<p>Our dorm furniture is the stackable/loftable kind, and I plan on having my bed up as high as possible and putting my desk underneath. Unfortunately, this means guests can't easily sit on my bed like they would otherwise be able to.</p>
<p>What affordable options are there for seating? Any cheap-yet-sturdy chairs you recommend? Just a pile of pillows? I'd like something that doesn't take up too much space if possible. Any seating would go at the foot of my bed.</p>
<p>The foldable seats that you find in sports stores are perfect. Cheap, sturdy enough, and they take up very little space; you can easily stash 2 or 3 or 4 in some corner of the room.</p>
<p>You could also do 1 or 2 butterfly chairs. They fold up into bags that can just be stashed in the closet, and the covers come in all sorts of different colors/patterns. And they're comfy to read in, or even to bring to the beach/park.</p>
<p>There are lots of foldable chairs available at Target, Bed Bath and Beyond, Wal-Mart, etc. Pillows are also great for when people just want to lounge around. But I would say that unless you've seen your room, you should probably wait until you get to campus. You might find you don't need to loft your bed or you might realize that even if you do, you don't have space to put chairs. Though it's not really a big deal to buy a couple of cheap ones and send them home or give them away if you don't need them.</p>
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<li>Definitely see your room before you opt to loft your bed/buy more furniture.</li>
<li>Target has a good selection of folding chairs on the dorm section of their website.</li>
<li>If you don't loft your bed, you can use it as a couch instead. It's a pain to de-loft beds if you decide you don't like it, and if you want extra seating in your room, the room you would have saved by lofting the bed is just going to go the added seating (especially since you'll have a desk under your bed andwon't be able to store much seating there when it's not in use). So you're not really saving room or money. Unless you're in a forced triple, most people don't like having their beds lofted.</li>
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<p>I actually disagree about lofting; you may be getting a lot more room by lofting. Yes, you lose the sitting space on your bead, but you gain a good amount of area where your desk would have been. A couple folding chairs are not going to take up much space when folder up, either. They can easily be stuck out of sight behind your desk or something, depending on your layout.</p>
<p>I guess it depends on the person. I just happen to know several people who lofted, later regretted it, and had a difficult time getting maintenance in to de-loft (it's not a high priority mid-semester). Making your bed, getting into bed (especially when overly tired, sick, or inebriated), and other things can become a huge pain. But I agree, you do save space. And not everyone I know who lofted felt this way, I just thought I should share some insight from friend's experiences.</p>
<p>^Yeah, I decided to loft my bed, but I definitely thought about all of those things.</p>
<p>To be honest, nothing ****es me off more when people sit/put their feet on my bed or where I'm sleeping. I'm REALLY anal about that. So, lofting should prevent people from thinking I'm an OCD asshat. </p>
<p>As for seating, hm. When you loft the beds at my school, the desk is the only piece of furniture that fits underneath them. Then you can move your dresser out of your closet. Hah! In fact, all of the "residential life" literature explicitly tells us not to bring any extra seating/furniture. Definitely wait until you get on campus to see how much space you have, and I would recommend (like others have said) something that folds up and is stored easily in a small space.</p>
<p>I am absolutely set on lofting; staying in the dorms over orientation really proved to me that I'll need the space. (Plus, like umcp11, I'm not a big fan of people putting their feet/butts where I want to sleep!) My dresser (it's tiny) & desk will both be able to fit underneath. Also, I'm 18 and an athlete; I have absolutely NO plans to drink, especially to excess.</p>
<p>Thanks for all the suggestions, sounds like something that is able to fold up & be put away will be best. :)</p>