland and fairy light combination is absolutely gorgeous! It’s one of my favorite DIY wall decor ideas.

All you need are faux vines from Amazon and a few strings of fairy lights. Wrap them together however you’d like and hang them from the ceilings or walls of your dorm room. Just make sure that you get battery powered string lights or that the ends can reach one of your outlets.

The vine garland is also super cute without any string lights! It makes your dorm room feel like a secret garden.

8. Damage Free Wallpaper

dorm room wallpaper — Photo from Pinterest

Wallpaper is the perfect way to give your entire dorm room a makeover! There’s no better way to completely transform a small space than to add temporary wallpaper. I recommend picking just one wall to be an accent wall, otherwise it could get too overwhelming.

I linked some of my favorite designs of removable wallpaper above but amazon has SO many different patterns and colors to choose from.

9. Printable Art

Dorm wall decor prints — Photo from Pinterest

Buy on etsy

buy on etsy

Artwork is a great way to add a personal touch to your dorm room. There’s a ton of artwork on Etsy that you can print out to use as dorm room wall decor. Get a few cheap frames from the dollar store and you can create a super affordable gallery wall in your dorm room!

If you’re not sure that your different art pieces will go together, you can buy a trendy art print bundle that already matches!

Command strips are the easiest way to hang wall art in your dorm room.

10. Tassel Garlands

dorm room tassel garland — Photo from Pinterest

Tassel garlands are a cute way to add a small pop of color to your dorm room. They’re super easy to DIY or you can get them on Amazon!

11. Neon Signs

Neon lights are super trendy for dorm rooms right now. I see them in almost every dorm room that shows up on social media. You can get a neon sign with just about any saying on them these days.

Not only are they insanely cute, but they’re also pretty cheap!

12. Hat Wall

I love the idea of creating a hat wall in your dorm room. If you already have lots of hats, this is the perfect way to put them on display! Plus, it doubles as hat storage so you have more storage space for other things in your dorm.

The easiest way to hang hats on your dorm room walls is by using command hooks.

13. Moon Phases Garland

buy on urban outfitters

This metal moon phases garland is one of the cutest dorm room decor trends right now. I love how it looks with pretty much any design style.

The gold moon phase garland that everyone has is from Urban Outfitters, but you can also find variations of the original on Amazon. This is another dorm wall decor piece that I would use command hooks to hang.

14. Wire Wall Grid

One of the most functional dorm wall decor ideas is to hang a wire wall grid. I love this idea because you can hang just about anything on it. If you hang it above your desk you can hang a calendar, to-do list, or other productivity things on it. If you’re using it mainly for decor you can add some fun polaroids or little art prints on it.

If you really want to go crazy with the wire wall grid, you can find clip-on storage bins that attach to it and it can be used as an organization option.

15. Spotify Plaques

buy on etsy

Spotify plaques are super in right now with college students. You can display your favorite songs or artists and add pictures of your friends.

It’s a good idea to pick the acrylic options for these plaques because the glass ones could fall down and break. The easiest way to hang wall art in your dorm room is by using command strips.

16. Floating Shelves

Did you know you can get floating shelves that don’t require any drilling? I’m so blown away by this because this definitely didn’t exist when I was living in the dorms.

These floating shelves are amazing for dorm rooms because you can store lightweight items on them. I would totally fill mine with plants, artwork, and other little decor items.

This post was all about cute and affordable dorm room wall decor.

I hope this gave you some good ideas for how you can decorate your dorm room walls. There are so many different ideas out there for dorm room wall decor that you’re sure to find one that will fit your decorating style.

With a little creativity, you can transform your plain dorm room into the aesthetic dorm of your dreams.

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Dorm Room Wall Decor – 10 Ways to Decorate Your Dorm Room Walls