• Thursday 29 July 2010
• posted by Sophie Hines
• Comments

The functional stuff

Let's start off with the necessities. You're not going to have a great year if you don't have a duvet. It's up to you whether you take your own or make do with the flimsy thing provided, but either way the bed is a focal point of the room (since it normally takes up at least half of it), so make sure you get a decent-looking duvet cover. That doesn't mean you have to spend a lot - Primark, Ikea, Tesco, Dunelm and even John Lewis have plenty of reasonably priced ones. In terms of colouring, white is probably a bad idea since your bed will inevitably double up as a sofa/breakfast table - get something dark or patterned to hide the spills. 

Storage is another way to upgrade your room, especially if you are one of those with a firm aversion to the concept of packing light. Although you'll normally be provided with a wardrobe and maybe some drawers, plenty more storage can be created by investing in hanging organisers, hooks for the door and boxes to go under the bed or on top of your wardrobe. For stationary and paper storage, try WHSmith, Asda or Paperchase, while B&Q, Tesco and Argos all sell affordable CD and DVD racks. Voila, a clutter-free room is yours. In theory, at least.

Sadly, beer isn't included

Another consideration is laundry, especially now that the magical service delivering clean clothes to your room every week has disappeared (we miss you mum). Letting your dirty pants pile up on the floor is not going to make your room a popular hang-out, so get a laundry basket (Ikea does a great fold up one that's really easy to transport). A drying rack is also a good idea, as it'll save you money on tumble drying and leave your room smelling of lovely clean clothes instead of pizza and old socks.

You might find it's worth investing in a mini fridge, not just because walking eight steps to the kitchen is too much effort, but also due to the mysterious tendency for food to vanish as soon as it enters a shared student fridge. Argos has some good ones, while Comet sells clear-fronted fridges so you can show off just how much alcohol you intend to drink that night. 

The decorative stuff

Be careful about your choice of posters

This is where you can really get creative and give your room a completely individual look. The obvious choice is posters (use white tack if your uni's fussy about marks on the walls). HMV have plenty of music and movie posters from £4.99, while websites like GBposters, Popart and Allposters sell everything from vintage travel ads to Van Gogh, starting at £3.99.

 Photos are another really popular option - head to Snapfish to get photos delivered straight to your door and 40 free prints with your first order. A cheap way to make your photos look even better is to mount them on sheets of wrapping paper attached to the wall, which brightens up the room and protects the paintwork in one. You can also stick up birthday cards, concert tickets, cool photoshoots from magazines - whatever floats your boat really!

Depending on how meticulous you are, you might want to splurge on fairy lights, rugs, throws, cushions etc., but only if you're the immaculate type of person who'll keep them all in place and not just chuck them all over the floor.

 The same goes for plants - only those who think they will actually water them should bother buying one, as a pot full of rotting stems and dead leaves is hardly going to add to the ambience of your boudoir. That said, even the most moronic of us could probably maintain a cactus - just make sure you don't put it somewhere where your're likely to fall face first after one of your 'jollier' nights on the town.

The awesome stuff

To make your room truly great, you need some stuff that'll make it stand out. We're talking things like this portable projector, which can project DVDs onto your wall with a screen size of up to 50 inches. OK, so it looks a bit like a kids' lunch box, but just imagine the movie nights you could have. 

Another gadget which tops our list is the Lucky Voice karaoke set. Instead of humiliating yourself in public, you can do it in the comfort of your own room by plugging the microphone into your laptop and logging on to luckyvoice.com, where you'll find literally thousands of songs just waiting to be murdered by you and your mates. Perfect.

Pink 'Hetty' hoover also available!

Other gadgets we love include the miniature Henry Hoover, which has to be one of the only ways to make cleaning fun, and the Retro iPod alarm clock, which is shaped like an old-school clock but actually docks, charges and plays your iPod, as well as waking you up with whichever playlist you've selected the night before. Nothing like a 7am blast of Motorhead to get you going in the morning eh?

If you're into travelling, then things brought back from lands afar are another good way to individualise your room, be it rugs from South America, cushion covers from India or hookah pipes from the Middle East (the last one will go down particularly well at parties). 

If you have space, make sure your room is comfy for visitors with a beanbag or two. John Lewis and Tesco have some good budget ones, Play.com sells a special gaming beanbag with speakers and, if you really want to push the boat out, Sumo is the place to head (we in the studentbeans.com office have been testing one this week and our arses very much approve).