No Paint, No Problem – A Students Guide to Sprucing Up White Walls

Moving into an apartment or into your own dorm room can give you a great sense of independence and freedom for any classy co-ed.  But, sometimes it can be hard to make that space your own.  More often than not it can seem like you are stuck in a white box… but not any more!  Here are some ways that you can add some color to those white walls with no paint necessary, keeping within the restrictions of your landlord and your budget!

1. Sarong Wallpaper. Find a fun tapestry with lots of colors that you can pin up on the wall.  Hawaiian sarongs are a good option; they are very colorful and are inexpensive to buy! This is an easy way to add pattern on a large-scale to your wall without paint and is simple to change out for variety or take down when you have to move out.  You can even put them up with straight pins that are so fine that they barley leave a hole in the wall.

2. Light bright. Putting colored light bulbs in lamps will reflect onto the wall and give the feel of colored walls with no paint!  You can even switch the colors out when you get tired of them, or to customize holiday decorations.  Adding colored Christmas lights around your ceiling is another way to use colored light to give the room a great glow! You can usually find these at your local home improvement store like Home Depot or Lowes and places like Target.

3. Not so tacky board. Take your old plain tack board and add some spice to it. You can cover the cork with fun fabric and still pin up photos while adding some fun prints to your space.  Simply secure the fabric in the corners with tacks and you can change it out when you are feeling something new!  Fabric stores sell pre-cut stacks of coordinating fabric prints that are meant for quilting but they’re also just right for covering cork squares!

4. Canvas Art! Pick up some canvases from your local art store (multiple prints make it more interesting, go for a group of 3 or 4) and paint them different solid colors.  After they dry paint on a simple fun design or initials from the Internet or something like the ones below in one of the other colors that you have.  They make for great wall décor and you can tell everyone that you made them yourself! If painting frightens you then you can cover the canvases with fun fabric or glue mementos to the canvases! Tickets, flowers, buttons or what ever you can find, its art!

5.  Foam fun. It’s so easy a kindergartner could do it… well maybe you have to be in first grade to cut with scissors.  Foam makes great cut outs of shapes and letters and comes in tons of colors.  You can easily put it up with sticky tack, or for cinder block dorm walls try foam that has an adhesive back that will stick to the wall but peel off at the end of the year! (Warning:  Try one! Do a test with one before you apply all!  It may take off the existing wall paint!)

Moving away from home can be exciting and making the space yours can be fun for every classy co-ed!  Don’t forget to add those personal touches to make your room something that you want to show other people. Sooner or later they will be asking you for decorating tips!

Kendall Meyer is an intern with College Lifestyles (TM).  She is an Interior Design major at James Madison University and a member of Alpha Sigma Tau sorority.  She loves finding fun ways to spice up a drab white room!

Check out one of my favorite articles from last week – Summer Dinner Series 6 – for some sweet treats to eat in your newly decorated space!