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Decorating university rooms: a complete and opinionated guide
As the leaves turn orange, the air gets a little crisper and Gilmore Girls becomes firmly installed on my TV, my mind is cast back to the autumn when I went off to university. I was a reluctant home leaver, confused at the idea of being left to fend for myself in a new, grey city with nobody I knew. As a persuasion technique, my mum agreed to help me decorate my university bedroom. It may seem superficial to pin too much importance on a bit of artful set-dressing in a box room with strip lighting, but having a comfortable, familiar space to retreat to is precious, particularly in your first few weeks.
I’m extremely privileged in that my mum is an interior designer and I realise not everyone has access to this kind of service (as was instantly evident from the kind of black shiny bedsheets that seemed to be popular in my first year halls.) So, I’m treating you to her – and some other opinionated decorator-cum-parents' – advice on how best to design your university room, or that of your needy child.
If you’re anything like me, when your first instalment of student loan comes in you feel rich, but be warned, I had a friend who didn’t think ahead and blew their entire budget in IKEA before they’d even arrived (and yes, the ‘friend’ is me). Great decorating also doesn’t need to be about buying a load of new things that you’ll never use again, you can think about your aesthetic and consider the planet too.
Decorating advice for university students
Along with everyone on TikTok, interior designer Sarah Delaney (aka my mum) says “overhead lighting is a definite ‘no’.” You will probably be provided with a lamp in your room but it’s likely have a fluorescent bulb that will make your concrete box room look even more grim. Bring a warm white, environmentally-friendly bulb and pop it in as soon as possible. There are several charity shops which sell electrics, so head there for a few lamps before you arrive. There are a variety of battery-operated lamps available now, which are useful as you can spread them around the room without extension plugs. Paper lamps – available from eBay, Etsy or high-street shops like H&M Home – are neutral and go with every scheme, so you can keep them for a long time. When my second-term loan came in I splashed out and bought a revolving disco ball which I hung from my ceiling lamp and this was a brilliant decision. Fairy lights are a popular option for a university room but can look distinctly depressing in an otherwise bare room, so put them up in busy areas of the room, like over a patch of wall full of photos. A Lumie light (which gradually wakes you up by mimicking sunlight) is a comforting and healthy addition to your lighting scheme.
“I recommend scouring local charity shops for nice vintage frames to hang your photos or prints in," says sustainable designer Carina from Harford House. Plants, photos, magazine cuttings and posters are all great if they’re beautiful and hung with intent. Don’t just stick up one Velvet Underground poster and expect the room to ’spark joy.’ Instead, arrange a kind of ‘salon hang’ or collage of items on your floor to see how it looks before hanging it up on the wall. “In my experience with my children, landlords put a lot of restrictions on hanging art, and command strips often leave a wall marked, or end up not working and damaging art,” says Julia from Collins and Green Art . Sarah disagrees and goes in big for command strips, particularly for light canvases and unframed things. Either way, both agree that art doesn’t need to be expensive to be worth hanging — postcards, decorative plates or your best friend’s art A-Level piece are all worth bringing if you like them. Where Blu Tack or nails aren't possible, Julia recommends bringing a large pinboard and filling it up with your favourite things. Wall hangings are a great way to bring colour and texture into a room, whilst also covering a large amount of unattractive wall.
You'll probably be provided with a selection of shiny orange furniture and an office chair in your room. Nobody has the budget or energy to refurnish a room (and you don’t want a reputation as the Laurence Llewellyn Bowen of freshers week) so you’re going to have to work some magic with textiles. Large blankets, quilts or any pieces of fabric (I even brought a decorative bandana to cover my bedside table) can be used to cover tables, chairs and even an unattractive sofa (mine was deep red and upholstered to look like a 1980s train seat). Jute rugs are affordable, neutral options that work in most spaces and can cover any unfortunate carpets. “When it comes to soft furnishings, pick a colour scheme and stick to it,” Sarah recommends. You could base this palette on the largest piece of art in your room.
The scent of your room can affect your experience massively. In my second year I lived with nine people in a flat above a Chinese restaurant and though we ate well every night, the smells in my attic room were far from ideal. Sprinkle your pillow and soft furnishings with natural essential oils, and try reed diffusers or plug-in steam diffusers (like the ones from MUJI) to create a consistently fresh-smelling room. Earthy smells like fig or tomato vine are preferably over synthetic ones. Adding bars of soap to your draws will mitigate that ‘old furniture’ scent. A jute rug also provides its own nice scent.
Baskets are very useful as moveable storage. Larger ones can be used to store bed linen or towels (whilst also looking nice) and smaller ones can be filled with toiletries and come to the shower with you if you don’t have an ensuite. If you have a wardrobe then hanging fabric shelves are useful for small items, and under-bed storage and hooks for the back of your door are also musts.
Your bed will likely be your sofa, so bring some cushions (a very affordable option is to pop a few from home in your suitcase, though this can leave a bad taste in the mouth of your landlord of 18 years). A long cushion or bolster is useful for this transformation, as are chunky blankets and quilts.
Everyone told me not to buy white bed linen to university because it shows stains and marks, but I’m in more of a ‘see it, say it, sort it’ camp on that one. Bright white sheets could start to look a bit cell-like next to bright white walls, so you could go for a nice, light neutral colour. Avoid strong patterns or dark colours on sheets in general as they can quickly look student-y and gloomy. Realistically you won’t be whipping out the iron, so materials like waffle or linen are great non-iron options. Brushed cotton is so comforting and cosy in cold, anxious moments. Carina reminds us to “think long term when it comes to bedding: I bought a double duvet and sheets for my single bed when I was at university and have kept them ever since. Things like towels and sheets will last a long time if you look after them, so buying good quality, non-trendy, pieces will stand you in good stead and prevent items going to waste after your university days.”
Boz Gagovski1/10Who better to get inspiration from than creative consultant Max Hurd? The spare room of his London terrace is small but mighty, packed full of bold colour and pattern. The red mirror is an easily achievable look – buy any frame and paint it with chalk paint. The greens in the colourful patchwork quilt are picked up by the plant and the green chair.
Simon Brown2/10Sims Hilditch perfectly exemplifies how to transform a bed into a sofa with just a few choice cushions and a blanket in this Chelsea townhouse.
Mark Fox3/10At the bedroom of Alfred Bramsen's London flat, a wall hanging from Norlha Atelier adds a pop of colour that is picked up in the Asafo flag draped on the bed. The ceiling lampshade and lamp by the window are both Hay, while the other is a Noguchi piece.
Photos: Owen Gale, Styling: Rachel Moreve4/10In her son's bedroom, Polly Ashman introduces levity with this hand-made quilt and rug.
Elsa Young5/10This colourful flat in Edinburgh by Susan Deliss uses posters, paintings and prints hung on the wall above a small wooden drinks trolley in perfect juxtaposition (a drinks trolley isn't a must for a university room, but if you see one in a charity shop…)
Mark Anthony Fox6/10Phoebe Clive's Ledbury cottage is proof that anything can be art, from frames to vintage horse brasses. Her collection of Hungarian and Bulgarian folk-art frames is displayed above a wall curtain in Tinsmiths’ ‘Ledbury Elizabethan’ linen, based on a Tudor wall painting discovered above the council offices in Ledbury.
Simon Brown7/10Beata Heuman's west London flat is a treasure trove of ideas for small spaces. Here, she's picked the orange and blue tones from the quilt and used them throughout the room, like in the framed artworks. Painting vintage frames is a useful way to create a coherent palette.
Boz Gagovski8/10Stella Weatherall's London house is peak cushion – even a fraction of these and you'll be able to transform your bed into a sofa every day. This blanket from BFGF works beautifully as a wall hanging.
Jake Curtis9/10Unlike Ben Pentreath in his Bloomsbury flat, you may not be able to wallpaper your university room in this delightful 'Seaweed Lace' wallpaper by Soane. Still, there's nothing stopping you from decking it out in colourful accessories, like this striped blanket, bright cushions, and vivid blue lamp. You can find a similar blanket by Pendleton at Amara.
Michael Sinclair10/10Painting the room bright yellow also may not be an option, but we love this huge lamp in Audrey Carden's London house - it's a playful statement piece you can fit into any room. Find a similar one at IKEA.
