As the new semester begins, more than a million excited American college freshmen are swapping their childhood bedrooms for tiny dorm rooms.
But along with framed photographs and other home comforts, parents are bringing their check books in preparation for pricey dorm makeovers.
Long gone are the days when fresh bedding and a few posters would do the trick.
Today’s freshman are investing in luxury headboards, custom wallpaper and XXX and spending up to $10,000 in the process, per The Washington Post.
It is a trend that Eden Bowen Montgomery, who runs a dorm room interior design service, knows all too well.
She told Daily Mail that demand for her services has skyrocketed in popularity since she began in 2020.
While she refused to put a number on how much her clients spend, she hinted at the possible price tag.
‘It varies and we work with all budgets,’ Montgomery said, adding that ‘every dorm room is unique’.
Montgomery offers a range of services – including a ‘full room installation’, in which her team design and set-up the entire room before students move in with their belongings.
Eden Bowen Montgomery runs a college dorm room interior design service and has seen demand soar in recent years
While she works with a ‘range of budgets’ some parents are spending up to $10,000 on the transformations
She says social media plays a large role in the inspiration and most of her clients have searched extensively online for an aesthetic they like before even meeting with the designer.
‘We find a way to make it their own,’ Eden said.
TikTok is now awash with freshmen flexing their designer dorms to trending sounds from Gossip Girl or Keeping Up With The Kardashians, suggesting that decked out rooms have become a quintessential part of college life.
The fact their rooms are usually approximately the size of a prison cell and almost always shared does not seem to worry students.
Among them is TikTok influencer and Texas Christian University sophomore Shelby Garner, who was gifted all her dorm room supplies from family and utilized the design services of a family friend.
Shelby began planning her dorm around Christmas time in anticipation of her early-August move-in and had a mockup made by the designer friend.
‘There is definitely a dorm room standard at TCU, over half of girls dorms at TCU are all out between wallpapered walls to new furniture,’ Shelby told the Daily Mail.
‘My inspiration was the shabby chic, grand millennial vibe. I wanted all light pink and light blue with a southern touch. Tons of monograms and pastels,’ she said.
Shelby Garner (second from right) hopped on the dorm makeover trend for her room at Texas Christian University
She decked out her room with bespoke pillows and wall art in a ‘shabby chic’ design
Shelby says that dorm rooms have become the latest status symbol, especially among sorority girls
Students attending southern schools – usually the same girls joining sororities – are especially passionate about dorm makeovers.
‘These Southern parents don’t play,’ said Hazel Tugbiyele, a rising junior at the University of Georgia. ‘I’ve never seen anything like it in my life.’
Tugbiyele said the décor is often indicative of who these girls will befriend, what they will study and the activities and clubs they will join.
Shelby said she ‘100 percent’ believes that girls in Greek life strive to have a cute dorm.
‘Both Greek life and dorm culture runs hand and hand on social media,’ she said. ‘Girls want to be put together, clean and organized and I see that in sororities and in dorm rooms.’
Facebook groups, such as ‘Dorm Room Mamas’, dedicated to this whole process have also sprung up.
Websites like Dormify, Bed Bath & Beyond, and Urban Outfitters have been cashing by offering curated collections designed specifically for students looking to make their rooms Insta-worthy.
Dormify is an entire website dedicated to décor, bedding, storage and more all tailored for dorm-living. The company is owned by Williams-Sonoma Inc.
And celebrities are unsurprisingly in on the craze too, Kyle Richards kitted out daughter Sophia’s room with pieces from HomeGoods dorm line
Melania Turner’s niece told her aunt that, for her high school graduation gift, she wanted a dorm room just like the ones she’d seen on TikTok.
So Turner – an event designer – got on the app and prepared to transform her niece’s Georgia State University dorm room into a something more akin to a perfect pastel paradise.
On TikTok, Turner saw parents spending between $5,000 and $10,000 on the transformation.
‘They plan a year in advance,’ she told the Washington Post. ‘They bought everything custom, from the linens to the pillowcases.’
Turner said this budget wasn’t a reality for them, so she set out to achieve a similar aesthetic for far less – with a spending limit of $1,000.
She she painted an unused headboard she found on Facebook marketplace, and spent two hours on move-in day hanging curtains, sticking wallpaper and installing accent shelves.
Two of Eden’s happy customers pose in their fully revamped dorm room
A statement headboard is fast becoming an apparent necessity for all students hopping on the dream-dorm trend.
Dormify sells such products for anywhere between $150 and $350, which is what they charge an ‘LED Tufted Smart Wall Mounted Headboard’.
Also on offer is a wide array of décor: prints (up to $269), custom wall lights (up to $499), coffee table books (up to $199), chandeliers (up to $399) and even a backlit LED gold basketball hoop ($269).
Dormify has subsections for Halloween and Christmas decorations for seasonal personalization.
For many, the lavish decorating trend isn’t just about creating a cool space; it’s about mental well-being.
For many students, a comfortable, personalized living space can actually help them adjust to the stresses of college life.
‘Having a dorm room that is fully decorated makes your college experience more enjoyable because it is a safe, comfortable space to come home to,’ Shelby said.
A decorated room at Alpha Delta Pi at Ole Mississippi
College dorms are ‘oftentimes very clinical and devoid of personality,’ Deborah Costa, whose California-based design firm, Design Alchemy, has worked with college students and their parents around the country, told the Washington Post.
‘You create that homey, cozy feel, that really speaks to them, and it allows them to flourish in their study environment and just not be homesick,’ she says.
But many think that dorm decorating has gone way too far, and that enlisting professional interior designers and splashing out major cash takes away the fun.
‘Can we normalize dorm rooms again? Let the teens do it! Hang up some posters, get some rubbermaids. Let them et creative,’ a TikTok user commented on a ‘dorm room reveal’ post uploaded by Southern Dorm Designer, Shelly Gates.
‘Where are you going to study or are you just going to just do makeup the next 4 years,’ another commented, in reference to the room’s lack of desk.
While the debate rages on about whether this trend is financially reckless and overly extravagant or emotionally beneficial, one thing is certain – college freshmen are no longer settling for bland dorms.
If anything, it’s become a rite of passage to craft the ultimate Instagram-worthy room. And for many, it’s worth every penny.
