The holiday season is behind us and students across the country are reluctantly leaving the comfort of home to head back to college for a new semester. In the midst of settling back into daily routines, taking a moment to spruce up one’s dorm, PG, or hostel may just help bring along a hint of that comfort and a fresh start to the new year. From ways to bring personality to the drab walls, to being whimsical with light and making your dorm the place everyone wants to hang out – students and interior designers share their go-to tips to elevate student accommodations.
Big plans for small spaces
A major hurdle of living in the student accommodations is a small space, likely shared with others. Despite having two roommates, Kiya KB, an interior design intern, managed to carve out a space that was distinctly hers, with careful colour choices. “Three people in a room is quite crowded so I preferred to go with a light colour palette to reduce the clutter,” she says, adding, “Using light colour bedsheets, pillows with some art behind the bed made my space look more spacious. As a focal point, I have a soft, maroon coloured foot rug. I also added some plushies for a cute touch.”
Along with a light, monochromatic colour choices, to make the best of a small space, Akshita Mehra, the creative director and founder of Studio Goya, suggests making careful furniture choices, “Multi-functional furniture that can double up as something else can be a good way to keep clutter away and keep the room breezy and open. Some things you can try doing are placing drawers under the bed, and moving any racks or bookshelves to one corner so they are less heavy on the eye,” she says, adding that a large free-standing mirror can also create the illusion of more space.
Wall of memories
With any major alterations or even drilling or hammering walls for photo frames being prohibited in many accommodations, students are coming up with alternative ways to display photographs, posters, and other personal memorabilia. Varshith Vattikuti, a student and film enthusiast, has a wall of carefully-curated film posters in his solo room. He has planned it out to avoid a haphazard look. “When I was sharing, we had a very unorganised room with posters on all the walls, which grew as the year went on. When I got my own room, I planned the layout and sizes of posters ahead on Figma so I could replicate it exactly on my wall, leaving space for more pictures that would get added as the year went on,” he explains.
Madhu Sarangi, Foyer2Attic Design Studio’s co-founder agrees, suggesting picking a single accent wall for photos, or displaying them on a cork board or pinboard. She adds, “With restrictions, tack-it packets are a good way to put up light posters, while stick-on hooks are good for a few photo frames.”
Let there be light
Keeping and using the harsh fluorescent lights that come with rooms is an unpopular choice among students, who are opting for a variety of affordable and quirky alternatives apart from the standard fairy lights that populate Pinterest moodboards. Vattikuti went for a classic focus light for warmth, but his astronaut light and sunset lamp are what brought the moody ambience to match his music, turning his room into the group hangout spot. “The aim was to give the room a softer, gentler look, and also have lights that add a vibe when people are socialising. The astronaut blasts out stars and patterns that move around and the sunset lamp has a slight curvature, which creates that circular light that’s in many aesthetic Instagram posts. It also helped to hide the unpainted ceiling.” For Kiya, an easy way to add light was through candles and bedside lamp. ‘Kawaii’ or cute lamps are a popular choice too. Vattikuti adds that affordable projectors are also popular and used to project pictures and films on room walls.
Green touch
While fake vines are as cliché a choice as fairy lights, some students with a green thumb are opting for real plants too, Vattikuti observes, “The guy who lives in the room next to me has a good 30 plants, and that’s the decor. There are flowers but you can also play around with the pots, each has a different design.” Sarangi shares a word of caution, saying, “Choosing the right plant is key – snake plants or zz plants, which require very minimal maintenance and can grow in a small pot, would be a good option.”