The college dorm room has quietly become one of the hottest showcases in real estate. Once synonymous with bare-bones living — cinderblock walls, twin XL beds, and little else — these small spaces are now being transformed into mini luxury suites. With students and parents spending thousands to upgrade temporary housing, dorms have become less about surviving freshman year and more about staging a lifestyle.
The trend took off around 2016, when viral social media posts of over-the-top decorated dorms reframed student housing as aspirational real estate. Today, influencers and brands are capitalizing on move-in season, while universities tout upgraded residence halls as a selling point to attract students willing to pay premium rates. What used to be a forgettable rite of passage has evolved into a competitive market where design, branding, and student housing intersect — reshaping the economics of dorm life.
Social media job security
With the cost of college climbing year after year, you might expect students to cut corners when it comes to decorating their temporary living spaces. The price of room and board alone has increased over 50% in the last twenty years, and doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.
However, it’s been additionally projected that $88.8 billion will be spent on back-to-school supplies for college students, thanks, in large part, to dorm room decoration. Influencers, particularly moms, are tapping into the market of over 15 million college students that are going back to campus this year, but are particularly focused on incoming freshmen.
The New York Times reports that the business of “momfluencing” has become particularly lucrative, profiling Lara Becker whose small social media posts transformed her into a leading business woman. She now employs a full-time operations manager, and four part-time interns to manage the flow of content and designs. She began posting tips for dorm decoration in 2021, though has since exploded in popularity to the point of recreating an entire dorm room in her own house to test and review products.
Becker isn’t the only woman to have begun business through social media virality, there’s an entire industry booming as more and more students elect to pursue higher education. In fact, a competing site called Dormify, was acquired by Williams & Sonoma in May 2025 as an addition to their teen pottery barn line. Each of these businesses, whether industrial-grade or based around social media posting, contributes to an industry that’s projected to create over $60 million in revenue by 2030.
Dorm room dreams
Dorm decoration was previously contained to comforter and color coordination, but now includes peel-and-stick wallpaper, high-end furnishings, and a TikTok post that hopefully increases reach for the hired designer. The recent boom in design for these freshly minted adults is thanks, in large part, to accidental virality.
Amanda Zuckman, one of the co-founders of Dormify, noted in 2023 that TikTok was the main motivator for market growth. As virality spiked for luxury rooms, students began investigating the best options, leading to an entire new market for interior designers. It isn’t out of the question for parents to spend over $10,000 on decorations and furnishings for dorm rooms, often opting for custom options that can satisfy the need for both usability and novelty.
However, this rising trend has seen some pushback in places where its affordability isn’t realistic. Companies that sell dorm decoration kits can range across the price spectrum, from $25 inspirational mood boards and shopping lists, to $650 for a package of furniture and accessories to outfit your room, to several thousand dollars for a custom inquiry and execution by interior designers.
Virality is reserved for moms who have the time and the means to create interesting, expensive rooms that reflect the wants of their children, or billionaires able to outsource the design, decoration, and even construction of new pieces for their rooms. The layman is left to dream about souping up their tiny room with custom outfits and constructions. The luxury dorm trend seems to piggyback on the continued shrinkflation of the housing market, where smaller properties are rising in price thanks to more coveted locations and a lack of affordable alternatives. These small dorm rooms that are often shared with another exhibit a new opportunity to demonstrate the wealth of their residents, or make the best of the small space as costs continue to rise and savings shrink from view.
