Most dorm rooms come furnished. You usually get a desk, closet, bed and dresser. However you might want to jazz it up a bit and add certain accessories. Usually the college will just post a picture of what a typical room looks like ion the website so you can figure out what you might want to bring. As the room has furniture just forget bringing any heavy furniture like heavy armoires up the elevators. It’s not worth it and usual big furniture makes the place look crowded. Go for lighter colored furniture like Ikea makes instead.

However before you go out and spend a lot of money on stuff you should talk to your roommate if you have one. You might get a roommate that is already bringing quite a few things to the room.

One way to make the room look a little nicer is to invest in some lamps. This gets rid of the harsh lighting that usually provides lighting for an entire room. A small desk lamp and maybe a lamp near the bed provides adequate, yet cozy lighting. For a bit of mood lighting consider buying a clock with a neon rim or a lava lamp.

Sometime dorm beds can be really low. They have stubby little legs that make it hard for you to store stuff under the bed. You can usually get a pair of Bed Risers to elevate the whole bed so that you can put stuff underneath it.

The cold floors of the Dorm can also be lightened up by putting down a grass mat or a shag rug in an exciting color like purple or orange. Most dorm rooms have curtains but the place can look more stylish if you match the curtains to the rugs or add a pair of bamboo slatted blinds or sheer curtains of your own.

One of the biggest storage problems in a dorm is where to put the laundry hamper. You can buy very cute plaid or patterned ones that collapse easily nowadays. For a more rustic look you can keep your laundry in an antique trunk or wicker hamper at the end of the bed.

Just a word about wicker and grass mats. These items are cheap and if placed strategically they make everything in a cold, clinical room look a bit friendlier.