When I moved into university halls last September I was given the opportunity to mark my stamp on a new blank room. Being away from friends and family back home, I wanted to make my room as homely and cosy as I possibly could. As I am quite a homebody I knew I would be in my room the majority of the time, so I wanted to make it my own.

With a few little tricks I was able to make my room a special little place for myself and was quite sad saying goodbye to it when I left uni last month.

Fairy lights are a firm favourite for a lot of female students and can be quite inexpensive too. In my room I had one set by my bed which I got from Primark for only £2.50. Primark have a great selection of fairy lights and homeware in general, so if you're on a budget like myself, I highly recommend. Make your uni room as bright as the Blackpool illuminations!

Before moving to uni I put together a bunch of my favourite photos of friends and family to take with me. When I arrived I luckily found I had a huge pin board by my bed so I created a collage of them all. I used a website called Photobox where I digitally sent them my photos, edited the quality of each of them and then they sent me my printed copies in the post. The prints came very easily and of a great quality for a reasonable price. Photobox also have many offers running throughout the year, so I will definitely use them again.

My university halls didn't allow the use of real candles, but that didn't stop me getting fake LED candles to act as an illusion. They may not give out a lovely smell that a normal candle does, but with the way they flicker you'd be none the wiser. Turning the lights off and having a 'candle' flickering away made me feel so homely. However I do not recommend them when watching a horror movie alone! I picked up a packet of eight small LED candles from Matalan for £4.

I can get bored of my bedding very quickly and feel the need to change the design frequently. Luckily  before I moved away I found a lovely reversible duvet cover with each side having a bright and fresh design for me to work with. Also changing from a double bed back home to a single at uni was quite daunting, but having nice bedding made the transaction a little easier. I found my bedding at Tesco for £8. As I spent the majority of my time like most students in bed, I wanted to make it extra cosy. Moving by the coast I knew it would be a lot colder than back home so I therefore wanted a warm throw for my bed and managed to find the warmest, biggest, cosiest throw in Primark. At £15 it was slightly more expensive for Primark, but I think for the quality of the throw and the fact that I used it everyday, it was totally worth it. Besides, it went on my dads card!

Not necessarily a uni room essential, but at uni essential never the less. I thought I drank tea a lot when I was at home, but when I was at uni the only time I wasn't drinking tea was when I was asleep or when I replaced tea with vodka! I found especially during deadline week it was totally normal to go through twelve cups of tea in one day! For my birthday I was given a fabulous pink '21' mug and I've put it to great use, I can assure you!

There's so many ways to make your uni room a home away from home, but these were just a few suggestions. You could even use these ideas if you wanted to just update your home bedroom also. I hope this may help if you're getting yourself ready for moving to uni or at uni already and want to spice your room up. Let me know any of your suggestions in the comments below.

Lauren-Georgina x