After having your own bedroom for 18 years, you may find that as a college freshman, you will sharing bedrooms for the first time in your life. While you may like the idea of having a roommate and someone to talk to all night, your new friendship may get old fast if you do not maintain some sense of privacy. Here are some ideas you can use.

Canopies for dorm room privacy: For girls, bed canopies are a cheap and simple option, not to mention cute. These canopies come in several forms. Some consist of fabric coming from a ring shape attached to the ceiling at one point. The fabric usually sheer enough to allow you to see through it, while opaque enough to keep your roommate from informing you that your drooled in your sleep. Other canopies connect to the ceiling at your points and are also sheer, but should hold the weight of additional layers of fabric.

Fabric Dividers for dorm room privacy : Ikea provides hardware that will allow you to hang hospital type room dividing curtains with minimal wall damage. The fabric also sold at Ikea comes in colors and textures. Using these fabrics, you can divide one averages sized shared room into two adequate sized spaces.

Free Standing Dividers for dorm room privacy: If your dorm has fire codes that prevents too much fabric from hanging around, you can build privacy for you room by using freestanding dividers. These floor dividers come in the form of shoji type screens, or East Indian style partitions and are found at local design stores. You can also make your own by purchasing a set of folding closet door and attaching them together with hinges. You can add cork to the panels to use as bulletin boards. You can also use bookshelves as room dividers. They can be placed back to back, if room allows, or side by side with one shelf facing one person, and the other shelf facing the other person. The back of the shelf facing you can be covered with posters or a fabric pocket divider (the type normally used for shoes.

Furniture arrangement: for dorm room privacy: If purchasing accessories to help divide the room is out of the questions, try arranging the furniture in a way that gives you more privacy. Shared dorm rooms are generally equipped with two beds, two dresser and two desks. The rooms are generally 12 X 19 ft long. This allows several options. Generally, you want to arrange a room so that one person does not have to walk through the space of another to access their own so keep that in mind. Beds should be placed as far apart as possible or with the heads of the beds as far apart as possible. Dressers are excellent piece to use as room dividers. To prevent becoming reclusive, retain a section of the room for shared space. Desks and chairs can be placed side by side, or facing each other, or if you are lucky, you can share a sofa or other seating.