At this point, I'm annoying myself with all the sorry's and broken promises of more posts so I'm making a formal declaration that I will probably never be consistent on this blog, but I'm perfectly fine with that because I started this blog for myself simply to have fun. I don't always have ideas for posts or feel confident enough to publish a post on the internet for anyone to see and truthfully, I'm still a little embarrassed every time I make a post because I'm exposing my ideas to anyone's opinion, good or bad. That being said, I still love writing posts and getting positive feedback from my friends (even if it is a little embarrassing) so I can promise that I will blog when I feel like blogging and today is one of those days!
I moved back to Miami to start my second year here a little over a week ago and am already loving this year! As I'm technically a junior, I get to take really interesting classes that actually have something to do with what I'll hopefully be doing for the rest of my life. I'm totally geeking out about marine conservation, GIS, and public policy and administration this semester! I'm living in a dorm again which brings me to the true purpose of this post: dorm décor DIY's! My room is 90% the same as last years, but set up a little differently and filled with more cute decorations thanks to lots of pinspiration! I'm more than exited to share a few :)
Lilly State Canvas:
Everyone and their mother has a different do-it-yourself idea for recycling old Lilly Pultizer planners, so of course yours truly has another! I had been scouring pinterest and tumblr for ideas for months and on a whim one night the week before leaving I started hacking up my beloved planner from last year (don't worry, I already have a new one). To make this canvas, I printed out an outline of Florida on plain white computer paper and glued a collage of planner clippings right onto the paper, cutting out the state shape after it had dried. I glued the collage to a 10x10 canvas I had painted tiffany blue and finally added a Lilly Pulitzer quote to fill up the negative space. I think it came out pretty gosh darn cute if you ask me!
Monogrammed Bow Holder:
I actually made this for my dorm last summer and it was super simple. I purchased a small wooden plaque from the craft store and painted it accordingly. Tip: lightly trace the circular opening of a cup and use it as a guide for painting the monogram. Next I cut a fairly long piece of thick ribbon and hot glued it to the back to clip the bows to and glued another two shorter pieces of thinner ribbon to the back nearer the top for hanging. I rarely wear bows anymore and brought way more to school last year, but it's still cute!
Modgepodge Mini Picture Canvas:
I made five of these around Christmas for me and my closest girlies and I really love them! I followed the directions in this pinterest post to make them. They look like those really expensive canvas prints you can order online, but sooooo much cheaper!
Chalkboard Easel and Buckets:
I have always wanted to display scripture in my room on a chalkboard (like this and this). Since I cant exactly paint the walls of my dorm room with black chalkboard paint, I did the next best (and cheapest) thing by picking up this $3 mini chalkboard easel from Michael's. Tip: if you envy gorgeous calligraphy prints but lack any sort of skill, find a pretty scripture print like this on pinterest and practice rewriting it exactly to get a really similar look! Now as far as the buckets go, I have had the idea to paint a couple of my old target dollar spot mini pails with chalkboard spray paint for a couple months but once I saw some at target that already came as chalkboard, I literally died. Ily target! Those pails are awesome for organizing, especially in dorms. I've used them to hold makeup brushes, pens, manicure sets, anything really!
Photo Displaying:
I hung up picture prints last year in the exact same way and get so many compliments! Just hang string lights with command hooks and use clothespins to hold the prints along the lights. Corkboards are such a dorm essential too. They are so cheap and fill up wall space so nicely. If you want to make a corkboard more unique you could modgepodge Lilly planner clippings to the frame, spray paint the frame a fun color, hot glue printed ribbon onto the frame, or glue a mosaic of seashells to the frame. I'm lazy and have yet to do any of these things, but I wish I had!
School Spirit:
The banner of my name and the wooden U were actually gifts and not DIYs, but are great examples of how you can add school colors to your décor. The name banner is actually part of a larger banner made from scrapbook paper and ribbon by a close family friend as decoration for my graduation party. The U is a custom made wooden logo I also got from a close family friend. I love them both so much and love them both even more because they came from amazing people and fun times!
As far as hanging things up in a dorm, command hooks and strips are gold! If you have cinderblock walls like me, normal command strips will not stay because the wall surface is not perfectly flat. Use the Velcro picture hanging strips from command (even in place of the strips that come with hooks). They are literally the only thing that works on cinderblock, TRUST ME.
I hope you enjoyed my little projects and thanks for being a trooper through my bi-polar blogging disorder! Hopefully, I'll post again soon! Much love!
xoxo, Olivia