University provides the perfect opportunity for a fresh start and a chance to express your individual style. Gone are the restrictions of your schooldays, the mandatory nine stripes on your tie and the threat of being sent home for daring to put on a bit of mascara. Uni isn't just an educational experience like school was though, it's a life experience, and expressing yourself isn't just tied down to your appearance between the hours of 9am and 3:30pm. It's about how you live. You now have your own bedroom, all be it a little claustrophobic and in some cases almost cell like... but it's YOUR space. If you've ever been to view student accommodation you'll have seen that every flat in each halls of residence is near enough identical, but it definitely shouldn't stay that way. Personalising your Uni bedroom freshens it up and makes it feel more like home, allowing you to transform that small space into something totally unique and specific to you. It's definitely advantageous to have a nice room at Uni, it helps you to feel settled sooner, gives you a pleasant space to come back to after some draining lectures and awkward seminars, and means that everybody is willing to step inside and spend time with you and you don't have to move a muscle!
Below are some generalised tips for personalising your Uni room!
Make a mood board. Yeah, it's extra, but it's also a good way to get all of your ideas down on one page. Then you can see if you have a certain style or theme, and that gives you something to run with! After having a purple bedroom at home I knew I wanted something lighter and more "feminine" for my Uni digs. As you can see, I went with pastel colours and floral patterns.
Now you know your theme, pick your items! You've got your theme in the bag now. Be it geometric, floral, minimalist, even animal print, you know what sort of patterns and designs you're looking for. Now all you have to do is find the items you want to decorate with! Some of the best shops to find affordable room decor in are: Wilkos, Ikea, The Range, The Flying Tiger, and a lot of the home-ware departments in supermarkets are also really good! Check out their websites and make a note of anything that catches your eye. Things that you might consider purchasing include...
A Tapestry. Need to fill some space on that overbearingly empty wall? Get yourself a tapestry! There are so many of these in stores and on Amazon, which is where I got mine, and they're all so different! It's like having a feature wall, it's even like wall papering, just a little less messy and a lot less against the rules stated within your tenancy agreement. They bring the focus in and actually can be a really good place to start when it comes to putting together your new space! If you get yourself a tapestry, then you can check that everything else coordinates with it nicely. These can last you throughout your three years at Uni too, so they're worth the investment. Alternatively, posters will also do the trick. If you can afford something slightly high-end, then check out the posters in Paperchase. They have a lot of cool yet classy designs that will certainly coordinate will with a lot of themes. Otherwise, music/film/TV posters add a personal touch and represent some of your interests.
Potted Plants. Though it may be enough of a challenge just to keep yourself alive, never mind another living orgasm too, you can get some low maintenance potted plants that will really spruce up your space. It's quite fun having something that you are solely responsible for, and it's a good challenge to see how long you can keep your plants living and thriving for! Succulents and cactus's are definitely your best bet because they don't require much watering AND are very cheap, I got mine from Wilkos & Tesco but they're sold in lots of shops and garden centres, especially throughout summer! Having a plant in your room somehow feels quite sophisticated, and they're super trendy right now so bring a great aesthetic, perfect for Instagram shots!
Speaking of shots for Insta, it's a nice idea to bring some photographs from home with you to use in a wall collage or put into frames. It's good to be reminded of the happy memories you have of home life, and it's easy to do that when they've been captured in an image and you've got it with you! It's also nice to capture moments of your new life and get those printed off too, to merge the old with the new! I got an Instax Mini for Christmas and so took lots of photos while at home over the holidays, then came back and pegged them all onto my bunting - as you can see here, this was definitely a corner of organised chaos in my bedroom! I really think that the bunting ties the whole image together, so if it's your thing and you can find one that fits to your theme, I'd recommend it.
Paintings/drawings bring any room to life, and you have a few options with these. My boyfriend had canvases of Banksy prints in his bedroom, these looked really professional and turned a large grey wall into a showcase of poignant and interesting graffiti art! He also had a really big canvas of Batman's The Joker hung above his fireplace, which was undoubtedly the main feature of the room, and grabbed your eyes as soon as you walked in! You could however ask any younger family members to draw you some pictures, not as profesh but very sentimental! Or you could draw/paint one yourself. I painted this image to the right
in March 2015, kept it safe and took it with me to Uni that September to fill in some space on my notice board. It went with my pink/blue theme coincidentally well and lots of people noticed and complimented it! If you have some spare time this summer and like being creative, then you could do something much better than this, I'm sure!
Below is a painting that my rather skilled brother did. Different to mine, yet still super eye-catching and a great piece for your bedroom. I just thought I would add this in to give you a taste of a couple of the different ways that you can create a piece for your Uni digs using paints! If any of you have a darker theme or one linked to space/night, a piece like the one to the left would be very suitable! Websites like Artfinder.com feature lots of cool paintings, all categorised so you can browse through the ones most suited to you, ranging from affordably low prices to impressively high ones! Check the site out, or any similar, you might find something absolutely perfect for you!
These are just a few of the ways that you can personalise your Uni room, but hopefully they have helped anyone wanting to give their room a bit more of a unique and personal feel, be it at Uni or even at home!