A novice builder might look at creations on the Sims 4 gallery and become a little discouraged. “I could never build something like that!” you might tell yourself, however it’s totally possible to develop your Sims building design skills!
There are many components to a great build, but they can all be summed up with one descriptor: Great attention to detail.
In this tutorial I’m going to demonstrate a design technique for interiors which might help you out if you’re struggling to design and decorate rooms.
For this tutorial, I’m going to start out with a room shell that I created. This is a random room shape, with designated door and window placement. Let’s copy this room twice, so we now have three identical rooms. Each of the interiors will be designed in three different styles for demonstration purposes.
Decide Your Style
Are you creating this room with a Sim in mind? What is their personality like? If you don’t have a specific family or household you’re designing for, then make one up! Think of who would be living here and give them a little story. This will help you tremendously and make your build less generic. For my three bedrooms themes, I’m going to go with comfy, modern, and traditional.
Swatch It Out
Decide your floor and wall pattern, textures, and colours. Pick a wall, any wall, inside your room. These can help guide the tone of your room so you don’t get off track.
Room 1: I really wanted to go for a comfortable and ‘lived-in’ motif; something that has a nice abundance of clutter and items all around. Since there would be a lot of stuff for your eye to look at in this room, it might be best to go with a more muted colour palette on the walls and floor.
Room 2: For this room, clutter was out and modern was in. I wanted a more futuristic vibe, which gave me thoughts of greys, shiny surfaces, mirrors, glass and clean lines. These grey and orange swatches will do quite nicely for this theme.
Room 3: For this room, we went back in time. An old Victorian style with carpeting, paneling and wallpaper. These will set the stage for our old-timey interior.
Place The Big Stuff
Get all of that clutter out of your brain for just a second. Done? Good! Now is the time to look at large pieces of furniture you would like to incorporate based on your style. Don’t worry about paintings, lamps, small chairs, or any other small clutter right now. You really want to define the layout of the space with the large pieces, and then the small stuff will come much easier.
This is when you can decide where to place your bed, closet, chests, couches, or anything else that’s going to be taking up some space. Don’t be afraid to rearrange things again and again! It’s not about getting it right the first time. Place something, let it marinate, and then place it someplace else. How does it feel in this position compared to the one before? Feel out the space. The more you do this, the more you will develop better design instincts. Practice makes perfect!
Room 1: Bed, couch, closet, desk, easel. Got it!
Room 2: Bed, desk, sitting area, dresser. No problem!
Room 3: Bed, armoire, chest mirror, vanity. Too Easy!
Add Details
Once you have your large objects, you can work on the little things. Start in one corner and work your way all around the room. Use bb.moveobjects to add clutter on top of surfaces that do not have item slots, and also use bb.ignoregameplayunlocksentitlement to unlock some of that cool stuff that is progress locked (if you don’t mind using this, that is!). Also, don’t forget about bb.showhiddenobjects to place some of that hidden debug build gold. Place objects whatever you like! Try to use items that work with the theme you started out with. This will narrow down your detailing so you don’t feel so overwhelmed by objects.
Room 1: This was a clutter filled room! Here are the final pictures.
Room 2: So very different than the first! Ultra-modern and sophisticated. Check out the final shots!
Room 3: Old fashioned and fabulous! It’s amazing how much decor can change things up!
Working in steps will help you develop a process. After you have some practice, you won’t even have to think about it anymore!
Let me know in the comments if this Sims building technique has worked for you! What are some of your build processes?
You can catch my Let’s Plays and Build Casts daily on twitch.tv/holliebb
