Most dorms won’t technically allow you to paint the walls, but there are a few exceptions. One major exception is if you’re willing to paint them back to white when it’s time to leave. You’ll have to check with school policy or your resident assistant before undertaking this project. If it’s strictly against the rules to paint your walls, you can get in a lot of hot water by just being seen coming in with the paint cans.

This post is for those of you who have approval to paint your space. Maybe you have a cool RA or maybe you just live in a dorm-like space off campus.

The color you choose for such a small space is immensely important. The absolute worst thing you can do is paint the room a dark color. When I say “a dark color” I don’t just mean black, grey and dark brown. Deep royal blues, purples and greens are also off limits. With such a small space, your room will end up feeling more like a cave than a dorm, if you paint it too dark. As you sit there studying and dreaming of the immense software engineer salary you’ll one day enjoy, you want your space to bright and optimistic as you are.

On the other hand, there are some colors that will open your space up and make it nice and cheery. Yellows will make your room appear sunny and larger, and this is especially so if your room has a lot of natural light.  The sunlight will reflect off of the yellow, and it will create the illusion of a room that is much larger than it actually is.

If you’re just not a yellow kind of person, my next choice would be a light sky blue or a light rose color. Although, any color that’s light enough will be fine. The type of paint also makes a difference in the appearance of your room. Choose a semi-gloss as opposed to an eggshell paint, so the light subtly reflects off of your walls. A full gloss would be too shiny for most people.