Parents who confidently decorated the rest of their house can find themselves frozen in fear or frustration when it comes time to decorate their children’s rooms. They are often unsure how to begin the process of decorating a room for another person – one whose opinions may be as strong as their own.

“The children’s furniture and design industry is literally a multi-billion dollar a year business,” says Peter Fougerousse, father of three and principal of Rosenberry Rooms, an online retailer that specializes in furniture and accessories for children and infants. “With so much available on the market, it can be difficult to decide on a design theme that you can live with, your kids will love, and that won’t break your budget.”

Fougerousse offers the following tips for pulling together a room your child will love:

* Follow the basic rules of room design: one dominant pattern or color, then two or three subordinate colors or patterns that stem from or complement the main theme. The secondary colors or patterns should pair well with the main and be more subdued.

* Start with an item, object or idea that inspires you and your child. Build the room around that focal point, enhancing the theme with furnishings and décor that flow naturally from your center point.

* Antiques or heirlooms – or heirloom quality furnishings – are great starting points for a child’s room. For example, the antique canopy bed you inherited from grandma can be updated with new fabric and bed linens to create a little girl-themed room of ballerinas, rainbows or polka dots.

* Don’t give in to your child’s latest “obsession.” Sure Bob the Builder or Thomas the Train or Harry Potter are fun now, but all such themes will end up being dated when your child outgrows them quickly.

* Choose timeless themes – western, dance, undersea, space, etc. – that have the potential to grow with your child.

* Accessorize as you would any room in your house, with lighting, wall art, carpeting and bedding that all underscore your theme.

Although interior designers spend years learning how to arrange furniture, there are a few basic guidelines that any layman can master. Here are 10 basic principles for arranging furniture, courtesy of ElegantHome.com.

• Draw a floor plan of the room, noting the location of windows, doors, heat registers and electrical outlets. Measure the major pieces of furniture you’re planning to put in the room, then either sketch out a scale drawing of the space on graph paper and begin arranging furniture using templates or—easier and more fun–take advantage of one of the free room planning programs available online.

• Before you start arranging furniture, consider how the room is used and how many people will use it.
Identify the focal point in the room—a fireplace, view, television, etc.–and orient the furniture accordingly. If you plan to watch television in the room, the ideal distance between the set and the seating is three times the size of the screen. Therefore, if you’re watching a 32-inch screen, place your chair 96 inches away.

• Place the largest pieces of furniture first, such as the sofa in the living room or the bed in the bedroom. In most cases, this piece should face the room’s focal point. Chairs should be no more than 8 feet apart to facilitate conversation.

• Unless your room is especially small, avoid arranging furniture so it’s all pushed against the walls.

• Symmetrical arrangements work best for formal rooms. Arranging furniture asymmetrically will achieve a more casual look.

• When arranging furniture, think about the flow of traffic through the room—generally the path between doorways. Don’t place any large pieces of furniture in that path if you can avoid it, and allow 30-48 inches of width for major traffic routes, and a minimum of 24 inches of width for minor ones. Try to direct traffic around a seating group, not through the middle of it. If traffic cuts through the middle of the room, consider creating two small seating areas instead of one large one.

• Vary the size of furniture pieces throughout the room, so your eyes move up and down as you scan the space. Balance a large or tall item by placing another piece of similar scale across the room from it. Avoid putting two tall pieces next to each other.

• Combine straight and curved lines for contrast. If the furniture is modern and linear, throw in a round table for contrast. If the furniture is curvy, mix in an angular piece. Similarly, pair solids with voids: combine a leggy chair with a solid side table, and a solid chair with a leggy table.

• Place a table within easy reach of every seat, being sure to combine pieces of similar scale. Coffee tables should be located 14-18 inches from a sofa to provide sufficient leg room.

• In bedrooms, allow at least 24 inches between the side of the bed and a wall, and at least 36 inches between the bed and a swinging door. In a dining room, make sure there’s at least 48 inches between each edge of the table and the nearest wall or piece of furniture. If traffic doesn’t pass behind the chairs on one side of the table, 36 inches should be sufficient on that side.