Remember your college dorm room? Chances are it was utilitarian and bland by design. It probably featured cinderblock walls painted institutional beige that you and your roommate tried to improve by sticking up posters, photos, and art prints with removable putty.
Today, the social-media-fueled craze to transform small dorm spaces into luxe landing pads is costing some families tens of thousands of dollars per year. For interior designers, business is booming. High-end professionals can charge up to $20,000 for extreme dorm makeover designs featuring custom upholstered headboards, bespoke seating arrangements, and lavish floor coverings.
Incoming film production majors Eion Nunez and Orson Ford decided they didn’t need an outrageous budget or a designer for hire to create the freshman dormitory of their dreams. Armed with a love of retro movie props and a shared budget of $1300, they set to work to launch their first co-production at USC: a living space that even an Oscar-winning set designer would approve of.
When you see what these two students did to their dorm, your jaw will hit the floor
Nunez and Ford transformed their bland campus shoebox into something so much more: an ode to Hollywood and a palace of film fandom.
Forget standard fairy lights and big-box store “bedding in a bag.” Since Los Angeles is a media industry town, the two friends turned to the wealth of reusable materials and set pieces available all around them. The freshmen shopped smarter and sourced incredible decor from local movie prop houses. They also incorporated stand-out pieces from previous film productions they had worked on, including a stand-alone fireplace and a working popcorn machine.
The result was a breathtaking, cinematic sanctuary. The small dorm felt warm and filled with personality. It became less like a place to study and sleep and more like a Hollywood detective’s HQ. Every corner dripped with authentic history, an industry story waiting to be told.
The dream setup comes with one massive, heartbreaking catch
Pulling off a Hollywood-grade design on a college budget is no easy feat. Nunez and Ford had to rely on industry connections and shop for bargains in vintage stores, flea markets, and prop recycling stores to bring their vision to life on budget. But it didn’t take long for their production achievement to create buzz.
Videos showcasing their incredible transformation quickly went viral across TikTok and Instagram. Hundreds of thousands of viewers watched and got inspired.
On Instagram, former USC Parkside resident @khaliltherealdeal responded in the comments, “I had a plant, desk, and a couch my freshman year.”
People could not get over how two teenagers injected so much warmth into a sterile space all on their own, and fellow USC students couldn’t wait to score an invitation to one of their dorm-room gatherings.
But, just like in the movies, the closing credits have to roll at some point. When the school year wraps up, everything personal you brought to a dorm room has to move out. To get their housing deposit back, the duo had to do the unthinkable. In showbiz terminology, everything had to “go back to one.” That meant stripping the walls and packing up all those vintage treasures.
Leaving a filming location better than you found it is all part of the job. So, Nunez and Ford put in the work and returned the USC dorm room to the blank slate it was when they arrived. Now that they are sophomores, they are ready to do it all again—this time with a few more roommates and a lot more space.
