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From Interior Design to Accounting majors, this guide is for design lovers of any discipline

With back to school season just around the corner, you’ll need more than textbooks and pencils for that dorm room shopping list. We’re here to help you find design-focused and stylish pieces for your home-away-from-home.

Back to School at IKEA
Back to School at IKEA

$50, at IKEA.

Study Up

This mix-and-match tabletop and legs adjusts its height for any task. With the MITTBACK trestle you can choose a flat or tilted surface perfect for any design homework. Under any tabletop, the legs have ample space for all your study needs, keeping your desktop clear.

Saje
Saje

$130, at Saje.

Wind Down

Maintain a stress-free dorm room with the Aroma Wave diffuser from Saje. This diffuser calms your nerves after a long day of lectures and groupwork. Perfect for medium sized rooms, this diffuser is the best roommate.

$108, at Design Within Reach.

Finance Flair

A modern interpretation of a banker’s lamp, the Apex Clip lamp shines a new light on a classic silhouette. Adjust the lamp’s 360º shade to brighten up your finance homework or away from you to create a restful, ambient glow. Its handy clip can be fitted for any bookshelf or headboard.

Clear acrylic table, Acrylic table, Magino
Clear acrylic table, Acrylic table, Magino

$285, at UMBRA

Contemporary Clarity

This award-winning versatile acrylic stool is perfect for displaying your art project mock ups, textbooks or cherished books. The Magino stool is shatter proof, made from thick 13mm acrylic, making as durable as it is eye-catching. Ideal for small spaces, this piece functions as both a stool and handy side table.

Back To School Shopping 2024
Back To School Shopping 2024

$440, at CB2.

Neat And Tidy

This vintage-inspired hamper keeps your dorm room looking fresh with its open weave rattan pattern. Made from solid, certified sustainable teak, this hamper neatly stows away any unwanted mess in a stylish wooden frame.

Scott Sueme, Modern Rug, Bold Rug, Sundays
Scott Sueme, Modern Rug, Bold Rug, Sundays

$370, at Sundays.

Inner Artist

Craving a little more inspiration for your new dorm room? The Sundays and Scott Sueme Free Study Rug combines both functionality and beauty. Its bold graphics and monochromatic colour scheme bring a little bit of art class home.

Back to School bedding
Back to School bedding

$109, at Muji.

Sleeping Beauty

The Muji Cotton flannel duvet covers will leave you well-rested and ready to take on the start of the semester ­– or so cozy you won’t want to wake up just yet. Enjoy five more minutes under the organic cotton covers in multiple colourways.

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Okay, but it clearly is

For the first 16 years of my life, the bat cave at the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM)—a reconstruction of an actual cave in Jamaica—was among my favourite places in the city. The cave was decorated with cast stalactites and wax bat models, which hung from the ceiling and threw jagged shadows on the walls. A few other features imbued it with spooky verisimilitude: the drip-drip-drip sound effects, the mirrors arranged to create the illusion of infinite depth, the strobe lights strategically placed to make the shadows flutter. When I visited as a five-year-old, the bat cave scared me. When I visited as a stoned fifteen-year-old, it scared me even more. Then came the renovation.

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