Are you curious about ideas on how to decorate your dorm room in nursing school? What if we told you that you could do it in a way that not only has a nice aesthetic, but in a way that also helps you learn your nursing school material better?
Did you know there are studies showing certain colors can play a significant role in enhancing memory performance?
To create your nursing school dorm room aesthetic, we will be referencing this scientific study right here. This is not only a fascinating study, but it can also remove any doubts you may have about the claims that certain colors can help you with your college success. We are nursing majors after all. Trust the science!
So let’s get right to work in decorating your dorm room space in a way that will work for you and not against you.
It Is Proven That Red, Yellow, and Orange Improve Your Attention Span. Therefore You Should Use These Colors For Your Dorm Room in Nursing School.

When you are designing your dorm room for nursing school, these are going to be the best accent colors to introduce into your space. As you will later see in this article, we explain why you will want a white background. So basically, white walls, a white bed, and white furniture are going to be your best choices to accomplish what this study finds.
There are so many ways you can decorate a dorm room, but when it comes to how to decorate your dorm room in nursing school, why not use science?
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1. Choose a Yellow Comforter
If you plan on doing a lot of studying on your bed, having one of these main accent colors for your bedspread is a great idea. Yellow is a great choice because it makes a fun and attention-grabbing statement. Not only does yellow help with attention and focus, but it is also is associated with helping people feel happier. This can be especially helpful during those extra stressful weeks in nursing school.
2. Throw Down a Red Rug
The color red has been proven to help with detail-oriented tasks and memory retention. We chose it as a more subtle accent to add to your nursing school dorm room because it is a color that can grab attention a little too well if overused. It could potentially affect your ability to fall asleep and relax at night. Using the color red more as a pop of color will add just the right increase in focus and energy while you are studying.
3. Light Up Your Space With These Modern and Contemporary Orange Lamps
The color orange goes so well with red and yellow because it combines the two colors. The color orange’s strength is in promoting productivity. So, having pops of orange, especially when tying it to your light source, will help inspire you to be more organized and proactive. This is super helpful for obvious reasons in nursing school. Anything that can potentially help inspire productivity, we recommend going for it.
Add Color Contrasts To Your Nursing School Dorm Room To Enhance Your Memory and Attention.
One thing we cannot gloss over when it comes to how to decorate your dorm room in nursing school is the importance of contrast. In the study we referenced above, they spend quite a bit of time talking about contrasts with color improving focus and memory in addition to the main colors of red, yellow, and orange. Mainly, they explain the effectiveness of a white background.
So the additional decorations and furniture we recommend, keep the importance of proper color contrasts in mind. White for main furniture pieces, and the opposite side of the color wheel for complementary colors.
4. Macrame Wall Hanging
No dorm room is complete without adding some texture to your walls. And one of the cutest trends out there right now is macrame. This macrame wall hanging is not only a cute off-white color, but it has lights in it! So cute! This can no doubt add a nice ambiance to your late-night study sessions in addition to just being a super cute conversation piece.
5. Every Nursing Student Needs a Bulletin Board
We chose this bulletin board because it adds just the right sweet and decorative flair to a nursing school dorm room. But it is a functional piece you should have as well. We chose the white wooden border to encourage the white background/base color we are going for. When you are in nursing school, it is a good idea to hang up your syllabus’ and keep track of your due dates on there.
Read here to learn how to immediately do better in school written by a 4.0 GPA nursing student.
6. Use These Purple Decorative Pillows To Add The Proper Contrast To Your Yellow Bedding
Adding purple and blue accents will enhance the color contrast with our red, yellow, and orange colors. This concept has been proven to be beneficial in focus and retention studies. Higher levels of contrast were shown to enhance attention. To know the contrast of a color, you look at its direct opposite on the color wheel.
These purple pillows will go nicely with the yellow bedspread and will look really cute with the macrame wall hanging.
7. Use White Sheets For a White Background
The color white as a background has been proven to enhance memory retention.
This is why we believe you should use the color white as your “background” color in your nursing school dorm room. Using your bedding to enhance your memory and attention span is the perfect opportunity to execute this. The way we suggest accomplishing this specifically is by using white sheets and white pillow cases with some additional white decorative pillows.
Additionally, these white sheets are highly rated on Amazon, and provide you with a cooling effect while you sleep. Having a cooler temperature when you sleep is super effective in enhancing your sleep quality. Proper sleep is super beneficial and important for nursing students in enhancing their academic performance. All-nighters will not work in nursing school.
8. Add a White Bookshelf To Your Nursing School Dorm Room
This white bookshelf will not only add the color contrast we are going for, but this is the perfect size to hold all of your nursing books and study materials you will be collecting through the program. Additionally, you can put some cute little accent pieces in here as well.
One thing many nursing students are surprised by is that nursing school textbooks really are actually required to be purchased in the program. In most of your pre-requisite classes, you can get away without them, but most nursing school teachers actually teach directly out of the required textbooks.
You will have a lot of these books, so you may as well have something nice to keep them organized in.
9. Add These Red Succulents For More Pops Of Memory Enhancing Red
Not only are these artificial red succulents adorable, but they also add the perfect, yet conservative pops of red you need to tie in with your red throw rug. These would fit very nicely into the white bookshelf so the whole shelf isn’t just filled with books too.
Red is a powerful color. It is motivating, energizing, and most importantly, focus-inducing. While you don’t want too much red overpowering your space, cute red accents like these are the perfect solution to gaining the benefits of the color red.
10. Use These Sweet Orange Fairy Lights To Compliment The Orange Lamps
Fairy lights are a really nice touch to add to your nursing school dorm room. When it comes to the question of how to decorate your dorm room in nursing school, you can’t go wrong with sweet touches like these. The orange color adds a nice comforting hue to these fairy lights as well. It would be good to transition to using these fairy lights when you are trying to wind down to sleep for the night.
11. Add White Blackout-Curtains For Optimal Sleep
These white, but black-out curtains will not only help add a white background to your dorm room, but they will also more importantly help you sleep. Some dorm rooms can let a lot of light in at night depending on where the campus puts their outdoor lights.
You can use these listed color schemes to your benefit as much as you want, but if you don’t prioritize good sleep, your efforts will just cancel out.
12. Jump On The Bandwagon and Use a Stand-Up Desk
Standing desks are taking the world by storm, and for good reason. Not only do they help in reducing weight gain, obesity, and high blood sugar, but they also increase energy and productivity. Just what a nursing student needs. So when it comes to answering how to decorate your dorm room in nursing school, don’t forget to be strategic with which types of furniture you buy. Make sure they do just as much work for you as you use them for.
13. This Yellow Tapestry Will Add Just The Right Pop Of Yellow To Your Wall
This yellow wall tapestry would be super cute above your dorm room bed, especially with a yellow comforter. This yellow tapestry against a white wall will provide the perfect color contrast to enhance your productivity and focus while studying.
And as we touched on before, yellow also brings out the inner happiness in people. It is no secret that nursing school is tough. Anything you can do to help bubble up your mood, we recommend doing that as much as possible. It will help your study sessions go smoother.
Why Does It Matter To Know How To Decorate Your Dorm Room In Nursing School?
A lot of college students have no idea that the color scheme they use to decorate their dorm room can have a profound effect on their studying. A lot of the color black for example can bring out feelings of sadness and depression in many people. Green, especially lighter greens can make people less motivated to study due to feeling a little too zen… So it’s important to be strategic with which colors you are introducing into your space.
In Conclusion:
- Red, yellow, and orange are scientifically proven to enhance memory and focus.
- Knowing how to contrast these colors properly also enhances your success in retention.
- Being strategic with the certain things you buy, like blackout curtains and a standing desk, will only help you further in setting you up for nursing school success.
Your dorm room is your sacred space and it should be designed specifically to help you do well in school as the ultimate goal. Luckily, there are so many beautiful items out there using these memory and focus-improving colors.
So have fun with it and let us know down below if you think you are going to try out this color scheme!
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