Campus Interior Design Competition: Winner and runner up

Go from from boring to bohemian with design inspiration from this Jack Martin sanctuary…

WINNER: JESS COLLETT

If you’re looking for some inspiration to spruce up your room in these dreary months, look no further. Boar Lifestyle asked students to enter their rooms into a competition for a chance to be named the best room on campus. Congratulations to the winner, Jess Collett, who’s beautiful room made it to the top of our list, and has won her a £20 Amazon voucher. We love Jess’ eclectic mix of textures and colours, transforming the blank canvas of a Jack Martin room to an oriental haven with a cosy feel. To recreate Jess’ look, go DIY and use a decorated tea tray as a platform to display your jewellery, and a cake stand to decorate with makeup and brushes. Lots of blankets and cushions are a great way to make the bland surfaces of campus accommodation more interesting, so why not pop into a charity shop or look online for a cheaper alternative to home furnishing shops.
Follow @BoarLifestyle on Twitter, and like The Boar on Facebook to keep an eye out for the other competitions Lifestyle has coming up.

RUNNER UP: TOM TRAINOR 

‘Épave est encore à voler’. The Postpostmodern look. The twenty first century has been increasingly moving towards the simplistic. Minimalist. We seek to transcend the chaos of our lives, casting out the clutter, to understand and become one with ourselves; but we have failed to notice our true identity. Every single person is a story, everyone a protagonist with their own suffering and their own elation, everyone a unique little snowflake. Yet each story is connected and as inseparable as two interlaced yellow pages; to simplify this would be to deny our true selves. I believe that your home, your sanctuary, whatever it may be, should tell a story. That is what I have tried to achieve with my room, every item is in a specific place, and for those who know how to look, it tells a story about a character I have invented. Let me tell you a bit about him…
Firstly the passport in the shoe at the lower right centre of the picture is a metaphor for his restless nature. It represents his need to travel, to see new sights and experience new sensations; a strength of character. It also suggests a sense of vulnerability; that he carries the passport, which represents security, order and belonging, wherever he goes; as deep down, he feels lost. The bottle of gin in the Weetabix box may suggest his distorted view of alcohol, that it represents strength and energy, that he depends on it to get through the day. The bear hugging an onion indicates that he is an attachment type c – insecure resistant. His habit is to associate any emotions such as the love expressed by the bear, with negative ones as represented by the onion and the tears it will cause to be shed.
I find the presence of this character in my think space inspiring and intellectually stimulating; I feel a reflection of someone else’s story, gives us more insight into our own. The postpostmodernist approach is about transcending our transcendence, to reach a higher level of understanding about our previous state of being. This is what I have achieved with my piece ‘Épave est encore à voler’.​

Tom Trainor