A 4th-grade teacher found a lucrative side hustle: designing decadent dorm rooms for college kids for $5,000 apiece

• Mississippi teacher Shelly Gates, 49, designed her daughter's dorm room at Mississippi State in 2020.
• After she posted photos of it, other moms started hiring her to design their college kids' dorms.
• Gates, who runs her dorm business on the side, said over-the-top rooms are part of Southern culture.

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Shelly Gates, 49, whose Jackson, Mississippi-based interior-decor firm Mary Margaret Designs focuses on college dorm rooms. She posts videos of her work on TikTok, where she has over 17,000 followers. The essay has been edited for length and clarity.

I always loved design. And down here in the South, people make kind of a big deal about the dorm rooms.

It started with my daughter's dorm room at Mississippi State in 2020.

I happened to post some pictures on Facebook for my friends, and it kind of caught everybody's eye. There was a little "dorm room of the year" contest in one of my mom Facebook groups, and they happened to pick my daughter's room.

It gave me the confidence to think, "You know what? I can do this." Dorm rooms are easy, small, and pretty uniform compared to bigger design projects.

So I just started dipping my toes in the water.

I've done 20 rooms in total now including every school around here like Ole Miss, Mississippi State, Southern Methodist University, SMU, and the University of Southern Mississippi. I've also done Mizzou, Bama, Belmont, and Arkansas.

I did just one room my first year. Then I did seven, which really got me in over my head. This year, I limited it to just five projects.

There are just so many little details that have to be taken care of, and so much background work, before you even really start to design.

I started with a design fee, and then I charge hourly for installation. I've been able to increase my fee, but it really depends on the project, whether it's for both roommates, or how big the space is. This year it was around $5,000 total a room.

I'll start months in advance using TikTok to find out the dimensions of rooms

A big part of the initial part of the design is determining which school they're going to and which dorm they're living in.

I have to find the dimensions and layout. The measurements that the university provides are not always to scale.

I walked into a dorm two weeks ago and there was a window seat. That was nowhere in the plan. I know it doesn't seem like a lot, but in a 9'x12' dorm room, it really affects the bed and the layout of the room.

I'll scroll through TikTok to find the right layouts from past years.

I always start with the fabric the student wants. From there, I'll scour Pinterest, TikTok, and Instagram for inspiration, but I always come up with a lot of ideas myself.

In addition to the furnishings, I handle all the organization and storage. I make sure Mom has a checklist for the batteries, the light bulbs, the trash can, things like that.

I want the process to be streamlined for the parents and for the dorms to feel pretty much turnkey.

I splurge on bedding and art, but always buy a cheap rug

I spend more money on bedding and lamps because they can carry over to new spaces well. I also like the kids to have art because it has a shelf life and stays in good shape.

Their freshman year, they might just have a room with twin beds. But eventually, they'll move into an apartment or the sorority or fraternity house, where they'll need to decorate again. I want the bedding, lamps, and art to easily transition with them.

On the flip side, I always try to get a cheap rug, especially during Amazon Prime Days and super sales like that. Rugs are always gross at the end of the year and you should just throw those away.

I usually find really good deals for rugs around $100. These are 18-year-old kids — they don't need a Persian rug.

One thing that is also a must-have is a really great bed skirt. I get mine custom-made by a fabric store down in Ridgeland, Mississippi. You're lifting the bed 36 inches to get all the storage possible — and all of a sudden have this space exposed underneath.

I like to use one with panels and hook it together with a bungee cord so the under bed storage is still easy to access, but it keeps the room beautiful.

I don't let mean comments on my Tiktok videos get to me

In the South, we kind of do everything over the top. It's just what we want.

I can't speak for everyone, but I just wanted my children to have a place that really felt like home. If they're going to leave the nest and flap their little wings, I want them to have a place that's a refuge for them.

I think a lot of the moms see that, and also just really want to give something nice to their kids. Down here, when you walk into a dorm — and I'm in a lot of them — almost every single room is done to the nines. It's just the way the moms down here do it.

For those who say it's over the top, I say to each their own.

I'm sure that a lot of them choose to spend their money on things that are important to them, but for my clients, this is where they want to spend their money.

I read hate comments sometimes and think, "Well, I don't really tell you where to spend your money, right?"

My end result is that my students are happy and that my moms and dads are happy. That's my ultimate goal — to create a space that they love.

I've been able to segue the business into other avenues as well. In the South, a lot of people will buy condos in whatever town their child goes to school. So I've designed those for the parents of dorm clients.

I teach fourth grade full-time so it started out as a fun summer thing, but I would love to do it full-time. Hopefully soon, I can hire additional designers and grow my business.