Decorating Your Dorm Room (While on a Foreign Exchange)

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This is yet another blast from the past, I though I would publish this post for all of the students planning to go on a foreign exchange. I wrote this post not to long after I had arrived in Scotland, this post details the adventure of decorating a dorm room while on exchange and planning to move a few times, so with that in mind keeping it simple cute, inexpensive, and all with an easy tear down when the time comes.

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Decorating your dorm room can be a bit of an after thought especially after traveling such a distance and being in a new place; but it is important. Speaking from experience having a room that is empty and doesn't have anything on the walls can be a bit depressing. I have been in Scotland for a few weeks now and a couple of days ago I decided it was time for me to decorate my room. So I had to get creative, I didn't want to spend to much money because I am moving during the summer and will be coming back after that plus I want to have money to travel. So I went to pound land. Pound land is the equivalent of a dollar store in the US so with the conversion rate today that means everything is about $1.50. I purchased a role of butterfly wrapping paper, tape, thumb tacks, and a wall decoration that says "HOME". All of this came out to be around four pounds.

Then the next step was coming up with a way to use the supplies I purchased. I got my inspiration from the pattern on the wrapping paper and decided to put butterflies around my room. Not only would they add color to my walls but they would also look interesting. So to get a perfect butterfly every time or at least similar looking butterflies I made a stencil from the stock paper that the home sticker came on by free handing the butterfly after looking one up online to get a general idea. Then I got to work cutting them out in two different sizes. ​

I then placed the butterflies strategically around the room, plus I covered the top of my night stand and cabinet with the paper to make everything match and look put together. I also used the wrapping paper to cover the light switch panels. My second suggestion for making your room your own is by putting up some photographs or making a dream board. Now I already put together the part of my dream board before I left so I just tacked them up on the board that was provided in my room. This gives me a bit of home and also a way to remind myself why I'm here. I do admit it isn't perfect yet and still needs a bit of organization and sprucing up but here is what it looks like so far.

Okay so that's it for this blog post I hope that you found this interesting or helpful in some way.

As Always good luck on your journey! Keep working hard and if you have any questions about studying abroad this post or anything else don't hesitate to ask, you can reach me in the comment section on my website, in an email, or on social media. I look forward to hearing from you if you do have any questions or comments.