Here’s how to decorate your uni room and still keep your deposit

It’s moving season, and I for one would like my deposit back. Unfortunately, the marks on the wall, along with a relentlessly terrible letting agency will probably prevent that from happening. Here’s how you can make a flat a little less soulless without using Blu Tack.

1. Invest in a colour-changing lamp

Easily the best solution to a boring, expansive wall: a vibey, cheap lamp off Amazon – fairy lights go a long way too. If you’re serious about getting your deposit back, avoid candles, and see if you can find some cool lamps from a charity shop.

2. Clean your walls with sugar soap

Designed for cleaning the walls before you decorate them, this super cheap cleaner works a treat for other random stains around the flat too. It’s immensely satisfying to see.

3. Or a bicarb/baking powder/toothbrush combo

If you can get any of the WikiHow “How to remove stains from your walls” to work, you’re doing better than me.

4. Just paint over the marks

A tester pot from B&Q can go a long way, if you’re lucky enough to have white walls.

5. Or decorate your doors and furniture instead

Technically probably not allowed, but what the landlord doesn’t know won’t harm them.

6. Invest in plants (or not)

Most (all) student flats are missing a fair bit of soul, and you can spend as much or as little as you like on extravagant or DIY plants. The main problem is avoiding them freezing on the windowsill in January.

7. Command strips

An absolute lifesaver for prints and bigger posters, these cheap and easy strips (almost) never leave a mark. Make sure you peel them off properly – the fear of accidentally taking the paint off haunts my nightmares.

8. Pinboards

If you can be bothered to take them from flat to flat, they’re a surefire way to get some photos up. You can just prop them up on the floor if there are no nails on your walls.

9. Add any other vibey decor

Overhead lighting is so 2021.

10. Massive tapestries

If your walls are a really ugly colour, or made of chipboard, a tapestry is the way to go – they also keep it far warmer in your room as well.

11. Make your bedding as colourful as possible

Your bed probably eats up a lot of floor space in your room, so a vibrant bedspread can do a lot to improve the vibe. It does a lot to tie a room together without breaking the bank.

Related stories recommended by this writer:

• If your housemates have done 7/13 of these things, they’re the worst people to live with
• All the depressing things you’ll relate to if you’ve ever lived in a mouldy student house
• Inside Matty Healey’s surprisingly beige £1.2 million London home