Creating a Stylish, Practical University Dorm Room on a Budget!

My daughter is attending medical school in Australia! She is in her third year of her program and has one more year to go. I was able to visit her for a month during her first year and helped her furnish and decorate her bedroom. Even though it was Mom’s budget we were spending, we were able to design a very nice room with all new items, and still be frugal with most of the purchases.
Before going shopping my daughter and I had a conversation about what were the priorities for furnishing and decorating her room. We used these as the guidelines for deciding what to buy. The priorities were being organized, comfort and still be stylish. The goal was to design a room for a university student with a limited budget and still get the look for less!
What did she get for being organized?


Her corner desk was the perfect fit for a corner in her room. My daughter loves to be organized so all of its shelves were filled with inexpensive baskets and containers to store all of her study items. Her fabulous white desk was about $150.00.
This cube shelving unit is also perfect for storage and fit perfectly under the window. It too was around $150.00.
This fabric bulletin board was only $10.00! It's perfect for keeping her reminders and pictures from home.
What did she get for comfort?


Most of the budget was spent on a good quality mattress. When you work hard all day you need to be able to have a good night’s sleep. The mattress cost around $1,000.00 and that was one of my priorities.


Another comfort item was the desk chair because when you’re going to sit and study for hours everyday you need a comfortable place to sit. That was around $100.00 and that was one of my daughter's priorities.
Good lighting is really important too. This bedside lamp was under $10.00 and a lamp behind the desk with two light fixtures was around $20.00.
What decorative items did she get?


She decided to go with a purple, white and mauve bedscaping. I thought her choice for a duvet cover was perfect because it was made from a textured white fabric. All of the bedding cost about $150.00. Those really pretty purple accent pillows with the pearls were only $5.00 each. They were a little splurge to finish off the bedscaping look!
My favourite decorative detail was this three panel framed floral print we found for just $12.00! It finished off the look perfectly in her bedroom creating a really nice space to call her own. Pretty art work doesn’t have to be expensive.


How much did I end up spending in total? Including items not pictured here the total cost was about $2,000.00. If you break that down into four years of study it ends up being about $500.00 for each year and about $1.36 a day. We had to use public transportation (trains and buses) to do the shopping and were limited on time. All of the bigger ticket items were bought at the same store that provided free delivery saving on the cost of us having to rent a truck. What impressed me is that we did most of our shopping in four different stores and that we were able to do it all on budget.


I share more details on my blog about the fun I had helping my daughter decorate her university room for medical school. I invite you to stop by and read the entire story!
Time With Thea
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  • Mary Mary on Jul 17, 2014
    Beautiful! Smart buying new to get free delivery. Our kids do much better if they have a comfortable "home" while away. With planning it is affordable for even smaller budgets. Having no transportation other than the public modes made this even more impressive. Great work!
    • Time With Thea Time With Thea on Jul 17, 2014
      @Mary Thanks for the positive feedback Mary. As a medical student pursuing her second degree living in the same location for four years but on another continent we thought this was the way to go. Her schedule is very demanding and intense and as you pointed out, we felt it was important to support her with a comfortable home while away. Thanks again.
  • Polly Zieper Polly Zieper on Jul 17, 2014
    Thanks for the great ideas!I have a daughter going away to college in mid- Aug, and we've started saving up the bed, bath& beyond coupons:) @Mary, my sister and kids live in Twin! They've lived there and in Filer, but prefer Twin Falls- so, it really exists, huh?She eloped and moved there about 20 yrs ago, and she comes east to visit, but I've never been there.-hate the cold weather!
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    • Time With Thea Time With Thea on Jul 17, 2014
      @Polly Zieper Thanks Polly! You are so smart to be saving up your Bed, Bath & Beyond coupons. When both my daughters went away to university for the first time it was amazing how many things were needed to buy to help them get organized for the year. It is fun too! Too funny that you and @Mary might have connections in Idaho.
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