When Lyndsey Stamper and her son Hank went on college visits, she would always have him try out the beds to see if he would fit. However, Hank, who is 6'7" and 230 lbs., never did.
So, when the 18-year-old decided to commit to playing baseball at Fort Hays State University in Hays, Kansas, the family knew they needed to check how he'd fit into his bed there. During freshman orientation this past summer, Hank climbed onto the twin XL bed — 80 inches long — and it was immediately clear it wasn’t going to work.
The family filmed a video, capturing how Hank didn’t fit in the beds, at the desk or even through the doors of the building. The video quickly gained a lot of views and responses on TikTok. "When you learn nothing in your dorm is big enough!" Lyndsey captioned the video.
After orientation, Lyndsey, 48, and her husband James contacted the school and other potential helpers, but while they were sympathetic, they informed them that Hank had already been given the largest bed available. That’s when the family knew they had to find a solution on their own.
"I looked online to see if there was anything we could purchase to extend the bed," Lyndsey tells PEOPLE. "There were options to make the bed wider, but nothing to make it longer. I told my husband we needed to create something to add another foot or so to the bed. The hardest part was designing a solution that wouldn’t involve drilling into or damaging the school-provided bed frame."
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Leading up to move-in day, the family brainstormed a few ideas. Without access to the actual bed, it was challenging to come up with a precise plan, so they worked from the pictures and videos Lyndsey had taken during the summer visit. Her husband went to the hardware store and got the supplies they thought they would need: wood, supports and a way to attach everything. "Beyond that, we were figuring it out as we went," she says.
On move-in day, they brought the materials, including a saw, and got to work. The final design was quite simple: two boards cut to fit the bed’s width, held together by two L-braces and supported by two triangle brackets (pictured above). The extender was secured with zip ties, ensuring that nothing was drilled into the school’s wooden bed frame. The extender added an extra 12 inches to the bed's length from the head.
Once the project was complete, the family posted a follow-up video of the finished results on TikTok; it went viral with more than 1.5 million views. Lyndsey says reading through the comments, she saw how supportive and concerned people were about her son being comfortable at school.
"It has worked perfectly! He is a month in and has zero complaints. I added an extra cushion onto the extender and it sleeps very comfortably," Lyndsey says. "I had no clue it would get that viral! It’s clear there are a lot of people out there with the same problem my son has ... We know the world isn't built for people his size."
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