The 5 things I’d tell my child to buy for their university room to make it feel like home

Interior designer and content creator Rebecca Constable is one of Ideal Home's new Open House contributors, sharing her thoughts on demystifying the process of designing and decorating a home, and helping people work out where to spend and where to save.

Despite having left formal education over 20 years ago, I still get that excited back to school feeling as September approaches. And although it seems picking out stationary in WH Smith no longer carries the allure it once did, for those preparing for university there is an even more exciting piece of admin to be done.

University accommodation, at least in the UK, is without fail uninspiring and slightly grotty but it is often the first opportunity we have to create our own piece of home. I’m not quite there yet with my children but if they were heading off to uni there are a few things I would heavily encourage them to buy in order to turn a generic room into a space that works well and actually feels like them.

First of all it has to be a rug. You’re never quite sure how many occupants the room has had before but any carpet in a dorm room is likely to be grey (for practical reasons), stained and not very soft. Therefore my approach would be to buy a rug that fills most of the room acting more like a carpet. You can introduce as much or as little colour and pattern as you like but most importantly you want it to be soft.

A Ruggable rug would be a brilliant solution as you can pop it in the wash at the end of the year, perfect for a teenager who is having their first foray into independent living (I’m under no illusion that they would actually do this themselves).

I also love this rug from Next as the slubby texture looks quite forgiving when it comes to stains. And this rug from Ikea would add some nice pops of colour and pattern into a room.

Then I’d move onto bed linen. With the bed likely taking up a lot of the room, a nice set of bedsheets will have a big impact, and although I am usually an advocate for sticking with a classic all white set, here I would take a different approach.

Bed linen is likely going to be one of the few places you can inject some colour, pattern and personality so I would go for something that’s fun and adds interest. And of course a minimum of two sets so you know they’re able to change their sheets at least once in a term…

I love this set from M&S, the lattice pattern is very cool and the blue and burgundy colour combination is perfect. At the other end of the aesthetic spectrum is this wonderfully whimsical set by the Historic Royal Palaces which almost looks like a beautiful wallpaper on your sheets.

And finally you can’t beat a bold stripe and no one does them better than TBCO when it comes to bed linen. The ruffle trim instantly makes a bed look more put together than it actually is.

Then it's on to lighting, because if there’s one thing you can guarantee about university accommodation, it’s that it won’t be beautifully lit. We want a layered lighting scheme rather than a single strip light so I’d go armed with three lamps, two table lamps and one floor lamp. The two table lamps will be for the desk and the bedside table, whilst the floor lamp will go in another corner of the room or at the end of the bed.

For the floor lamps you could either go for something striking like this marble look lamp from H&M or down the classic route like this reading lamp from Dunelm.

For the table lamps it’s again another opportunity to introduce colour, pattern and texture. I love this fabric lamp from M&S as it makes a space feel cosy even when it’s off. This metal table lamp from H&M comes in every colour imaginable so there really is something for everyone, but I love the dusty blue shade.

And finally this lamp from Oliver Bonas combines beautiful textures whilst being elegant and fun.

Of course I’d encourage them to think about artwork as I don’t think any space feels complete without something on the walls. But also you may want to cover as much wall as possible depending on the state of them. I would get one large landscape piece or a pair of portrait prints to cover one main bit of wall. And then I would supplement them with two smaller pieces to dot around the room. You ideally want to pick pieces that are light so you can use command strips to put them up if you’re not allowed to put nails in the wall.

Desenio has a great selection of reasonable art and even their framed prints are still super light so perfect for hanging. I love how fun this Chilling Leopard print is and the Abstract Poster Pack provides an instant injection of colour, as well as covering a lot of wall. PSTR studio also has a brilliant selection of prints like this Flowers and Check piece, again the blue and burgundy combination works so well.

And finally I always love to look in museum shops for brilliant affordable artwork. As a black Londoner who spent my teenage years at Notting Hill carnival I would have loved to take this Spirit of Carnival print by Tam Joseph with me to uni as a reminder of home.

Finally I’d urge my young student to get a pinboard in the hope that they might stay relatively on track with their studies. I love a pinboard because it does a number of things; it covers more wall, provides a place to keep important/useful information and also creates a space where they can curate and collate what matters to them.

This classic pinboard from Hudson Home feels very chic and elegant. I also love the array of colours the Wonderwall noticeboards come in adding a major dose of colour, personally I would go for orange. And at the other end of the spectrum is this preppy noticeboard from Etsy which has Ralph Lauren vibes.

Picking out the pieces for a university room should feel very exciting. For many people, it’s the first opportunity to create a little piece of home that’s entirely their own. And it’s likely to be the starting point for the many homes they’ll create in the years to come.