How To Design A Uni Room Which Feels Like Home

With new friends, a new city and a strange new course to contend with, your university dorm decor might be the very last thing on your mind. Starting university is stressful enough as it is – and the feeling of stumbling home from the pub during fresher’s week is never helped by the cold embrace of a white-washed room. While universities and landlords are famously strict about what you can and cannot tack onto your walls, we consulted the design experts for their top tips for perfecting your university dorm decor and making your room feel like home. 

Interiors Experts On Their Top Tips For University Dorm Decor

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Warm And Cosy

Unless you’re lucky enough to be living in halls where your heating bill is included in your rent, keeping accommodation warm and cosy on a student budget can pose quite the challenge. As marketing director and comfort specialist at Dreamland, Maria Bullen, describes, ‘In autumn and winter, interiors are all about layering, not just with cushions and rugs, but with luxurious textiles that feel as good as they look.’ She suggests using a heated blanket on the bed or a throw on the chair for that extra sensory comfort on cold, dark evenings. 

Space Savvy

With university students often left with only a few metres-squared of space to work with, it’s important that you make the most of every inch on offer. As Mehran Charania, property expert at Ready Steady Store explains, ‘When floor space is at a premium, consider how you can make the most of wasted wall space. Shoe organisers and over the door hooks are perfect for this and are ideal for holding towels and dressing gowns as well as jackets and bathroom essentials.’

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Charania also recommends using command strips to create extra hooks so as not to damage the walls. Just be careful to slowly and steadily peel them off at the end of your tenancy to secure that all-important deposit. For those of you who just can’t seem to part ways with that one thing you will definitely need at uni (I promise you, you will not suddenly find a way to style that top you haven’t touched for the last six months), Charania recommends vacuum packs to store spare bedding or extra towels. Invest in some drawer dividers so that everything has its own home, meaning your room will remain perfectly tidy and clean (for the first week, that is).

With only one space to call your own, Eric Bramlett, owner of Bramlett Real Estate, advises carving your room into distinct zones: ‘One for sleeping, one for studying, one for relaxing – even if each area is just a few feet wide. A small rug can define the bed zone; a short bookshelf can set the boundary for a desk area.’ While it may be tempting to stash everything away in a plastic box, using luxurious and flexible items such as woven baskets or fabric ottomans can hide clutter plus provide warmth and texture – or so suggests Touched Interiors founder Kunal Trehan. Her other top tip for creating space? ‘A lightweight full-length mirror to bounce light and make the space feel twice its size.’

Out With The Big Light

Plain white walls and office-style linoeleum aside, one of the worst offenders in making your uni room feel unhomely is the lighting design. Often left with one cold overhead light, the icy glare keeps you feeling on edge right up until light’s out. As Simple Lighting founder Chris Bawden explains, ‘Lighting is one of the more overlooked ways to make your space both cosy and personal.’ While you won’t often be allowed to change out the bulbs yourself, Bawden recommends creating layered, softer lighting with a range of floor lamps and desk lamps that contain warm-toned LED bulbs. He also suggests using lamps with fabric or frosted shades to diffuse the light for a gentler glow. ‘Fairy lights or string lights, which at this point are a staple in every student bedroom, can add character, but they need to be used sparingly (only as accents!) so they don’t overwhelm the space,’ he adds. 

Colour Coordination

In the pre-uni panic days, it can be tempting to buy everything you could possibly need in advance. But never forget: your university town, no matter how rural, will have some shops of its own. Unless you know your room’s exact colour scheme in advance, we recommend holding off from buying your key accent pieces until you’re there. With halls often tooting everything from mint green curtains to scratchy red chairs, you don’t want to risk your colours clashing. As Kunal Trehan suggests, ‘Choose a colour palette and keep it cohesive for a designer finish.’ 

The Real Deal

Interiors expert at Sustainable Furniture, Lee Trethewey, recommends bringing plants and greenery into your space to inject a sense of life: ‘Even low maintenance plants such as succulents not only brighten up the space but also improve air quality and wellbeing.’ While those with less naturally green thumbs may be tempted to opt for fake plants instead, these plasticy alternatives will never be able to replicate the homely feel of the real deal. Plus, while you’re struggling to care for yourself, they will remind you of the crucial importance of being well-watered and well-fed. 

Get Personal

The most important hack to making your university dorm decor feel like home is adding a personal touch, such as photos, postcards or personal artwork (connected using removable strips – not Blu Tack!). Art advisor Grant Pierrus suggests to ‘Bring a piece of your story into the room. It could be a poster by a favourite artist from home, a framed photograph, or a small artwork borrowed from family. Position it where you will see it at the start and end of the day. Each time you get dressed or head out, you will see it and reconnect with home, creating a simple ritual that makes even the most temporary space feel like yours.’

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Another often overlooked element is scent. While you’re not usually allowed to burn candles in halls, you can find scents that remind you of home in the form of reed diffusers that conjure memories of laundry detergent or a spray that makes you think of your mum’s perfume. As Lee Trethewey from Sustainable Furniture suggests: ‘A bare room will have a bare scent. Opt for a fragrance that’s used at home if you want to try and ease homesickness and give a sense of comfort in the room.’

Texture, Texture Everywhere

With scratchy carpets, ugly chairs and patterns that should never have been printed, university accomodation can be full of unpleasant textures and designs. Trethewey suggests combatting this with cushions, throws and rugs, especially statement pieces with geometric patterns or neutral textured weaves: ‘This helps to break up any harshness of the bare room, and allows it to feel softer to live in,’ he explains. Sam Greig, head of design at Swoon additionally explains that when facing this less-than-aesthetic decor, ‘the key is in the power of distraction’, using materials such as bouclé, velvet, suede and wood to avert the eye. Crucially, don’t be afraid to make your bed the centre of attention: ‘Instead of getting the very cheapest bedding, invest in a better-quality duvet, pillows and sheets that will make you excited to get into bed each night,’ Greig suggests. ‘Layer accent cushions and throws that will add a premium and hotel-style feel to the space.’ 

Adapt To Your New Life

While it is tempting to cling to memories of home, it’s important to use your university years to make some new memories as well. Aside from turning your new wine bottles into vases and candles, explore your new city’s vintage and charity shops to hunt down some second hand gems while getting to know your new surroundings. As Greig explains: ‘Vintage is a great way to add some inexpensive, retro charm into any stark space – like a second hand kilim rug and some quirky ceramic pots for storage. Plus, you can invite your new flat mates to join you on the homeware hunt around your new digs.’