When you think of the word ‘home’, what springs to mind?

Is it a person or place, or a particular cosy feeling? Does your mind overflow with memories of past revelry with family and friends? Or does the word ‘home’ cast a new vision for you, a glittering dream of a future life? Either way, it’s near certain that your first reaction was not your new room on Z staircase. 

Because of the too-temporary nature of our undergraduate years at Cambridge – made to feel even more fleeting by our termly moving in and out – it’s important that we make ourselves feel at home. After a long day of lectures, labs or library time, the best feeling is to be able to return to your room, kick off your shoes and feel totally at ease. This is hard to do when all that’s on your walls is a couple of wonky, tea-stained pin boards (true story) that mean your room just doesn’t feel like you.

So to make your room feel more like home, here are some decorating starting points. They’re cheap, fast and fun – with a little creativity you could use them to make your space how you’d like it to be.

Add some colour

As well as wonky pin boards, my room this year sports some lovely, big, off-white walls topped with a beautiful high ceiling. Thus, one of the first things I did was to cover all the pin-boards with photos, posters, postcards – anything that was definitely not off-white. I re-used posters and bought some more at the Freshers’ Fair, which, if you missed out this year, is definitely something to look out for next year!

Another, cheaper alternative to ‘real’ posters is, oddly, wrapping paper. While browsing Cambridge’s bookshops (and the internet) I found some snazzy wrapping paper that doubles up as room decor: a faux-old UK map; some colourful butterflies and a pattern that looks like a page from a colouring book. With the last of these I bought some felt pens and pinned them to my board too, so that throughout the year I can slowly bring the books to life.

Choose your decorations well

To feel at home, you want decorations that mean something to you – items and images that bring back memories and encourage you to get out of bed in the morning. Perhaps you love to travel? Cover your room in maps, souvenirs and pictures of far-off, exotic places. Maybe music’s your thing? Write your favourite song lyrics on old manuscript paper and pin it up. Whatever you enjoy and identify with, use it to create a space that’s your own. For me, that’s literature, movies, the outdoors and my faith in God. Have a think about what it is for you and be amazed when Z staircase starts to feel a little more homely.

Make it comfy

Pile up cushions in one corner. Perhaps invest in an inflatable sofa or armchair (clear that with your bedder first... but have hope, it has been done before!). Throw soft and cosy fabric over any chairs that feel like they belong in a GP’s waiting room, and – although this is on the more expensive side – you could add a rug to the floor to make the carpet colour look slightly less weird.

With all of this colour, cosiness and things that are you, I’d say you have a good chance of thinking a little more of your uni room the next time someone says ‘home’.