A home away from home

Every student who has lived away from home knows how important it is to create a space that feels like and can be called “home,” even when it is far away.

Academic commitments, early social insecurities, the distance from family and familiar places are all challenges that students face daily but there’s one place, intimate and peaceful, that welcomes them as a safe shelter, even when chaos rages outside: their room.

Yet, to make this place truly welcoming, a little personal touch is needed, one that only the students themselves can provide. And what better place than Ikea to help our students with this task?

Together with the boarding parents the students were at the heart of this important experience of self-expression and personal empowerment.
Every item, whether it’s a bedspread, a lamp, or a plant, tells something about the person who buys it, as it brings along a piece of their world in the attempt to create a new balance in a setting that, while fascinating and stimulating, needs to become more cozy.

As the rooms begin to fill with colourful pillows, climbing plants, fairy lights, and candles, the students find a way to create a space that reflects and expresses each of their tastes, identities, and personalities. Anastasiia, for example, decided to decorate the walls of her boarding room with garlands, inspired by the ones she had in her room in Ukraine.

So, while the shopping cart gradually fills up with choices that help students create a connection with their surroundings, they can also transform a bare room into a place that, day by day, increasingly resembles a “home away from home.”