Today my daughter moved into her freshman dorm at Florida State University. We’ve prepared for this day for months and months and it finally happened! She is sleeping there tonight and we are at home without her. I should be crying and feeling sad, but I’m surprisingly OK! Maybe I’m in denial or maybe it just hasn’t hit me yet, but she is so ready for this next chapter and her dorm room is LIT 🙂 She’ll be embarrassed when she reads that haha!

Here’s a tour of her dorm room and “what I did!”

Where to Start?

Pick your colors. My daughter Maddie wanted to use grey as her neutral and accent with cool blue tones, white, and silver.

Once you pick your color palette, jump on Dormify.com and search through tons of room ideas to help get inspiration. Maddie chose the Day Dreamer Collection and we purchased almost all of the items in the collection. I HIGHLY recommend Dormify because as the name suggests… everything is made specifically for a dorm!

People thought I was crazy at first when I said I was bringing a headboard to a dorm room, but through Dormify it literally comes with command strips to attach to the wall, has USB ports to charge your phone, and a plug outlet to use for necessities (like string lights!!) Not to mention it really just makes the bed feel more like home and less like a cot on stilts. The headboard is not just for looks, but for function too!

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After you get all of your Dormify gear add these:

Cover that God awful desk chair! Go on Amazon and pick the best pattern/color that will coordinate with your theme. Maddie chose this cute floral cover that I love. Under $9.00!

You can add so much storage and functionality by adding this desk topper found on Amazon!

Buy a 5 x 7 rug – the floor is cold and it helps to make the dorm feel more like home. An ottoman is a great way to have a stylish step stool to get on the extra tall bed… it doubles as a small storage unit and an additional seat for friends!

You’ll see a ton of families carrying these large blue bags and wonder how you missed the memo. They are from Ikea (but you can easily order on Amazon). They are collapsable, waterproof, have handles, and hold a ton of stuff.

Extras for Extras

Listen, I understand that not everyone is extra and wants to make a coffee bar in their dorm room… but in case you are, I want to make it known that there is plenty of room for one and we even brought that piece of white furniture (Homegoods!)

Don’t Be Scared!

We heard there would be hundreds of people standing in line at 9am on moving day and to wait until it died down to move in. We shockingly didn’t listen and arrived around 8:30am. No one was there and they let us in early. There was never hundreds of people in line and the move in process was incredibly easy. The volunteers and staff at FSU even helped load and unload Maddie’s belongings into a convenient rolling bin that allowed us to take everything into the dorm in 2 trips!

This has been such a fun experience that I was expecting to be sad. My advice to moms that are coming up on this milestone is to embrace it and prepare for the worst, but expect the best! Go NOLES!