Don't Divide and Conquer

After parents have "researched" their children to get their design ideas and preferences, it's time to think about how to practically apply this knowledge in the given space. Designer Tina Barkley says all too often, parents want to do something drastic, like physically divide a room with a barrier. "Parents shouldn't try to cut a room in half," Barkley says. "Try to keep the room as a unified place and just create small areas within the room for each child."

Instead, use color as your divider. Wadsworth says complementary palettes can bring even the most divergent decorating preferences together in one space. "Say you have one child who's into soccer and another who is still in that princess stage," Wadsworth says. "Using black, white and pink as the basis for the colors in the room will give each child what they want, and you're still using colors that look great together."