Recently, our all star babysitter started college… We dreaded that day for a long time. But it did offer me a fun opportunity to help her create a boho glam dorm room.
If you are a parent, you know how stressful it can be finding people you trust to watch your children… We have been SO blessed in that area and have had some amazing babysitters over my nine and a half years of motherhood. Gracie has been our babysitter for over three years, and somewhere during that time she went from feeling like a babysitter, to a friend, to part of our family. Not only is she phenomenal with our kids, bringing special “fun bags” to entertain them or baking cupcakes with them, but she also does dishes! 😉 Even more importantly, she is a wonderful human being. Words can’t even explain what a blessing she has been to our family… We LOVE Gracie!
We knew the day was quickly approaching when Gracie would head off to college. Selfishly, I dreaded it and hoped she would choose a place close enough for us to see her on a regular basis… But I also wanted her to make the right choice for herself and her future. You can imagine my relief when she chose a very sweet little Christian college only an hour from home! I also viewed it as an opportunity to bless her with some dorm room decor, and gave her bedding, some throw pillows, and a throw blanket as her graduation gift. After some back and forth and serious Pinteresting (it’s a verb, I’m telling you – the next “googling”), we decided on a boho glam dorm room vibe.
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With dorm rooms, there are certain things that are completely out of our control, like wall color and furniture. And because we weren’t working with a huge budget (college is expensive these days, people!), most of our purchases needed to be affordably priced. If they served a function in addition to being pretty, even better, especially according to Gracie’s mom, Kim! I had so much fun shopping with the two of them the day we went out together. 🙂
Gracie’s walls are a light yellowy-cream color… Not what I would choose, but definitely workable. It could be TONS worse. The furniture is actually pretty decent for dorm rooms, and has a decidedly mid-century modern vibe, which luckily plays really nicely with our boho glam dorm room theme.
I purchased this comforter and white twin XL sheets from Bed Bath and Beyond, providing the perfect neutral backdrop for some fun pops of color in the pillows and blanket. All three of those were Home Goods finds, but you can find similar pillows here, here, here, here, and here, and similar ultra affordable throws here, here, and here.
In addition to Home Goods, we hit up Five Below and found this rug and the storage baskets above the wardrobe. If you aren’t in the know, everything in this store is $5 or less, and you’d be surprised what you can find, from books, to toys, to home decor. It’s basically a higher end dollar store. A 4×6 100% cotton area rug for $5 is pretty incredible! And perfect for a dorm room. Although I forgot to bring my trusty rug tape to keep the rug in place, so we’ll have to remedy that soon. And those baskets are super functional, but also really cute.
There isn’t a ton of extra space in most dorm rooms, but this one is especially tight, so the desk accessories were kept to a minimum. This shelf from Amazon offers some great storage for text books, although in these photos it’s just holding pretties. 😉
That gold task lamp was a Target find. So versatile with the adjustable arm, and the gold finish adds a little glam to the bohemian feel, getting us closer to that boho glam dorm room look we wanted.
The cute little monogram tray was a Christmas gift for Gracie I found at Hobby Lobby. I need to grab one for myself too!
The bulletin board (a Home Goods find) wasn’t hung yet when we went to visit, so I hung it for Gracie with command strips, and about three minutes later in FELL OFF the wall! That’s the last time she’ll ask me to help her with anything! We rehung it with sturdier strips, and as far as I know, it’s still hanging. We filled it with some cute pink post it notes telling Gracie how awesome she is and how much we love her. I’m sure eventually it will be covered with school announcements, pictures of friends, and maybe a few cute photos and cards. Something along these lines…
The wood clip garland with photos attached is also from Hobby Lobby. It adds a fun little touch to the room, and also gives Gracie a cute place to change out pictures.
Eventually over the head of her bed, she’ll probably tape up more photos for some added visual interest and personalization, sort of like seen above…
The macrame wall hanging you can barely see to the left was purchased from Home Goods as a birthday gift for Gracie. Somehow I forgot to get a better picture of it, but it’s pretty cute, and great quality for the price! Very similar hangings can be found here, here, and here.
The cute pink flower jewelry box was another Hobby Lobby purchase, as well as the white frame, with some free printable art. Fun design definitely doesn’t need to be expensive!
I’d love to hear what you think in the comments below! It was so fun helping one of our favorite people create a fun boho glam dorm room… We love you, Gracie!
