Tania Sinel: ~Savannah's home away from home~{dorm room decor}

Some of you may or may not know, but we recently moved our daughter Savannah into college.

This was a REALLY HARD time for me, as she's not only my baby, but also my best friend.

We are extremely close and her moving out had me all torn up.

I really wanted to create a space that was like her room back home, sort of a "home away from home" if you will.

We met her sweet roommate over the summer and they both gave me the go ahead to decorate.

I wanted the room to be a collaboration of not only things I thought would be comfortable, cozy, and necessary, but also things they liked and loved.

After getting the room dimensions, I decided to shop online for everything so that I could send them over links and photos of things and have them say yes or no to the items.

For most of the items I turned to The Mine. They have a wide variety of items in different styles, and are very affordable.

I started with creating collage boards of items like this.

Some items they vetoed, some they loved.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

I really believe that just because you are living in a college dorm, you still need the comforts of home.

I believe that good sheets and bedding are essential.

A soft rug so when you step out of bed in the morning, you aren't stepping onto a hard cold floor.

Tons of storage because lets face it, these teens, especially girls, have a lot of clothes and shoes!

They also need a organized desk space for all their late night studying.

Would you like to see the before of the dorm room?

This was how it looked after opening the door for the first time:

While we weren't allowed to move anything out, we were able to move the furniture around for a better layout.

Thankfully the window was in the middle which made it easy to place a bed on either side. The girls "kitchen" make up the space under the window and between the beds.

Savannah drinks coffee, Elle drinks hot cocoa, so I got them a keurig and filled these cute little pink stackable containers with extra pods. I picked up this cute white mug rack to hold their cups.

The rug is super soft. The ottoman that sits on top if not only great for extra seating, but the top lifts off for shoe storage! I have found that multi function pieces are key.

And yes, she stole my escape bag......

Above each bed the girls each chose a sign that suited them. Keeping with the same colors and size, they are the perfect "headboards"

Elle's sign can be found here,

and Savannah's here.

These lights are battery operated and are hung with little clear command hooks.

We used 2 sets and each girl has a switch by their beds to turn on and off.

It looks amazing with all the other lights off.

The other thing I liked about these is that they are non breakable!

Let's talk bedding. Like I mentioned, I think making up a cozy comfortable bed at college is key.

You get a crappy mattress so adding a mattress topper is a must.

Savannah loves fuzzy sheets, so I got these flannel ones for her.

Remember when buying sheets, most dorm beds are twin XL.

For the rest of the bedding, the girls wanted frilly and girly.

I started with the softest quilt and shams from Soft Surroundings.

Literally these are the softest things I have ever felt. They have a big ruffle and are just plain fabulous. I am actually a little jealous of them!

For color and more frills, I added these shams and this quilt folded at the bottom of their beds.

They are the prettiest blush pink color.

On top of the armoires that came in the room, I added these totes for even more storage.

Their desks got new lamps, boxes for yet again, more storage, and some fun accessories.

You might not think to use a bar cart in a dorm room, but the fact that it is on wheels and has multiple shelves actually makes it the perfect accessory.

I used this cart and styled it a bit for the photos, but the girls can use this for whatever they'd like. I figure this bar cart, as well as 99% of the other items can be used even after college in Savannah's first apartment, or home, or wherever she ends up :)