{"id":45295,"date":"2026-08-14T22:29:08","date_gmt":"2026-08-14T17:29:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=45295"},"modified":"2026-08-14T22:29:08","modified_gmt":"2026-08-14T17:29:08","slug":"dorm-rooms-are-tiny-the-dorm-decor-economy-is-not","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=45295","title":{"rendered":"Dorm rooms are tiny. The dorm decor economy is not."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/XleeEyoM9HZbRT4rpXgJfVa_U1Q=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/13\/1786648991588.jpeg\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Dorm rooms are tiny. The <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/colorado-springs\/2026\/06\/26\/dorm-room-moving-taskrabbit\" target=\"_blank\">dorm decor economy<\/a> is not.<\/p>\n<p><strong>The big picture:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/09\/02\/dorm-decorations-kids-parents\" target=\"_blank\">College dorms<\/a> are becoming customized, social-media-ready micro-apartments, but the market looks wildly different depending on which side of the Mason-Dixon line your campus sits.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p><strong>Zoom out:<\/strong> The multi-thousand-dollar &#8220;designer dorm&#8221; industry has grown alongside viral TikTok dorm tours and hauls, and parents hoping to make their child&#8217;s transition to college easier.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Shelly Gates, founder of Mary Margaret Designs, an interior design company that decorates dorm rooms alongside other projects, remembers her Louisiana State University dorm as &#8220;essentially a prison cell.&#8221;<\/li>\n<li>This year, Gates is handling about 35 dorm rooms. Some of her previous build-outs have reached <a href=\"https:\/\/people.com\/mom-charges-20k-for-viral-dorm-room-makeovers-exclusive-11787196\" target=\"_blank\">$20,000<\/a>, which she pitches as a four-year investment.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>State of play:<\/strong> In <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/2025\/07\/14\/sec-football-netflix-august\" target=\"_blank\">SEC country<\/a>, where Gates does a lot of her work, dorm rooms are often personalized with monograms and items reflecting school spirit. <\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Her projects can include custom desk canopies made from halved umbrellas, remote-controlled chandeliers and commissioned art.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I want the art to be a memory of college,&#8221; Gates says of those pieces. &#8220;I don&#8217;t want it to be something they outgrow.&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The other side:<\/strong> In the Northeast, dorm design can be couture, but the biggest luxury is having someone else wrestle with a U-Haul on a cramped city street.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Boston-based Dorm Essentials Co. co-founder Kelly Mahoney says almost 99% of her clientele are from out of state or abroad. Her team helps families avoid shipping logistics or scavenging the &#8220;picked over&#8221; supplies at the local Target.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;The dorms in the Northeast are a lot different than they are down South or that you see on Instagram&#8230;,&#8221; Mahoney says. That makes vertical storage or containers hidden under beds invaluable.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Between the lines:<\/strong> TikTok-savvy DIYers also want the look \u2014 without the five-figure bill.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Henley Bedwell, an incoming James Madison University freshman, has been <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/%40henleybedwell\/video\/7650257788333034765?_r=1&amp;_t=ZT-98nptlB0CFh\" target=\"_blank\">documenting<\/a> her<strong> <\/strong>dorm room finds on TikTok. She used a room-design app and JMU&#8217;s virtual tour to map the space, then built a shared registry, so she and her roommate could coordinate bedding, storage and decor.<\/li>\n<li>&#8220;I need to make this space as comfortable as I can to make me not scream at the fact that I won&#8217;t be with my family,&#8221; Bedwell told Axios.<\/li>\n<li>She and her roommate spent roughly $2,500 total. Bedwell told Axios that she chose pieces she can hopefully reuse, including twin bedding, a headboard, dresser and unique vases.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Zoom out:<\/strong> Male students are getting into the trend, too.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;We don&#8217;t call it a design with the boys. We call it a room layout,&#8221; Mahoney jokes.<\/li>\n<li>Gates has also made custom pieces for boys, including a vintage painting of former Ole Miss quarterback <a href=\"https:\/\/olemisssports.com\/news\/2026\/8\/10\/football-ole-miss-to-honor-archie-manning-with-statue-on-campus\" target=\"_blank\">Archie Manning<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>The bottom line:<\/strong> Whether the room is getting a meticulously planned DIY makeover or a professional install, the end goal is the same.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>&#8220;No matter how people think how absurd spending all this money on your dorm room is, your kid&#8217;s gonna be here for the next nine months,&#8221; Bedwell says. &#8220;Why would you not rather them be comfortable?&#8221;<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Go deeper:<\/strong> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.axios.com\/local\/colorado-springs\/2026\/06\/26\/dorm-room-moving-taskrabbit\" target=\"_blank\">Dorm room move bookings grow nationwide, Taskrabbit says &#8211; Axios Colorado Springs<\/a><\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/www.tiktok.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Dorm rooms are tiny. The dorm decor economy is not. The big picture: College dorms are becoming customized, social-media-ready micro-apartments, but the market looks wildly different depending on which side of the Mason-Dixon line your campus sits. Zoom out: The multi-thousand-dollar &#8220;designer dorm&#8221; industry has grown alongside viral TikTok dorm tours and hauls, and parents&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":45296,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/images.axios.com\/XleeEyoM9HZbRT4rpXgJfVa_U1Q=\/0x0:1920x1080\/1366x768\/2026\/08\/13\/1786648991588.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-political-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45295","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=45295"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45295\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/45296"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=45295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=45295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=45295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}