Dorm rooms are quite small, and especially so if you are sharing with someone else. For international students used to larger rooms, the space might seem cramped. See this video for a standard room at Purdue. Although they are not all the same, you will get an idea of the size. Raising the height of your dorm bed when you move into your dorm allows you to make the most of the small space you have. Depending on how high you raise it, you can choose to turn it into a cosy study area or to keep a microwave/ mini-fridge in to hold your snacks and drinks. Alternatively, you can move your dresser underneath to free up floor space.
You have the following options at Purdue:
- Leave the bed as you will find it (they are at different heights depending on the Residence House you are assigned to).
- Lifting a bed (or a half-loft) is when you can move up the frame a few rungs to their highest setting. (note:putting risers at the bottom to add height is no longer allowed by Housing due to safety issues)
- Loft the bed fully- this is when a bed is set up bunk bed style, only with no lower bunk.
Things to ponder before deciding to raise your bed
Whether or not to raise their dorm bed is a question many freshmen struggle with when designing a dorm room. It depends on
- What room you are allocated: Some residences can’t be lofted or raised (Hilltop Apartments, Hawkins & UR Boiler Apartments-URBA). Some depends on the room (In Cary South- no lofts in most regular singles, Meredith-No lofts in regular singles while small singles will automatically be lofted)
- Your height: The shorter you are, the harder it may be to climb up. But if you are very tall, it might also be inconvenient to sit so near the ceiling.
- The ease/hassle of getting into the lofted bed: If you are not a mobile person (injury, sickly or diet) then lofting might not be for you. There is no need for a special ladder or stool. My son, like most students used the desk at the foot of bed to climb up and down.
- Preferred studying position: Can you study at a table or are you one of those who must lounge and do work in your bed?
- The height of the room: After lofting the floor to bottom of the Bedloft frame will be 60″, your mattress will be 7 inches thick and ideally you want to have at least 33-36 inches of clear space between the top of your bed and the ceiling so as to not want to feel cramped while you are sitting up or sleeping. So the room height should be more than 100 inches (just over 8 ft 4″). In my son’s case, the Honors room was 120″ from floor to ceiling and that was plenty!
- Whether your room has a/c or not: If your room has no a/c it might get stuffier as you get nearer the ceiling.
- Whether you get a futon : When you loft, you will find it inconvenient to climb up to your bed and down every now and then. Having a futon can make it much easier by providing an easy place to lounge.
- Whether your room-mate lofts or not: lofting is most beneficial if both you and your room-mate loft.
- Whether you expect company in the dorm: A lofted bed is not ideal if you are expecting to have special friends visit.
However, there is a lot of wrong perception about lofting. Your parents may have a lot of incorrect beliefs on this. For a students perspective, do read this reddit post and all the comments. This is what made us decide to loft for my son. He never regretted this decision.
Leaving the Bed As is
Depending on the dorm your dresser might fit under your bed without lofting. For instance, at First Street Tower, the bed is sometimes high enough for the dressers to go under. You might be happy with the space available and maybe you really travelled light and don’t have that much stuff.
One thing to keep in mind is that with a lofted bed, there is a clear safe zone for sleep. When you climb up, you mean to sleep. That will train your subconscious to start feeling sleepy as soon as you climb up to your bed. However, with a normal bed – you will be lazing on it the whole day and you may not have that clear delineation between a sleep zone and a play zone- this may make a standard bed a harder place to fall asleep in.
Lifting Your Bed (half-loft)
You may be able to raise the bed decently high by shifting the rail slats in the bed posts to their higher settings. Not enough to really squeeze a futon down there or anything, but definitely enough for laundry basket/tall storage bins/the drawer that’s normally under the desk. At Meredith south, with it raised to the highest rung, you could fit the dresser and a mini fridge under it! In Earhart, the bed frames after adjustment can to get a couple feet between the floor and the bottom of the mattress. But not all beds are like this though, in Cary NE, the bed frame can only be adjusted to give 8 inches of space between the floor and the bottom of the mattress.
NEW Service from 2024-25: Bed Height Adjustment: The Bedloft team will adjust your bed to the student’s requested height up to 28” from the floor to the bottom of the mattress frame for FREE. This service is for beds WITHOUT a loft kit applied to it already. Students who order bed height adjustments will begin to be contacted two weeks after the start of classes to set up appointments. This service is also available for triple rooms. To order, contact support@bedloft.com.
If you want to do it outside the bedloft window, all you need to lift a bed is a rubber mallet, or in some cases pliers/wrenches. If you don’t have one, ask the front desk of the House or submit a maintenance request and they may help you do it.
Putting risers at the bottom of the legs to add height is no longer allowed by Housing due to safety issues!
Note about Windsor- the bed frames are different from the other dorms. in most dorms, you can lift the bed to whatever height you want it to be at, but in Windsor you can’t do this. Whether or not you can lift your bed higher without needing to get a full loft really depends on which bed frames you get, some rooms only have tall frames, some have only short frames, and some have one of each. The short frames are like 4 inches from the floor, so you can’t really put anything under it. Some bed frames can be adjusted and have 2 height options, which gives you the choice of either having it on the ground, or at around the half lofted height. this is the difference between the 2 options (note that the first image is the tall frame without being lifted)
The pic below is from Owen with the bed in the highest possible lifted position. The whole dresser can potentially fit in (around 28 -30 inches)
Lofting Your Bed
Purdue offer students the option of lofting their bed for a fee from Bedloft.com (you can’t do it yourself or from any other company). It’s a lease situation so you can’t take it with you. Lofts are an easy and affordable way to increase living space within your room by raising the bed high enough for a couch, desk or TV to fit under the bed. All lofts have a bed rail pre-installed for safety.
If you place your order before their deadline (for 2024-25 year – its Jul 22nd 2024), you will find the bed has been lofted when you arrive on move-in day. The costs are:
- Bed loft: $150.00 (rental)
- Bed loft with shelf: $166.50 (rental)
these prices will increase after the deadline and delivery may be delayed up to three weeks after classes begin.
I ordered the bed loft without shelf as I found that I could order a bed shelf of my own to keep from Amazon for just $10 more and In case you loft, previous students recommend Pipe insulation for the metal edge so you don’t bonk your head while you are sitting below the bunk- for both see the shopping list attached in Things to Pack & Buy!
You can always contact Bedloft to take your loft down though if you don’t like it (limited refunds- contact Bedloft), or order one (at an increased price) once you get to campus if you decide that you want one.
Should I get the Futon or the fridge/microwave combo from Bedloft too?
Bedloft costs for these are:
- Refrigerator/microwave combo unit: $165.00 (rental)
- Futon: $279.99 (purchase)
As I mentioned on my post Things to Pack & Buy! with its attached shopping list, getting a futon is a smart move if you decide to loft at least one bed. You can get your own futon or buy it from Bedloft. I would not recommend buying the futon from Bedloft as you still have to assemble it yourself, just like you would if you bought your own elsewhere. Unlike lofting the bed, you are not bound to buy it from Bedloft.com, so I would recommend you choose one from the Walmart Mainstays range which are well-reviewed for the same or cheaper price as that from Bedloft.
Regarding the Fridge/micro combo, the fridge from Bedloft is smaller at 3.2 cu ft than the maximum allowed size fo 4 cu ft. The microwave is also only 700W – For the price of renting the combo unit from them, you can buy your own 4 cu. ft fridge and a 900W microwave which will be yours to keep. Also the unit from Bedloft is a used one as it keeps on being rented every year. Again with no compulsion to rent from Bedloft only, its a no-brainer to buy your own!
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