When you’re putting together a new look for your bedroom, there’s really only one decorating rule that you need to remember: make yourself happy! In other words, don’t stress about coordinating your bedroom furniture so that an interior decorator would approve or that your guests will be impressed. Your bedroom style should match your personality and be compatible with restful sleeping and relaxing activities.

Now having said that, here are some general guidelines that will ease the whole process of decorating your bedroom and coordinating your bedroom furniture. First of all, you should take some time to discover your own personal style. Look through home magazines, visit open show houses and surf sites online. If you take the time to look at and experience different decorating styles, you’ll soon begin to feel more comfortable with certain themes and looks.

If you’re redoing the whole bedroom, start with fabrics and flooring first, then choose major purchases and paint. Don’t paint the walls and buy furniture before you’ve decided on flooring and picked out fabrics. It’s much easier to match paint to fabric than vice versa. And don’t just pick out fabrics at the store. Take home lots of samples so you can see them in the right light. Once you start deciding on paint, make sure you try a few different colors on the wall before buying gallons and gallons.

Coordinating your bedroom furniture is easier if you have a clear idea of the look you want or the effect you’re trying to achieve. The best way to make sure you know exactly what you want is to write it down. Don’t just write down something like “contemporary,” but describe your imagined look completely.

Work from the large to the small. Purchase your large furniture pieces first, then begin to add smaller accessories and decorative items. Once you start incorporating the smaller pieces, try to repeat colors, styles or themes. Everything you add should be a reinforcement of what you’re trying to achieve, not just additional clutter.

Unless you’re going for a purely traditional look, coordinating your bedroom furniture doesn’t mean “matches exactly.” You’re really free to use different styles, designs from different periods, even different colors–as long as there is some common element to tie them together.

When it comes to coordinating your bedroom furniture, feel free to experiment. At the same time, try to achieve some balance and a sense that pieces belong to a chosen theme. Above all, remember the one rule of decorating: put yourself and your family first. Don’t feel confined to the dictates of “good design.” Any design that functions well for your lifestyle and pleases your senses is good design.