For many parents and kids, moving into their college dorm is an emotional time. Parents are trying to prepare their kids for living on their own for the first time while also trying to teach them how to be good roommates and neighbors. Living in a dorm is completely different from living at home, and gives kids their first taste of independence.
While many parents and kids are content going to their local Target or HomeGoods and getting some sheets and basic dorm room supplies, there are parents and kids for whom that isn't enough.
Decorating your kids' dorm room like their bedroom at home is the latest trend, with parents spending upwards of $5,000 to give their kids a TikTok-worthy dorm room.
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Some moms got together and created a dorm decor Facebook group.
Tamara Wingerter first got the dorm room design bug after moving her son into his dorm at Mississippi State University in 2020. Prior to move-in, she had no idea that Southern dorm design culture was even a thing.
"I was completely clueless, but we managed to make it a really nice dorm room for a guy," Wingerter told People in an interview. "And then I started seeing all of his friends' dorm rooms, the girls', and I was like, 'What?' I could not believe what these Mississippi State rooms looked like … I was just in awe."
She knew that when it was time for her daughter to move into her dorm this year, she wanted to be prepared. So she turned to social media, finding a Southern mom with an eye for design. Based on that woman's social media, a Facebook group for dorm decor design was born: Dorm Rooms of Mississippi and Beyond.
The group has over 70,000 members.
Dorm Rooms of Mississippi and Beyond has six administrators, including Wingerter and the other mom she originally started it with. It also has over 70,000 members from Mississippi, and all over the country, who share the lavish dorm rooms they create for their kids. Thanks to her fellow moms, Wingerter was beyond ready to decorate her daughter's dorm room at Mississippi State this year, which she said she started planning in January.
"I'm not a designer. I am the furthest thing from a designer. But because I've been running that group for four years, I was able to know what to look for and put it together," she admitted.
Parents are putting a lot of money into these designs.
A 2022 article from The Wall Street Journal reported that parents were paying professional decorators upwards of $10,000 for their designs, but most parents don't spend quite that much, though some are not far off.
Mississippi State University mom Allison Autry, told People that she spent between $1,000 and $2,000 for her daughter's dorm room decor, which she began planning a year before move-in even happened.
She spent around $100 each on desk chairs, $150 on a console table, and about the same on an ice machine. Then they spent another $150 on neon signs that were purchased from Etsy.
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Parents aren't hesitating to spend, spend, spend.
Wingerter shared that she polls the members of her Facebook group each year to see how much they're spending on their kids' dorm room decor on average. She shared some of the 2023 numbers with the news outlet, and it may come as a shock to some.
Of 862 voters, the majority (421) spent between $501 and $1,000. Less than half of that number spent $1,000 and $1,500, while 95 members admitted to spending between $1,501 and $2,000. Of those who answered, 25 members of the group revealed that they hired a designer to decorate their kids' rooms.
Mom Micha Prude, revealed to People that she spent "anywhere between $2,500 to $3,000" on her daughter's dorm room this year. That price included a $299 futon and a $65 bulldog pillow that cost $80 when shipping was factored in.
Some people think this trend is a little excessive.
In a TikTok video, user @marymargaretdesigns shared a dorm room design she did for a student, calling the design "Completely fabulous!!!!!"
While many people were awed by the design, a lot of people didn't hesitate to call out the whole trend.
"When i lived in the dorms…my room theme was survival," one commenter wrote.
"Im so happy I went to college before tik tok," someone else commented.
"We’re talking about dorms they only stay in for one school year right?" another person questioned. "Those types of dorms?"
"I had a bed in a bag and taped pictures to the walls… I guess I’ll have to take out a 2nd mortgage when my daughter is college age (beautiful, but damn)," someone else commented.
