DIY Dorm Decor - Part 1

Hi everyone. 
 Can you believe it's that time of year already? I mean school is starting and fall is upon us and it seems like Summer just started last week.  This year has flown by especially fast as we have passed so many milestones with our family.  And with this week yet another - our second oldest grand daughter "Sissy" is off to college.  I knew this day was coming - but did it have to come so soon?  My how I am going to miss her. She asked me to do some decor for her dorm room - so I am going to sharing a little series of DIY Dorm Decor with you.  All of these projects have come from thrift stores or were salvaged from the trash - so they are budget friendly and as always with me - quite easy.
Our first is an updated bulletin board and monogram frame to brighten those blah dorm rooms. 

As you can see above "Sissy's" colors for her room are a bright turquoise, purple, black and a lime green.  I love the combination she chose - so bright and cheerful.

She is also a bird lover but owls are her favorite.  So we threw a few in the mix for fun.

First up is the bulletin board.  This is an old wood and cork bulletin board I picked up at Good Will a while back for something like $3 or $4.  It wasn't much though.

The owl fabric is actually a tea towel I picked up at Marshall's - 2/$4.  I actually used about 3/4 of one for this whole project so I have one and some scraps left over for something else later.

I started by laying the bulletin board on the tea towel and gluing it with hot glue to the wooden frame. I only covered half the frame with the tea towel fabric and the other half with some drop cloth fabric.

Then I cut the fabric at the halfway mark.  I then cut a piece of drop cloth fabric to fit the other half and glued it on the wooden frame also.  Then I cut two same size squares of drop cloth fabric for pockets and glued them down to the drop cloth fabric on the board making sure to turn the edges under. Then I stenciled numbers on the pockets with a black sharpie.

I placed a piece of coordinating ribbon along the "seam" edge between the tea towel and the drop cloth fabric and along the top edge of each pocket.  This just adds a little pizazz to the board I think.

Here it is all done and in use - the pockets are great to hold any number of things that you don't want to pin to the board. 

 Next I am going to show you how to do the monogram wall art.

I picked up this little frame at the Salvation Army for $1.99.  It's actually a padded fabric center in a wooden frame.  I am not sure what it would have been used for but it was new and in the package.  And as an added plus it already had a neat little wire hanger on it.

I simply painted the frame with her bright turquoise craft paint and the center padding with black chalkboard paint.  Then I proceeded to stencil a circle design on the center section with the lime green craft paint. Then I added a dot of white paint in the center of each dot of green - just for added interest.

I had a wooden initial of hers that I painted with the turquoise and then glued to the center of the circle. 

Here is the grouping together.  (I have this placed on a shelf as I did not want to put more holes in my walls.)  She has the monogram frame, the bulletin board and then there is a milk bottle vase and another monogram that I had.  The milk bottle vase is actually a Starbuck's  bottle that I painted with purple craft paint like the ones I did here and then tied some green and white bakers twine around it with a black chalk board tag I had.  I then added a few burlap flowers from the Dollar Tree that I had here from another project.  I think it all turned out really cute and will brighten up that boring dorm room for her quite a bit. 

I have more for you and will be posting that later in the series DIY Dorm Decor.  You won't want to miss these easy and budget friendly fixes for the dorm - or  your home.  

Until next time enjoy creating something you love.

I will be linking to the parties that are listed in the Where I Party page.  Be sure and go by and check out all the great inspiration and creativeness linked up at each one.

If you like this post you may also like these:

Painted Vases

Monogram Wall Art

Stenciled French Window