Most dorm rooms tart off drab, boring, and lifeless almost, all in an attempt to make them look neutral. I remember the first time walking into my dorm room. I thought it looked like a prison cell – no exaggeration. I literally looked out the window to make sure there weren’t bars on the outside. After a fresh coat of lavender paint per the request of my roommate, the place started to get some life back into it. If you are thinking about painting your dorm room in the future, you need to find the perfect color for it. Here are some tips to help you design your personal space so that it is a true reflection of your personality.

Know What You Can and Can’t Do

Before you start fantasizing about the colors you can put in your dorm room, you need to think about what the rules may actually be for your dorm. Some dorms will only allow you to put a few pre-selected colors on the walls. That was what happened with me. Talk to reslife and see if they have any suggestions as to what you can and can’t do. You may find out that they can give you all of the pain supplies you need. They just can’t let you use a whacky color. If you choose to do that, you may get fined – big time. It is best just to know your options and see where you can go from there.

Pick Something Light and Vibrant

Dorm rooms are inherently small, so you don’t want to put a dark color on the walls to make your space feel like a cave. Try to gravitate towards lighter colors that are going to make the room seem bright and cheerful. Maroon or navy blue just isn’t going to cut it, but candy apple red or periwinkle blue may work. You just have to compare some of the different colors you could put on the walls and see which ones seem the most inviting. That way you can make your teeny tiny space feel as big as possible.

Get Inspired

You may want to find some source of inspiration to help you pick out the color for your walls. This could come from anything – your bedding, a rug, a piece of art you plan to hand, or even the colors of the buildings you cans see through the window. Your paint color is going to set the tone for the whole room, so you need to make sure it is something you can work with. There is no reason you paint the walls olive green if you plan to use pink and purple bedding. You need to find a logical source of inspiration for your paint color before you use something that just doesn’t suit your design ideals as a whole.

Test out Different Colors

Once you have a few different colors picked out, do a little test with them. You may be able to get a sample of paint from the store to try, or you could bring home some paint chips to hang on the wall. Make sure you look at the paint in the dorm before you select it before it may look different in a store. You need to see the colors in your dorm under your lighting. If you like what you see, you can buy the paint you want and get to work. Then you will have a new looking dorm room in no time at all.