35+ Minimalist Dorm Room
Style Tips to Maximize Space

Moving into your first dorm or apartment is a rite of passage for many college students who have never lived on their own before. You can decorate your new room however you want, but you’ll also want to do everything you can to save space. These minimalist dorm room ideas and bedroom storage tips will help you maximize space, keep organized and show off your personal style at the same time.

1. Keep Everything in Place

The best way to maximize your space is to ensure everything has a place when not in use. From clothes to study supplies to jewelry and everything in between, you’ll want to have plenty of storage options like trunks at your disposal, which can even double as night stands.

2. Pick Multifunctional Pieces

When applying minimalism to a college apartment or dorm room, it’s helpful to select pieces that serve multiple purposes. A backlit mirror provides additional lighting without the need to bring in another lamp, and tech-enabled pieces with outlets or USB ports can help cut down on the need for additional cables.

3. Swap Shelves for Photo Rails or Magnet Boards

Shelves are a useful storage option, but you'll want to keep them free for essentials and larger items, leaving little room for your favorite photos. For a stylish photo display, try removing photos from frames and using photo rails or magnet boards instead. As a bonus benefit, these don’t even require nails to hang!

4. Use Shelves as Storage Furniture

From sneakers to clothes to desk supplies, there are tons of useful ways to use shelving to supplement your dresser, desk and closet. Using wall space is a great way to increase storage options in a minimalist college dorm.

5. Bring in Some Boldness

There’s a good chance your room will come standard with a neutral color scheme. Amping up your college dorm’s decor with bold color and print flourishes will help give it a livelier, more personal touch.

6. Cut Corners

When picking your dorm wall decor, consider selecting pieces that emphasize round design. Circular or even scalloped wall mirrors, for instance, appear to take up minimal wall space with their smaller surface areas.

7. Raise Your Plants

One of the best decor ideas for making a dorm room feel like home is hanging potted plants or placing them on shelves. By hanging them, you can bring a little more life into the room and save floor space for other furniture options.

8. Keep Your Bathroom Essentials in Order

Living in a dorm may mean sharing a shower or bathroom space, so it’s important to keep your shampoo, soap, razor and other grooming supplies organized. Consider keeping everything together in a shower caddy for easy transport.

9. Exercise Continuity

Another useful minimalist decor principle is maintaining continuity. By keeping color schemes, materials and textures consistent, you can create a sense of intention and alignment even with just a few pieces.

10. Dedicate Wall Space to Mood Lighting

Wall lights can help you add additional mood lighting options to your room while letting you customize the placement, tone and aesthetic. Options like curtain or string lights provide just the right balance of ambiance and utility.

11. Opt for Storage That Provides an Extra Surface

Furniture and decor that serve multiple purposes are extremely valuable in a dorm room, and pieces like storage trunks are great examples of this. Consider pieces that can help you organize smaller items while also serving as a nightstand, work area or additional seating.

12. Use Plenty of Baskets

Even if you don’t have an immediate plan for every basket, if you keep a small stack of them handy, you’ll soon find a use for them. Keep multiple sizes of these small space storage must-haves available so you can keep your desk, bedding and school supplies organized.

13. Choose Single-Tone Decor

A useful rule of thumb when picking more minimalist dorm room decor is to opt for simple patterns or single-tone colors. Simplifying the palette will help you maintain a clean, ordered appearance.

14. Focus on Your Bedding

Your bed will take up a lot of visual real estate in a dorm room. Whether you’re looking for girls’ or boys’ dorm room ideas, bedding is a great place to start. Opt for bold colors that will set the tone for the space, and then let that centerpiece guide the rest of your decisions as you select decor that matches or complements.

15. Think Vertically

To ensure you’re making the most of your space, remember to think vertically. It’s easy to fill out your available horizontal space with dressers, desks, chairs and other standing items, which often leaves opportunities for shelving solutions that can utilize wall space. This allows you to pick narrower pieces that open up more room on the floor.

16. Keep an Eye on Your Lines & Symmetry

One way to help make your room appear larger is to keep your lines clean when hanging wall decor. This means either maintaining a sense of symmetry or more subtly exercising asymmetry by keeping borders in line, even if the pieces hanging next to each other are different sizes.

17. Use Wall Hooks

Adding wall hooks is a simple way to make a big difference in your dorm room. They’re easy to install, take up minimal space and provide an easy way to store bulky items like hats or jackets that could otherwise end up on the floor.

18. Store Items Under the Bed

If you have more clothes, books or other small items than you have shelf space for, under-bed storage is a game-changer. Use storage bins, baskets and cabinets to get even more storage out of this otherwise unused space.

19. Consider Your Color Scheme

If you’re looking for college apartment inspiration that’s easy to implement, look no further than your color choices. Ensure that your bedding, wall color, wall hangings and even lighting are working together. This will create a more cohesive overall feel, making your new place feel more like home.

20. Think About Bunking Up

A great space-saver for a shared dorm room is opting for bunk beds. This frees up a considerable amount of room, which you could use for added seating or a bigger lounge area. And if your room comes pre-furnished, there’s a good chance those pieces are stackable.

21. Pick Stackable Storage

To kick your storage game up a notch, try to select pieces that can easily be stacked. Placing multiple cubby units and cabinets on top of each other makes the most of your vertical storage space.

22. Replace Lamps With Wall Lights

Many of the best minimalist dorm room ideas make smart use of walls, and the same principle can be applied to lighting as well. A mountable light can be an effective replacement for a floor lamp, and a wall light or sconce is a great alternative to a nightstand.

23. Make Every Choice a Design Opportunity

Remember that all of your college apartment decor selections represent unique design opportunities, so it can be helpful to consider how each piece fits into the greater aesthetic. Even practical items, like a laundry bag or hamper, can be incorporated into your room’s design.

24. Complement the Room With an Area Rug

Bringing in an area rug is a fantastic way to add another design dimension to your dorm room. To maintain a more minimal aesthetic, opt for a simple pattern or a single color, and be sure you’re picking the right rug size so you know you’re filling the space optimally!

25. Mount Your Storage

Wall-mounting can be used for more than just decor—you can apply this tactic to your storage solutions as well. Shelves are the go-to option, but consider mountable cubbies, drawers and even desks as well.

26. Float Whenever Possible

Floating shelves, cubbies and desks are phenomenal options for minimalist dorm rooms. If you want your space to look cleaner and larger, try replacing some of these mounted items with floating versions.

27. Expand the Space With Transparent Surfaces

While transparent surfaces may take up the same amount of room as non-transparent ones, they have a tendency to appear to occupy less space. Opting for see-through materials like acrylic or glass can help open up your room.

28. Embrace Negative Space

Minimalist dorm decor is, in some ways, as much about what isn’t there. By thinking in terms of negative space, you can select desks, chairs, shelving and decor that prioritize openness. Pick pieces with thinner legs, smaller surface areas and clean lines to enhance the visual space in your room.

29. Pin It to a Cork Board

Cork boards are essential for any college student who wants a little help keeping on top of due dates, finals week and social functions. They also provide a convenient solution for posting loose items like flyers or photos, and they can even be customized to show off your state pride!

30. Display Your Photos in a Grid

If you’re looking for ways to hang pictures without nails, a photo grid is one of the simplest solutions. Turn one into a custom work of wall art by clamping in pictures of your friends and family, prints of your favorite paintings and postcards from places you love.

31. Turn Your Bed Into Your Workstation

Whether you’re looking for an alternative to a typical desk or you just love studying in maximum comfort, you can instantly turn your bed into a workstation with a lapdesk.

32. Clutter-Proof Your Desk

Staying focused on your studies is always easier when you’ve got a clean, structured workstation. Be sure to provide plenty of options for keeping your pens, notebooks, highlighters and other supplies organized.

33. Go Wireless

From laptops to tablets to phones and all the electronics in between, there are wires just about everywhere we look—but there don’t have to be. Consider desk accessories like wireless or USB-enabled solutions that can charge your devices or reduce the number of visible cables in your room or study area.

34. Upgrade Your Trash

Even your wastebasket serves an aesthetic function in your dorm room. Depending on your layout, it may be difficult to conceal it, so try opting for one with an attractive, minimal design.

35. Optimize Kitchen Space

Stylish, efficient kitchen essentials are vital for any dorm kitchen space, whether you have a full kitchen or a DIY kitchenette. Be sure to stock up on stackable, easy-to-store sets for your plates, bowls, cutlery and food storage items.

36. Create a Kitchenette with a Shelving Unit

If your dorm room doesn’t come with its own dedicated kitchen space already, consider bringing in a shelving unit to create a minimalist kitchenette. You’ll have space for a microwave, hot plate, kettle and all of your cooking and eating utensils.

Ready to make your new space more efficient and organized? Hopefully, these minimalist dorm room ideas and college apartment essentials help you get started on turning it into a haven for studying, relaxing and hanging out!