Obviously, when you live in student accommodation you won’t have a garden or balcony attached to your room. But there are some great ways to bring the outside in and make your room feel a little more airy.
- Plants- If you’re good at keeping plants alive then go for it, cacti, flowers, herbs, whatever you like. Not only will your room feel more ‘outdoorsy’, plants produce oxygen making your room feel less stuffy. However, if you’ll forget, that like humans, they need to be watered, then fake plants look just as good!
- Patterns- you can go for a tropical twist if you want to imagine you’re in the Caribbean or more leafy patterns if you want to imagine yourself in a beautiful garden. Obvs, don’t go wallpapering (you won’t get your deposit back), but simple decor e.g. pillows, throws, stuff to hang up (on your noticeboard) and little bits and bobs can be really effective.
- Texture- Introduce natural textures that you would find outside. Wood, stone, wicker, rattan, bamboo and bark are just a few, and again you can find lots of decor bits made from natural materials.
- Let lots of light in- We understand you can’t fully control this, but keep your blinds open and let the sunshine in.
- Let lots of air in- Most uni accommodation windows only open slightly, so if it is safe to do so and not chucking it down, leave your window open for a few hours, and keep the air in your room circulating.
- Scents- there are other ways of getting beautiful scents into your room without using candles. Potpourri, sprays, diffusers, and scented oil diffusers are perfect and you can get a whole range of outdoorsy scents like ‘ocean breeze’, sandalwood and tropical flowers etc etc.
As student rooms generally are much smaller than your home, and they don’t allow changes to the walls, layout etc. The changes we have suggested are relatively small but you’d be surprised how much of a difference they make! (Check out our Ultimate Packing list for Uni because you can’t just take plants!)
However, an even better suggestion is actually going outside, head to a local park and surround yourself with nature, that way you’ll feel less like you’re missing out on the outdoors.
