The room I'm in at the moment isn't the one I live in during the majority of the year, but since my parents also recently moved and I haven't made my rooms at home or at school feel like my own yet, it's the one that is currently the most endearing to me and reflective of my tastes. When my mom was a child my grandparents bought a house in Lake Arrowhead to create a home base for the family since they were in the military and moving around every few years. My parents bought the house from them when I was little, so this is the room I've had the longest even though it's never one I've lived in during the school year. It's fairly small, and dominated by a queen size bed meant for relaxing and soaking up the views of the lake. There's no desk or other such practicalities. I'll share a picture because it shows a couple of ideas of what you could possibly do to liven up your room since you're disappointed with the dullness of the paint color.
Instead of repainting the entire room, which would require more effort, time, and expense, you might be able to convince your parents to let you paint an accent wall. Initially I'd painted the entire room the turquoise blue color you can see on the two side walls (it's also on the unseen wall). The paint color is called Tranquil Blue, but when enveloped by it the tranquility was lost, and it felt more like Smurf Blue. It was too bright, too blue. I was inspired by the colors of the lake in the early morning when there's a serene gray sky above the lake. I bought a silverly gray to paint the back wall, and it created the calmer effect I was hoping to achieve since this is a room where I come to relax.
If you can't repaint any of the walls, you could try covering them up with stencils, decals, art, or mirrors. The dorms at my school, and at most, are very small, and very drab and impersonal. Adding a wall decal helped to give it personality. This is where I got mine:
http://www.whatisblik.com but you can also find them at IKEA, Target, on Amazon, and many other places. You could hand paint a design, or use a stencil. I painted vines, flowers and birds on the walls of my room at our last house. I'd also been disappointed with the Shrek-like color of that room, and instead of repainting it all, I added this technique called ragging, then added the designs. I actually uploaded pictures of that room when I made a thread here about it (which is tucked away in the Christian Teen only section, by mistake), and it's still in my media folder. The mirror you see in the picture above is actually several mirrors from IKEA grouped together. When the curtains are open they reflect the lake. They're called Honeycomb mirrors, and are really inexpensive. You could buy a few packs and create your own arrangement in whatever design you wish.
Painting your furniture might be an option if you can't paint your walls. If yo don't want to paint what you already own, you could look for something inexpensive from a thrift store and experiment with it. My nightstand had been boring, so I painted the drawers in sea colors.
Bedding is a simple and fast way to change the vibe of your room. I used to have a brighter bedding in this room, but just changed to a summer coverlet. I have a lot of pillows because I like lounging on the bed and writing. You could also add wall shelves and fill them with lovely things. I got mine for this room from Barnes & Noble, and just put books, candles, and perfume on them. They're "invisible" shelves that use your books as the ledge. They're inexpensive, and very easy to install.
- Also, flowers and plants are a way to add prettiness to your room affordably.
