NEW LIFE AT UNI: 5 TIPS TO BEST ORGANISE YOUR STUDENT ACCOMMODATION ROOM

Are you about to enter your new student accommodation room at university for the first time? Have you got one of those 16 sqm studio flats and you’re wondering how to make the most of it?

Life in student accommodations can be sweet with all the facilities available and many group activities. But what about your own private space?

If you’re not sure how to organise it, you’re in the right place. We know those rooms upside down since we are interior designers. Serviced accommodations are our specialty.

A large part of our job is to figure out what’s the best way to use your 16 sqm. Our mission is to create a great-looking space but also to get 100% of its potential out of it. So, here’s our top 5 list of tips and tricks to organise your student accommodation room like a pro!

1. Don’t Rush Into It

We get it, it is super exciting to start a new life. Maybe far from home and with the freedom to shape your own space like you’d like to. There’s plenty of opportunities to do that, but especially at the beginning you should stop and observe carefully.

Before you buy a collection of LED photo clips strings, H&M cushions, and Urban Outfitters boho flags out of excitement, you need to live in the room for a little while.
Photos by ©Walmart and ©H&M

Take your time. Spend a week or so with just the essential and gather your list of statement pieces (some great advice coming in our next article) as needs and ideas come up. This will give you the time to get a real sense of what is that you need and that can functionally fit in your student accommodation room.

2. Pick A Focal Point

There are countless guides on the internet giving advice and mixing styles to décor walls in your room and set a mood with various objects. While that can be fun it can easily become overwhelming, especially in a fairly limited space. Less is more is your golden rule here.

If you wish to get a sense of satisfaction whenever you enter your room, choose a single focal point and build around it.

If you want to decorate with the infamous LED photo clips, go for it. But don’t mix posters, prints, flags, and stickers on the same wall. They’d draw attention off of the original idea. Be consistent.

3. Use All The Storage Space You’re Given

Because student accommodation rooms can be quite small at times, when we design them, we always think about some additional ways to create storage. Using it properly means you can avoid having piles of stuff or even suitcases lying around and overcrowding your already limited space.

In this example from one of the student accommodations we designed in the Netherlands, we always specified additional bed height and void underneath. A similar solution allows students to store even large suitcases under it and put away all the things that won’t be used daily.

This, in turn, brings us to the next point…

4. Storage Boxes Like Your Life Depended On It

Once the non-daily material is stored away, there’s still all the rest to take care of. The best starting point, in my opinion, is boxes. There are quite a few options that you can choose from, such as these below:

Photos by ©IKEA

With these, you can organise everything in different groups according to its use. Even better, some can be stacked one on top of the other. With minimal space waste, you can efficiently arrange all your things and even create an aesthetically interesting feature in your room by playing with colours.

5. Command Hooks

Once you start decorating your room, there are usually some rules to abide by. Not sticking any nail in the walls it’s usually one of them. But using walls to hang frames, paintings and pictures is probably the most important thing to do to properly personalise a student accommodation room. And it’s here that command hooks come in handy.

By using hooks in different ways, you can easily create compositions and add that personal touch to make your space unique. Here’s a video from Sarah Akwisombe that illustrates some ways to do it!

What’s Next?

Now that you got the foundation, it’s time to really start planning. I really feel that these simple guidelines are the best starting point to develop a room that will feel more welcoming, functional and ‘yours’ whether you are alone or with friends. And if you care about interior spaces as I do, this is a must that will not only improve your mood but also your productivity.

Now that you’re ready for the next step, keep following us. Our next article of the series will be about how to actually decorate your room. We’ll see how to better express your own personality with a consistent style.

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