Almost every student accommodation in the UK lacks a homely feel, usually with very bare walls, curtains and budget furniture. It is so important that you feel comfortable in your new home, especially if you have moved away from your friends and family, so spending some time making it your own will make such a big difference. We have put together a guide to help you make your student bedroom feel more homely and welcoming so you can fully settle in!
Put Up Photos of Friends and Family
The best place to start when it comes to making your student bedroom feel more homely is to put up photos of your family and friends. Before you head off to uni, print off a collection of your favourite photos (between 15 and 30) that remind you of some of your favourite memories. When you arrive at Uni, you are likely to have some kind of corkboard to pin them upon. If not, use easily removable sticky dots, making sure they won’t cause any damage and cause you to lose your deposit!
This will be such a lovely addition to your new home and it will make sure your loved ones are close to you, no matter how far away you might be. You can slowly start to add to the collection as you make more memories at Uni.
Add Some Greenery
The next thing you can do is add some greenery to your room. Buying a few house plants can help to clear the air in your room, it can improve concentration and productivity, it can reduce stress and also boost your mood! This means they are a great addition to your space and they also look wonderful.
Most student bedrooms won’t have an awful lot of light, so take this into consideration when choosing your plants. A spider plant would be a good choice as they don’t require much light and only need to be watered every few weeks. Cast Iron plants are also a good choice, as they don’t need much light at all and again, don’t need much water.
Chinese money plants are really easy to care for, have unique shaped leaves and are said to bring fortune and luck. A great thing about the Chinese money plant is that it is also self-propagating and often produces small baby plants which shoot from the main root. They’re really easy to remove, repot and give as gifts, so can make for a great ice-breaker with your new flatmates!
Having plants will add some character to the space which is great!
Choose Plenty of Soft Furnishings
To make things feel a bit cosier, you should get yourself lots of soft furnishings. You are unlikely to have much control over the furniture or wall colour, so this is your chance to get creative. Choose cosy cheap bedding sets, blankets and pillows, then you might have a rug on the floor and a matching bath mat and towel in your bathroom.
This will make the roof feel so much more comfortable, plus it’s your opportunity to make it feel like your own.
Hang Wall Art With Sticky Strips
Student accommodation is known for being very plain, so you could hang some wall art on the wall using removable sticky strips. You can get special strips that attach to the back of wall art that enable you to attach it to the wall. When you are moving out, you can gently peel off the wall art and the strips will still be attached to the wall. Then, you simply pull a small tag at the bottom of the sticky strip and it comes off without taking away any paint.
Get A Lamp With Warm Bulb
Lighting is perhaps the most important aspect of any living space and when you are wanting to create a more homely feel, the type of lighting you choose can have a huge impact. In most student accommodation, your main light fixture is unlikely to be one that you can change. In this instance, using lamps and other atmospheric lighting, such as fairy lights, can influence the space massively.
If you have a desk in your student accommodation, then your workspace should be lit by a fairly bright bulb so that you are not straining your eyes if you are working late into the night. However, if you have a lamp by your bed, then choose a warm bulb. When turned on in the evenings, a warm bulb will create a soft, atmospheric glow, as opposed to bright light which can be uncomfortable.
Add A Diffuser
Honestly, student accommodation tends to not smell the best and when you first move into your student bedroom, the room might smell slightly musty. Scent is hugely important when it comes to creating a homely and more comfortable environment, so look to invest in some nice home fragrance products. Candles aren’t allowed in some student accommodation, so if this is the case, look at other ways you can scent your room.
Reed diffusers can be bought on a student budget and can completely transform the scent of your bedroom, making it much nicer to be in! If you can stretch your budget slightly, look at getting an essential oil diffuser. These work particularly well in smaller rooms and when turned on, fill the room with a lightly scented vapour which is more long-lasting and is actually much more relaxing.
Some vapour diffusers have a soft light when turned on and also have a trickling water sound, adding to the homely and relaxing feel of your student accommodation. You also have more choice when it comes to scents, as you can buy scented essential oils relatively cheap on sites such as Etsy, or splash out on branded designer oils. They can also be changed depending on your mood, season and if you need to focus. For example, if you have a deadline coming up, look for a lavender-scented oil to diffuse to create a relaxing environment. If you’re doing a big clean, then a fresh lemon-scented fragrance is perfect. You can even get scents specifically for Christmas!