THis Designs Ltd

-A lovely rug, as big as you can afford, with a linen, leather or suede border will cover a multitude of previous tenants 'carpet sins' and instantly claim the flat as your own. 2 meters square is a good size as it will almost certainly fit your next flat too.

-Lighting is really important and should be seen as a piece of artwork in the room. Again, choose something you would like to live with for a while and be as big and bold as you dare. Black shades always look more expensive and a bit more interesting than white or cream and create a really warm boutique hotel type light in the evening.

-Not many of us can afford to buy beautiful artwork, but we can still avoid the student poster on the wall look. There are lots of inexpensive canvases available on the high street and again be bold and go as big as you can.

-Adding mirrors to dark rooms and corners will reflect light and may even cost less than artwork. Oversized floor standing mirrors always look impressive but a more cost effective option is to buy long rectangular shaped mirrors 120 cm x 30 cm for example and hang them horizontally one or two above the other to create a feature wall. This also woks well with a block of four squares but keep the frames as plain wood box/plain wood strip to work within any future room or space.

-Soft furnishings are a great way of changing a space and cushions and throws are not only essential in helping to create your own look, but will instantly upgrade the resident sofa and chairs. You may even decide toremove and store existing curtains and replace them with wood slat blinds. Again these can be picked up really easily on the high street but choose 35mm tape rather than string as tape makes a blind look much more substantial.