A Viral Interior Designer Shares Her Best Dorm Makeover Hacks

Alethea Jay didn’t think her sister’s freshman-year dorm room was perfect when she left it. The day hadn’t started how the family planned; a tire burst on the road, and the subsequent hunt to replace it set them back hours. By the time they reached campus, Jay had way less time than she planned to decorate her sister’s room, which was supposed to be a goodbye gift. As Jay wrapped up the finishing touches, she wasn’t pleased; in her eyes, it wasn’t her best work. But she posted it to TikTok anyway.

As she drove back to New York City, Jay couldn’t believe the numbers on her feed. Her video is less than 15 seconds long but shows a dramatic transformation of a typical cinder-block-walled dorm room to a luxurious oasis. The video began racking up thousands of views, then tens of thousands, then millions. To date, it has more than 13 million views and 2.5 million likes — all on a video that almost didn’t get posted. “I was just like, ‘You know what? I made a promise to myself. I’m just going to keep posting the things I do. If I do something, I’m going to post it,’” Jay tells Elite Daily. And that promise completely changed her life.

Flash-forward two years later, Jay put her former nursing career on pause and now takes on interior decorating clients full time. She continues to decorate dorm rooms for her sister and now has an impressive client list that allows her to flex her creative muscles daily. Some of her dorm makeovers include a Barbie-themed room and a lavender glam transformation.

But in a TikTok world where aesthetic is everything and dorm room decor is getting more aspirational, Jay’s designs have a uniquely distinct element: They are affordable. Dollar Tree is one of her favorite stores to source materials from, and she swears you don’t need thousands of dollars to make your dorm room totally Instagramable.

From hidden hacks to drawing out your own unique design style, here are Jay’s best tips for getting the dorm room of your dreams, on a budget.

Elite Daily: Walk me through the first 24 hours after your TikTok went viral.

Alethea Jay: In my head, I was still in the “damn, I didn’t get to do it how I want to” phase. So I didn’t have time to process how much everyone else loved it. It probably hit around 800,000 views by the night, and maybe the next day it was like a million. And then it just kept going after that, and it was so exciting and surreal.

When something goes viral and you’re not prepared, you’re already behind the mark. You’re trying to make a business email, you’re trying to make a consulting page, you’re trying to get your TikTok certified, and you’re just trying to make everything known to man because you’re behind. You’re trying to monetize yourself immediately; you’re trying to figure out what makes sense. But there’s a ton of stuff that you can do now to prepare. I made an email and a LinkTree, so I started taking on consults immediately for new clients.

If the room has a blank wall, that’s the most important thing, and that’s what makes the room.

Social-media viralness is so crazy. But it was the most amazing thing that happened, and because of that, I was really able to take it and just start doing what I loved. All my clients came from that at the time. Then as I would post another room, I would get more clients from those.

ED: Did you always want to be an interior designer?

AJ: My sister just jokes and calls me Bob the Builder. I’m more of a construction person. I can’t draw, but I can create. That’s what I can do: make something out of nothing. I always see a space and I want it to be different. After I went viral, my mom, sister, and dad started pulling out old photos of me attempting to do rooms, but they were awful. I was trying and failing tremendously. So I didn’t register it as talent yet. You try, and you dust yourself off, and you try again.

ED: What’s the first thing you scope out when designing a dorm room?

AJ: I always tell people to get into their room first. Get to the room, bring the basics, don’t bring anything else because you don’t know what room you’re going to get. And you would hate to have this plan in your head and now your dreams are a little crushed.

ED: Gone are the days when the bedding design was the focal point of a dorm room. What’s the focal point you design around today?

AJ: The long wall against the bed. If the room has a blank wall, that’s the most important thing, and that’s what makes the room. That’s the difference between it looking phenomenal and it looking like you put up a poster. In interior design, everything matters. Measurements matter. Without that wall looking full, your room is going to look a little lackluster.

ED: What are some ways you can elevate the look of that wall, and what cheapens the look?

AJ: I think small photos cheapen the look unless it’s a collage. A collage is a great thing to do, but small individualized photos spaced out, that’s a no-go. A way to do it without breaking the bank would be my Dollar Tree frames featured on TikTok. I have a couple of different ways that you can showcase the foam boards from Dollar Tree to make posters. I made little ebooks that explain how I made them in rooms I’ve done.

ED: I know most of your decor items come from Dollar Tree. What would you tell someone to pick up there that makes the most impact for the least amount of money?

AJ: You can use the Dollar Tree foam boards or picture frames for smaller pictures on desks, shelves, et cetera. They have whole basket desk organizers. I would get anything in their organizing accessory section. Also, electric tape because I use that for borders too.

ED: If you only had $50 to spend on dorm decor, what would you spend it on?

AJ: I would do a theme that includes black and foam boards. You can use black electrical tape as the borders for the board, so they turn into picture frames. If you get a black duvet set to match it; that’s already a theme. Then go to Walgreens, print off a photo, and slap it right in the middle of your foam board. Oh, and then steal all your parents’ pillows and bring them with you to college.

We all have different circumstances, we’re all put in different positions, and it’s our job to make the best out of our scenarios.

ED: What would you say to a future student feeling intimidated by everyone’s Instagram and TikTok dorm designs?

AJ: If I could do a room for $350 or $400, you can too. And not only that, but maybe now your new calling is to figure out how you can do it for even less and push yourself further than you thought you could and do something really amazing.

You can use LED lights with no decorations and create a vibe. You could plug one in and project it on the wall, and then you don’t have to do any decoration whatsoever. Just don’t be discouraged; we all have different circumstances, we’re all put in different positions, and it’s our job to make the best out of our scenarios. That’s exactly how my sister’s room happened. I said, “What’s the most I can do for her with the least amount of money I’m spending?” And that’s how this all came to be in the first place.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.