How do you make a room that isn't yours feel like it is?
The problem with student rooms isn't that they're small. It's that they're anonymous. One bed. One desk. One wardrobe. A heroic amount of magnolia. And a carpet that has seen considerably more university life than you have.
The trick is to give the eye somewhere else to go: great bedding, better light, something on the walls, a little texture and a few things that could only belong to you.
You can't change all of it. But you can change what you notice.
You don't need more stuff. You need the right stuff.
1. START WITH THE BED
In a room this small, the bed does most of the visual heavy lifting. It's the biggest design statement in the room, so make it count. Choose a strong foundation: a broad stripe, gingham, crisp white or a great solid colour. Add a throw, a quilt and perhaps a cushion.
That's enough. It's to establish the palette for everything around it.
2. FIX THE LIGHT
Overhead lighting has an extraordinary ability to make a perfectly pleasant room feel like a NHS waiting area.
A good lamp changes everything immediately. Look for warm light and something with enough personality to be noticed: paper, chrome, coloured metal, perhaps a portable lamp that can move between desk and bedside. Suddenly the magnolia recedes, the furniture looks less institutional and the room feels warmer.
3. GIVE THE WALLS SOMETHING TO SAY
Next, deal with the emptiness. You don't need expensive art. Exhibition posters, postcards, photographs, gig flyers and pages torn from magazines are much more interesting here.
Start with one larger piece and let everything else gather around it.
A wall assembled slowly will always say more about you than a matching set of prints bought on Tuesday.
Just check what your accommodation allows before attaching anything!
4. HIDE THE BORING BITS
Once you've given the eye some good things to look at, remove the things it doesn't need to see.
Chargers. Toiletries. Laundry. Lecture notes. Spare towels. Pasta. The seventeen tote bags that somehow appeared during Freshers' Week.
A couple of baskets, under-bed boxes or a good-looking crate will do more than an elaborate storage system.
Keep out what is needed. Give everything else a place to hide.
5. FINALLY, ADD THE THING THAT MAKES NO SENSE
This may be the most important part. A strange ceramic from a charity shop. A tray for knick-knacks. A fun alarm clock. Something from home.
Rooms made entirely from sensible purchases tend to look like rooms made entirely from sensible purchases... The odd thing is often what makes everything else work.
Because sometimes, in a house full of screens and things competing for our attention, creating a space to simply sit and listen might be the ultimate luxury.
6. BEFORE YOU SOURCE ANYTHING ELSE
Don't try to anticipate an entire year before you've seen the room. You may not need a kettle. Or a toaster. Or a printer. Or twelve plates. Your new flatmates may already be arriving with all of the above.
Take the things that establish you room first. Work out what you're missing later. The best bits will arrive afterwards: the concert tickets, the photograph from a night out, the book somebody lends you, the inexplicable charity-shop find.
By the end of the year, the room should look different. And so will you.