Interior Decorator Makes a Fortune Doing Makeovers for Dorm Rooms
“We are seeing so many girls wanting pastels, bright colors, fun patterns, and just rooms that really feel like them”
In my freshman dorm room, my roommates and I used an old wooden cable spool we found on the street as a table.
The New York Post reports:
Interior decorator torn to shreds on social media after sharing a $20K a dorm room makeover
Gone are the days of simply shelling out for a commoner’s college tuition.
Luxury-loving college students — and their well-funded parents — are flocking to interior decorators like Mississippi’s Shelly Gates, who charge up to $20,000 to transform a cinderblock dorm space into a TikTok-worthy study sanctuary.
Gates is a former elementary school teacher who named her business, Mary Margaret Designs, after her two daughters. And if she looks familiar, it’s because you might have seen her on social media, where Gates’s “dream dorm” designs have racked up over 26 million views.
“She charges $20,000 for this and does 15 — 20 dorm rooms each year,” entrepreneur Joe Pompliano wrote on X, in response to a post by influencer Will Tjernlund about Gates’s designs. “Pretty good business for a few months’ work.”
In the three minute TikTok, an unnamed blonde freshman in a hot pink workout set walks into her new pad in the Presidential Village II dorm at the University of Alabama — yes, the same place that serves as a hotbed for RushTok — clearly in awe of her new, swanked-out abode. The dorm room includes a cozy storage chair with a pink, decorative rotary phone pillow, a handmade hot air balloon decoration, and custom-made wall art in a mix of cheery pinks, yellows and blues.
“This has definitely been the year of color,” Gates exclusively told The Post, noting her services are in demand “everywhere from Texas to Tennessee to Tallahassee.”
“We are seeing so many girls wanting pastels, bright colors, fun patterns, and just rooms that really feel like them,” said Gates, who primarily works with young women but has a few male clients. “Most dorms start out with cinderblock walls and fluorescent lighting, and honestly, they can feel a little cold and intimidating. We love taking those spaces and making them feel warm, happy and like home.”
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Comments
A gallon of light blue, a can of thinner, and a large brush (not even a roller) from Filenes, and did it myself one Saturday.
Then because it was too short for me, I removed the head and foot boards from the cot, laid the rack and mattress on the floor, and slept happily in that fashion for four years, year round, with no A/C.
Later, after paying a dormmate $4 for a large fluorescent blacklight fixture (which I installed just this month in my grandson’s room as a “welcome to high school” present), I decorated one wall with tessellated Screaming Yellow Zonkers boxes and Scotch tape.
And then they whine and cry about their debt and try to get the rest of us to foot their “education” bill.
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Lol not these kids. These are the kids of wealth and spoilage.
You think that will prevent them from demanding “the government” to foot their bill? Not in my experience.
Did you see the other story about free chest binders? When you do the math, it appears that the cost of these binders is about $20 each. Yet they MUST be made available for “students who cannot obtain or afford them for themselves.”
For the people who “cannot afford” them, that’s two day’s worth of Frappuccinos. The people who “cannot obtain” them must be the same morons who can’t figure out how to get a voter ID.
So what exactly is she getting roasted for? If people are willing to pay stupid money for a non essential service, what is she doing wrong?
She’s just a (velvet) rope-selling capitalist.