Besides its familiar small dimensions, Spanish sophomore Candace Gray's room on the fifth floor of South Wonders Hall looks nothing like a dorm room. From the moment the multicolored carpet at the door meets your feet, it's clear Gray has put more effort into her room than the average college student. A cream carpet placed diagonally opens up the space, where an oversized cherry-red La-Z-Boy sits across from a wicker chair, spray-painted spring green.

A faded, textured version of the chair's bold red is found in strips of wallpaper, hung horizontally to cover an entire wall.

Gray said she didn't want to use the futon or bed the university provided.

"I didn't want to have that typical college dorm feel," she said.

Gray said her dorm's character required very little money — her mother is an interior decorator with a storage room full of supplies — but a lot of brainstorming for the right color scheme. The red chair, for instance, is actually an old denim studded chair with a red cover. The green wicker chair, on the other hand, was red before Gray spray-painted it.

"Just keep it simple and keep it organized," she said. "Sometimes when you bring too many things in, it can get so hectic."

Christy Seidelman, interior designer at Great Lakes Interior in Holland, said cluttering a dorm makes it less attractive. A room looks best when it has one focal point that all other decorations accent, she said.

Whether the eye is drawn to a focal point because of its color, pattern or shape, having too many of them can make a room look busy.

"If your eye is racing around the room like, 'What do I look at first?' then there is too much going on," she said. "That doesn't mean you can't have a lot of stuff in your room, but you wouldn't want a purple bedspread and a pea green chair. If they're both bright and have vivid patterns, and if they don't have anything to do with each other, they would be fighting for attention."

It is also important to leave some blank space between objects and patterns, especially in shoebox-sized dorms, Seidelman said.

This balance between busy and calm also can be applied to how many patterns — from pillow patterns to paintings on the wall — are used. There can be more patterns than focal points, but they should differ in size and complement each other, Seidelman said.