As college students, the main priority to get through the week is to take care of yourself—eat three meals a day, drink water, work, socialize, rest, and repeat.
Having plants or flowers rarely makes the list. Yet adding some flora to your living space does more than boost your interior design atmosphere—it also improves air quality, mood, productivity, and mental well-being. Here are a few ways to green up your space.
Create Bouquets
Next time you’re grocery shopping at Trader Joe’s, stop by their nursery and pick up one to three different types of flowers.
To assemble a simple bouquet, grab a light-colored filler flower such as white baby’s breath or chamomile. Place them around a centerpiece flower like a rose or tiger lily, add a complementary or contrasting flower, and frame your creation with some greenery.
It takes less than five minutes to pick a fun combination of flowers for your dorm every few weeks to liven up your space—and buying flowers from grocery stores can be affordable, too.
You can’t go wrong with a vase of solo tulips, hydrangeas, peonies, or spray roses. Simply strip them of extra leaves, trim the stems to an equal length, and add fresh water to a vase, a colorful mug, an old kombucha bottle—anything will do!
Dried Flowers
If you went ahead and made a DIY bouquet, take it one step further by preserving your work.
After about a week of display, empty your vase and leave your flowers out for a few weeks to dry—do not do this if your flowers begin to mold or smell, they must be preserved in a healthy state.
By hanging them upside down by a string, the flowers maintain shape and can last for months as decoration. A dried bouquet, even a small one, makes great decor for a nightstand or bookshelf.
These dried flowers can be tied with ribbon, hung, or given to others as a personal, heartfelt gift that you invested time and energy to create. A single dried flower or lavender sprig also makes for great wrapping decor on bags, boxes, and letters.
Another option is to create pressed flowers. Using parchment paper or thin towels to create layers, place your flowers under a heavy weight or a book for a few days to a week—these turn out beautiful as framed artwork.
A Classic House Plant
Many keep “emotional support” items in their rooms, such as special water bottles, stuffed animals, hoodies, etc.
An underrated “emotional support” object is a houseplant that grows and flourishes with you every day—and is a more permanent source of greenery than flower bouquets.
House plants make lovely decor, whether hanging, potted, draped down the side of the fridge, or nestled in the nooks and crannies of your windowsill.
For those who are forgetful with watering regimes, plants such as snake plants, zz plants, spider plants, and pothos are very low-maintenance. If you are especially forgetful, small air plants, succulents, orchids, and bamboo are able to survive long periods without water or sunlight. But don’t neglect them!
Many grocery stores sell small potted plants, particularly succulents and cacti. You can also shop for greenery in a multitude of places—not just nurseries. Try your local IKEA and most hardware stores.
Get Creative
It sounds simple, but small additions of greenery can truly transform your space by providing a peaceful and practical source of nature. Additionally, plants make great statement pieces or objects of decor.
You can buy a simple potted plant and personalize the vase with bedazzling rhinestones, hot-gluing on googly eyes, adding stickers, building air-dry clay additions to paint, and more.
Coming up with a name for your plant(s) brings them to life even more. Soon enough, you may build a whole collection (or family) of greenery in your room—and the more, the merrier.
