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Attending college may already be the most expensive experience that the average young adult can have, but for some students, that expense extends far beyond the cost of tuition, room, and board.
In the years since the COVID-19 pandemic began, the number of high-end college dorm rooms — decorated by professional interior designers — has exploded both on TikTok and in real life.
“We’re moving away from Ikea, and getting the opposite of fast furniture,” Ginger Curtis, the founder of Urbanology Designs, told the New York Times.
College students (and their parents) are shelling out as much as $8,000 for interior designers like Curtis, for help designing and decorating their dorm rooms with furniture, light fittings, and decor far more elaborate than the tapestries and posters that adorn a typical college pad.
Ole Miss alumna Eden Bowen Montgomery told the New York Times that she founded her dorm design business, Essentials with Eden, while she was still a college student. Just a few years after her 2021 graduation, Montgomery has upward of 200 clients who pay $10,000 for Montgomery’s team to fully design and assemble their dorms on move-in day.
Among the design elements students typically request are custom linens, curtains, and furniture that will artfully conceal the less beautiful elements of college life (like mini fridges and microwaves.) But designers also have students requesting even more elaborate furnishings.
Joyce Huston, the lead interior designer and co-founder of Decorilla, told the New York Times that one college student wanted the Amazon rainforest recreated in his bedroom.
“He wanted to have living walls, water features, everything,” Huston told the outlet. “After a lot of meetings, sharing ideas and setting expectations, we agreed on a gorgeous plan: We added some plants, a breathtaking mural, and a funky hanging chair.”
There is no doubt that part of the appeal of these intricately designed dorms is social media capital. Videos of custom college pads often go viral on TikTok. Montgomery’s videos, showing her excited clients entering their dorms for the first time often rack up thousands of likes and views, while college students brag that their own videos have gone viral on the platform.
Continue reading to see more of the elaborate dorms shared on social media.