7 Great Ways To Decorate Your Student Room

Whether you’re heading to uni soon, or are already settled into your student flat in Leeds, Newcastle, or Bristol, you may want to start thinking about how to make your room homely and cosy. You will be spending plenty of time studying and relaxing in your room – so it’s only right to ensure your space matches your vibe and taste.

If you’ve never done any big DIY before, you may not know where to start. That’s perfectly fine! But don’t worry – we’ve got you covered. We’ve created a list of cheap, creative and easy ways you can decorate your student room. Check out our ideas and make a plan on how you’re going to create a home away from home.

Create a vision board

While there are many reasons why students choose to go to university, one of the main goals often is self-growth and an opportunity to get ahead in their chosen career path.

That’s why it’s not surprising that vision boards are something you can find in the rooms of those who are particularly driven and have a plan of what their future is going to look like.

Vision boards are an amazing way to set an intention for your year, your university career or even your life aspirations overall. Plus, they look amazing as a decorative piece on the wall in your student room!

You can include anything you’d like, anything that inspires you – this can range from images, graphics, and drawings to colours, quotes, specific words, maps and more. Instagram and Pinterest are two main places where you can find some fantastic ideas to get you started.

Put up some pictures of your loved ones

This one is quite a simple idea but something that you can start preparing for now.

Most of us carry all of our photos on our phones and get physical copies very rarely, but they’re still a staple room decoration that can bring warmth to a cold room and make you smile on a hard day.

So, if you haven’t set off for uni quite yet, go through your folders and pick out the photos you want to get printed when you can. And if you’re looking for some unique photo frames you could order from the safety of your own home, check out Etsy.

You’ll definitely find at least one that can help you decorate your student room in style!

Create your own little garden

There’s nothing that brings more air and life into a new room than some greenery.

While you’ll likely have to pick out the plants themselves in a shop near your student accommodation, spend some time DIYing your plant pots to match the style and theme of your room.

There are so many great advice videos you can watch on YouTube, but here are a few favourites that we found:

Invest in attractive storage boxes

It can be so hard to know what to bring to university, and many new students make the mistake of packing way too many things they won’t need.

This means that your student room gets clogged with ugly unreliable storage boxes that make you feel anxious, get in the way and are constantly reminding you how you need to Marie-Kondo your life.

The best way to avoid this (apart from obviously not packing too much in the first place) is to invest in beautiful, stylish storage boxes that would become part of your student room décor.

And you don’t need to pay too much money to find them. A good scour online and you’ll find the one you like the most and can get it delivered right to your door.

Create art for your room

Many student rooms can be quite plain so it’s very important to bring something to jazz it up, and while pictures and vision boards can be a great solution, you might want to consider making some art yourself.

Whether you already like painting and drawing or you’re purely a beginner, dig out those acrylics and pencils and get creative! You may discover hidden talents that you may not even know you had. And if you’re looking for inspiration, YouTube is full of beginner guides to painting.

Finally, if painting from scratch still seems a bit daunting, there’s another option. Have you heard about Paint by Numbers? It’s a popular painting activity for adults that is not only a great way to relieve stress and tension but can also be a unique art piece to decorate your student room.

Make your own unique mirror

One decorative piece that can make or break your room is a mirror.

While many students have full-length mirrors in their rooms, you might want to add something a little extra. And you really don’t have to spend a lot of money to have something that looks great.

All you need is a cheap simple mirror from one of the DIY shops and a little bit of imagination. For example, you can make an iridescent and captivating mirror with your old CDs. Just break a bunch of old CDs into small pieces and use strong glue (we would recommend a hot glue gun if you have one) to glue them around the edges of the mirror in a pattern you like for a unique effect.

Alternatively, you can use paper, plastic flowers or even stickers to jazz up a cheap boring mirror. The sky is the limit when it comes to your imagination and creativity!

Customise your bookshelf

Believe us, any old rack or shelving unit you get from a charity shop can become the centre piece of your room with a little bit of love and creativity. For example, check out this beautiful custom self from a ladder that someone shared on Instagram!

Think outside of the box when it comes to these. Is there anything in your current home that you and your family don’t use that could be turned into a DIY project for you? When you have a spare moment, look at your space and reimagine what your surroundings can look like.

DIY bookshelves can be something that will get your creative juices flowing and become a proud object to chat about with your (new) flatmates!