LSU dorm rooms get Instagram-ready makeovers
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A swanky LSU dorm room designed by Jamie Johnson. Photo: Courtesy of Tamica Lee
Dorm rooms are tiny. The dorm decor economy is not.
The big picture: College dorms are becoming customized, social-media-ready micro-apartments thanks to growth within the "designer dorm" industry and viral TikTok dorm tours and hauls.
Catch up quick: Shelly Gates, founder of Mary Margaret Designs, an interior design company that decorates dorm rooms alongside other projects, remembers her LSU dorm as "essentially a prison cell."
- This year, Gates is handling about 35 dorm rooms. Some of her previous build-outs have reached $20,000, which she pitches as a four-year investment.
State of play: In SEC country, where Gates does a lot of her work, dorm rooms are often personalized with monograms and items reflecting school spirit.
- Her projects can include custom desk canopies made from halved umbrellas, remote-controlled chandeliers and commissioned art.
- "I want the art to be a memory of college," Gates says of those pieces. "I don't want it to be something they outgrow."
Point in case: When New Orleans influencer Tamica Lee's daughter headed to LSU this fall, the dorm was Instagram-ready.
- Lee posted a photo of her daughter's dorm, featuring pale pink headboards, matching throw blankets and scallop-edged sheets.
- "The girls love it," Lee said of the design, which was put together by a fellow mom who stages homes professionally. "That's not what it was like for me in the '90s. I had a bed in a bag from Target."
Zoom out: Male students are getting into the trend, too.
- "We don't call it a design with the boys. We call it a room layout," jokes Boston-based Dorm Essentials Co. co-founder Kelly Mahoney.
- Gates has also made custom pieces for boys, including a vintage painting of Archie Manning.
The bottom line: Whether the room is getting a meticulously planned DIY makeover or a professional install, the end goal is the same.
- "No matter how people think how absurd spending all this money on your dorm room is, your kid's gonna be here for the next nine months," says Henley Bedwell, an incoming James Madison University freshman. "Why would you not rather them be comfortable?"