Interior designer and LSU alumna Dee Keller is helping students strike the perfect balance between a small dorm room space and big design ambitions — all while on a budget.
Though Keller earned her undergraduate degree in finance and attended law school, she decided to pursue her passion for interior design 15 years ago.
Keller said she gained experience by decorating homes, condominiums and apartments for friends, college students and recent graduates.
“I can work with any budget,” Keller said. “If someone gives me a budget, I’ll create a program for them to stay within that budget.”
Keller said she gained an interest in designing dorm rooms when her two oldest daughters started school at the University of Texas.
“You know, the dorm rooms and their sizes, it can be challenging,” Keller said. “For me, it’s like a math equation to figure out how to maximize the space so they could have the most living area, but yet not compromise their sleeping area.”
Most recently, she designed her youngest daughter, fashion merchandising freshman Anna Keller’s, dorm room. The residents and their mothers were flexible to work with and the end result was what they were hoping for, Dee said.
With input from Anna’s roommates, Dee transformed the sterile, white room most freshman are accustomed to into the navy, gold and white home incoming students dream of.
“It’s nice. It’s very homey. I live four and a half hours away, so it’s good to come to this,” said accounting freshman Madison Lemoine, one of Anna’s roommates.
By leveling the beds in a bunk bed-like fashion and pushing them up against the walls, Dee was able to create an open central space where the women set up a living room-style area with a blue rug, crisp, white sofa and small, glass coffee table.
“We got to pick out most of the stuff throughout the summer, and it was fun at the end of Move-In Day to see it all come together,” said mass communication freshman Sydney Saia, one of Anna’s other roommates. “It doesn’t feel so dorm-like.”
Features of the room include plushy chair covers, twinkling string lights and tall bookshelves for the women to store their possessions.
To make the project as cost-efficient as possible, Dee said she started planning the design in June, beginning with a drawn layout on grid paper and a search through stores such as Lowe’s, Target and Walmart for the best furniture and décor prices.
“I did a lot of looking and researching, looking through places to try and do it economically,” Dee said.
Dee said she suggests parents and students begin planning the dorm room design in advance to make the space as home-like as possible.
“I think less is more,” Dee said. “Draw it out, measure the rooms, measure the beds, and prioritize what the dorm residents really need and really want in their rooms.”
Dee has an upcoming trunk show in Houston to display room designs for graduating high school seniors. She said she would like to have a trunk show in Louisiana in the future.
Students have already reached out to Dee, requesting her help in designing their fall 2016 dorm rooms. Dee said she is eager to continue designing dorm rooms.
“It’s something I love to do,” Dee said. “It’s so exciting to work with the young kids and it’s very rewarding. The energy level’s great and everyone is so excited because of this whole new chapter of their life, so I just feel so lucky because I get to be a part of that.”