Build a Simple Modern House

This is a step-by-step guide on how to build a simple modern house. There are many ways to do it, and of course, many different styles to choose from, but I’ll go for a very simple one, which everyone can do quickly!

Lot Size
Pillars
Shape
Half-walls
Details
Window placement
Foundation and fence
Patio and path

Lot Size

A lot of people pick the biggest lot, because you get an easy overview and plenty of space, but the design will be more fitting to the scenario if it’s the correct size. You should pick a lot-size that fits the size of the house you want to build, so if you’re building a small house, build it on a small lot (Unless you want to do heavy landscaping!)

Pillars

I normally start by using the roomtool to create pillars symmetrically on the lot. So here I’m going to make a simple square house as an example. For different shapes and structures, be thorough to make the pillars perpendicular to one-another, to get a safe result! -Playing around with asymmetry can be really cool, but it’s also a lot more time consuming.

Shapes

When making the shape, make sure you drag from the inner corner of the pillar and over to the next one, like so:

You can do it on the outside too for a more slick and clean look, but this way gives it more depth, and definitely fits small, simple modern houses very well! Also, if you realize that you want to change the shape during, just add more pillars wherever you want, and connect the walls. Like connect the dots, with pillars!

Then continue the pillars on top of the ones you’ve already made, so follow the wall all the way up each floor, and bam, you’ve got yourself a fancy box!

Here you can see I’ve added two extra pillars for aesthetics and pulled the wall back one square where the door is going to be, again: Depth!

Half-walls

Half-walls are an amazing and simple way to make details on the outside of the structure. Use the half-wall tool and drag on the outer corner of the pillars all the way around the house, and on the roof. That will also create a perfect roof to your house. Flat as flat can be!

Details

Add exterior wall trim to the top of your walls, and half-wall trim to your outside half-walls. A good tip is to colour your house the desired colour before you do this, so you can see what your accent colour is going to be (the colour of all of your details).

Then colour the base and roof of your house in the same colour as your accent colour like so:

Window placement

A modern house can have many windows, or none at all! Personally I prefer lots of windows, symmetrically placed on each side of the house. I would recommend having window placement on the front of the house symmetrical, if your stairs are centered.

Modern architecture often uses asymmetry with balance items or structures to make it seemingly symmetrical to the eye when it’s in fact not symmetrical at all, but I’ll come back to that in Patio and Path.

Foundation and fence

Make a patio from the outer corner of your front pillars, and drag until you find it big enough. Raise it a little bit, and colour it with your accent colour.

Add a fence you like, and pick either the accent colour, or the main colour of your house. Either will work fine!

Patio and path

On this patio I’ve decided to have a pool and seating area because it looks very inviting. It also looks great on The Gallery images if you want to upload your house!

This is an asymmetrical design, with the pool on one side, and balance objects on the other. So the pool is the main focus, and the seating area is the balance. I’ve put a plant in each corner of the seating area to “frame it”, so it follows my square and edge-focused design. I’ve also given the furniture a different colour to make it pop, a softer brown works well with black and white. For a more quirky and extreme look you can play with strong neon colours. Playing with colours is fun!

The path I made with carpets, and I’ve chosen the main colour of the house to create contrast. This is a straight simple path, but it’s also quite fun to play around and make curvy paths like this: