You’ve moved out of your parents’ house and now you’re at college. You have a fancy new dorm room all to yourself, or more likely to yourself and your roommate, so what do you do with it? How do you decorate? Well, you go all out of course!

For the first time in your life, you have complete free reign over what you want to put up in your room. From your walls to your bedspread. So you should be doing the absolute most when it comes to decorating. It’s what you deserve.

To go for a “drama queen” inspired decor, you need to keep this loud aesthetic in mind. Everything you buy to decorate with is going to make a statement. And in doing so your dorm will stand out, maybe it’ll even draw in a few friends or two? People are intrigued when they see something eye-popping. 

So when it comes time for you to buy stuff to decorate your dorm with, these are some of the things you should be buying. Bright colors, bold wall-art, metal and glittery accents, and more.

Below we’ve broken down each of these aspects for you, with advice for how to decorate with them. All easy and ready to go for your move-in.

• Bright colors
• Quirky throw pillows
• Glitter and glam
• Metallic furnishings
• Eye-popping wall-art
• Fur, and fur, and more fur
• A mirror for good measure

Bright colors

Part of going all out on your decor options is making sure that the colors you pick are loud and proud, nothing is left unnoticed when it comes to a dramatic color palette and you’re going to want it that way. 

Stay away from whites, grays, and blacks as the main staples in your room. Don’t get a black bedspread. Don’t get a gray ottoman. If you’re going to use these neutral colors only use them in accents. They aren’t the star of the show here, you need something with a little more “oomph.”

If you’re wondering what colors you should pick, well it's easy. Pick a color you like! Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple. All the colors on the rainbow, you have plenty of shades and variations to choose from. The trickier part is what you're going to pair your main color of choice with.

The general rule of thumb when doing some interior design is to have three colors in a scheme. Your main color, that a little more than half of your decor should include, your secondary color, and your accent color that takes up all the little lingering spaces.  

When matching colors think of a color wheel, and the corresponding colors that complement each other. For the main colors, it goes as follows. Blue matches with orange, yellow matches with purple, and red matches with green. Then add in a more subtle accent to one of those pairs and you’re golden!

Quirky throw pillows

Throw pillows are an absolute must for your dorm room and don’t let anyone else tell you differently. Yes, they don’t serve as the pillow you rest your head on at night but they add so much character to your bed.

You can get some simple throw pillows, small square or rectangular shaped pillows in various colors, and these would work fine! But you can also look for some in crazy shapes, designs you're not so familiar with, and it will only add to the drama you’re trying to create. 

It’s good also to not just have a mix of styles, a pillow in the shape of an animal, a pillow with a weird texture, but sizes as well! Pillows that are all the same size will look repetitive after a while. 

So try out pillows in a couple of different styles. Small pillows, medium, and then a large one as well.

Glitter and glam

Now, glitter and glam are less of a “product” and more of a mindset. There is no one way to decorate your room in this style, but it always helps when going for a dramatic look to include something sparkly in your decor. 

Now, it can be hard to find a “glittery” decor piece that doesn’t feel cheap or out of your age range. You don’t want your room to look like a seven-year-old’s fever dream, so stay away from the stuff that you’d find in the kid’s section of home decorating.

A better way to get this aesthetic on is to make some glitter decor yourself! Wall art, table art, any kind of arts and craft project will do. Even better, you’ll get to decide and make what you want to put on your walls yourself. 

Head to your local craft store and experiment with paint and glitter, or you can get glitter paints as well. Channel some of that creativity and put your mind to the canvas. Or some people have taken to “glittering” wooden letters. They’re easy to find at craft stores and can spell out whatever you like. 

Metallic finishings

So you have the glitter option. That’s sparkly enough, how about you add something just as shiny but a little more muted to complement it? This is where metallic furnishings and decor come in for the dramatic style.

For a vintage look, it’s always a smart idea to look at metallic things. Think, old brass lamps, metal table legs, iron-wrought bed frames with intricate designs. While you probably don’t have the space for these kinds of things in your dorm, keeping the aesthetic at the forefront of your mind will help you find things you can bring. 

An easy solution to this is to buy a storage trunk, with metallic fastenings on the side. It looks vintage, it looks expensive, and not only will it hold all of your stuff but it’ll look good while it’s doing so. You can even use it as an impromptu stool if you like. 

Eye-popping wall-art

The key to a good college dorm room is wall-art that draws the eye and expresses your inner self well. You want something that’s good to look at, but fits well within your theme, and doesn’t seem too tacky.

Really, whatever you want on your walls is up to you in the end, but a good way to go is to put as much color into your wall art as you can. Sticking to grays and whites and blacks isn’t bad, but doesn’t really fit the dramatic aesthetic.

Pop-art, with neon colors, is a good option. Art of your favorite celebrities, bright nature prints, or just some cool patterned designs will do well. 

All in all, putting up wall art is going to be the most creative part of the process. Bedding is simple, there are only so many options. But art? The internet has an untold amount of resources for that. Take a deep dive, and take your time on what you want. 

Fur, and fur, and more fur

These days fur is easy to get. Most of the time it's faux-fur that we’re using. Which is good for the environment on the animals' part, and allows you to have more variety in the color and kind of fur that you want.

Either way, fur is all the rage in terms of bedding options. You can even get an ottoman in the faux-fur style these days! 

Fur implies luxury, and if you’re going for a queen theme what could be better than that? There is no better way to imply that you’re living in style, even if you’re not.

The most common place to implement fur into your dorm room is to do it in your bed. Fur throw pillows are easy to find and come in a lot of different colors. But you can also have it in blankets, or if you’re feeling bold a faux-fur rug. Soft, inviting, and the lap of luxury. 

A mirror for good measure 

A good mirror serves multiple purposes. One, it's literally a mirror. So use it as you need it when you’re going out, dressing up, putting on make-up. But two, a mirror can be utilized as a piece of decor just as much as you need it to fix yourself up for a date or a hang-out.

If you can find a mirror with a cool trim, the drama of your decor will increase tenfold. An antique-looking mirror, with white trim? There’s nothing better.

It’s also important to consider where you want to place your mirror when decorating. Depending on where you place it, the room will look different. Mirrors placed close to the windows, for example, reflect more light and will make your room brighter.

Also if you want to make your dorm room look bigger, try to buy a big mirror and place it up against a long wall. This will make the room look taller. 

All of these tips are given with the hope that they’ll make your dorm room feel more like home, somewhere you can creatively express yourself and feel welcome at the same time.

It’s hard to be away at college, but if you have your room set up right it can ease some of these woes and make college a great experience.