Part 3: Interior design Download shell here or continue on with the shell from parts 1 & 2.
Ok so time to give that house some inside life, so this is all about decorating for now so please dont add any walls try and use what is in the shell.
One thing we all need in our life is a bit of clutter hehe.
My first tip for any interior is Decorate! Decorate! Decorate!
So you need to decide on your style/theme you are going for and try keeping within that style/theme through out the house so that it flows nicely.
Also you need to decide who you are building for, is a family going to live here with kids? Is it for a bachelor or bachelorette? Maybe a young married couple? What about housemates?
So with your post please include what style/theme you went with and also who you decorated it for (how many sims and what ages/sexes are they?)
So the requirements for this part of the challenge is:
1. 2 bedrooms (state who they are for)
2. shared bathroom
3. kitchen
4. dining area
5. living room
6. study nook
Make sure you concentrate on these areas:
What we want to see in this challenge is the use of clutter to give this house some personality and a lived in feel to it. bb.showhiddenobjects and debug items are your friends.
Fill bare areas
Required items
1. Clutter
2. at least 2 different floor coverings in the open living/kitchen area
3. at least 2 different wall coverings used in the open living/kitchen area
4. wall decoration of any kind
5. some pot plants/flowers used
Make sure the house has all the necessities needed to live day to day.
TIPS:
Get creative, try create out of the box decoration that gives your house personality and different from a normal plain house with the basics.
One thing we find is when using standing plant pots that most of them if placed on the tile the game places it next to a wall more often than not it will be sticking through the wall so hold the CTRL button down on your keyboard and move the item slightly away.
Cheat bb.moveobjects aka moo is great tool for decorating and placing items on shelves, or making things look more creative. Always PLAY TEST everything, especially if you are using Moo make sure everything that can be used is able to be used.
When you think you are finished go back and decorate some more lol.
When your finished zoom your camera out and look for bare areas that could be filled, this also means bare walls.
You dont have to over decorate but you don't want big empty gaps
Try not to rush as that usually leads to finding placement and play issues.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE PERSONAL FEEDBACK ON YOUR PRACTICE CHALLENGE PLEASE ADD #qcfeedback TO YOUR UPLOAD CHALLENGE HOUSE
(Also let me know here that you would like feedback which will be mailed to you and can be discussed in detail with you)
The finished product
My roofing is a bit blah but It looked horrible on the gallery so I changed it a little
Part 3: Interiors
So my theme was a bit of a modern relaxing theme and the occupants are a single dad and his teen daughter.
Living Room
I love creating feature walls using a different type of wall covering and columns to cover up the seam. Also I used a lot of moo (bb.moveobjects) to place the wall decorations exactly where I wanted them
2nd pic is of the little study nook in the living room, I always add clutter to my desks and tables to give a more lived in feel. Shelving and clutter is always a great idea to give more personality to rooms.
Kitchen
I love making my own shelving and decorating it depending on the room its in, and getting creative with the shapes of islands is always fun.
Remember decorate, decorate, decorate!!! The fruit bowl is always great to add some color but you can always go to the debug items and use things from there to decorate, such as wine bottles, mugs and glasses on shelves or benches.
Bedroom 1
Single fathers bedroom, again I love the feature walls behind bed heads and I love getting creative with mirrors here I have combined 2 different types of mirror and the wall strip decoration. Always clutter up your dressing tables and bedside tables.
Bedroom 2
Teen daughters room, being a teen girl I tried to bring in a bit of bright colors, and again a feature wall. I realised while doing this post I have forgotten the blinds in her room (whoops).
Bathroom
Lastly the bathroom, my pet peeve is when people dont decorate bathrooms with toilet paper next to the toilet I mean come on sims have to wipe themselves to lol.
Feel free to download and pick apart my build I am sure Ive made mistakes in places, though I am such a slow builder/decorator because I take so long placing everything lol.
Sorry for the long post pics are a bit big but wanted you guys to see details
The furnishing of A Little Retreat is so very nice! @Cbear13 I won't post about the rooms because you were posting the pictures as an example to other simmers of ways to furnish the home. I just wanted to say though that the way you have furnished each room looks very nice! Very nice colour schemes that you have used.
Ok here are some pictures of my interior for the practise challenge. I didn't upload it because I'm not quite happy with the exterior. But if anyone wants it, I'll upload it.
Let's start with an Overview.
As you can see I used different colors of the same floor type to create a custom floor design. Or in the case of the master bedroom to create my own rug.
Master Bedroom
I tried something new for me with the design for the bed, by carefully moving it into the counters. I used a contrasting red color for the walls in the nook created by the counters. The final touch to the wall is created by those nifty stickers. If placed carefully you can create several different designs with them (like a flower, see the picture of Smurfette's room from my Schlumpfhausen built)
I filled the counter space with some books, a family picture and a clock (I really wish they had some more modern alarm clocks).
The window sill was created with two shelfs. Instead of a dresser I added some shelves with clothing and a shoe rack.
Guests Room
I placed two counters in the square between the tow beds in order to create some space for a flower lamp, some books and picture frames. On the wall I got creative with some of the wall pictures to create something new.
The items on the dresser were placed with MOO so they wont snap to the default spaces on the counter.
Bathroom
I added another wall to the bath to "hide" the shower behind. And cluttered up the counter next to the sink as well as the two shelves above the toilet.
Personally I feel the bathroom looks a bit bigger than it actually is because of the hidden shower.
Main room
I used some seatings to create my own surface below the television, this makes it unique but also makes them unusable as seating
The living area was seperated from the office with the help of bamboo and a fence.
The office itself was created with two bookshelves and some file cabinets surrounding the desk.
For the kitchen I added some counters on the wall next to the fridge and cluttered them up with a coffee machine, some decorations and debug items. With the help of MOO some were even added to the emptier parts of the cabinet (don't look at it from a lower angle, the bottles in the middle part of the cabinet don't fit the height of the shelf in it)
For dining I created an island, which is connected to the stove but still seperated from it by a glas fence.
The counter next to the stove got cluttered with some vegetables and herbs, to make it look like someone is preparing food here.
This is how I had originally planned the stove area. But my Sim stopped cooking once it was nearly done and had to be placed on a plate. With some testing I found out that she couldn't place it on the counters. Why she didn't want to place it on the free one right behind her is a miracle.
So instead of using the end counters I ended up using normal counters.
The furnishing of the interior rooms are is so very nice! @crysk It was great reading what you wrote to accompany the pictures. It is helpful for fellow simmers. You have used so many creative ideas in the rooms, and the rooms all look great!
Your home is so very nice! @lisa17ann The flowers in the front garden look very pretty! The curved back porch and outdoors areas look very nice! Very nice furnishing of each of the interior rooms! The colour schemes look very nice.
I won't post about the details of your two homes because it is a practice challenge to provide ideas for other simmers, but I just wanted to say that the homes are so very nice!
@crysk wonderful practice challenge I love all the creative ideas in there, I especially like the bedhead with the counters looks great and the creative kitchen counter and island.
One thing that I love doing and looks amazing is the way you do the flooring to make patterns and new flooring. Not alot of people do it but it really brightens up the rooms
If anyone wants tips on cottages go to lisa she is amazing with them, me not so much haha. Looks amazing @lisa17ann, it really has a great lived in feel with all the clutter and decoration and i love the mown lawn look
My question to those doing the practice challenges is would you like more of them? we can experiment with other styles and things to build if you like
Also if there is anything in particular you would like to learn to build let me know and will include it in a practice challenge
@crysk I wanted to start small with the practice challenge, especially since sometimes we do see people make rooms to large and then have trouble decorating them and they end up looking a little bare. But if people are interested for more of them I will do some bigger lots also
@Cbear13 yeah sadly not many people create floor patterns, same goes for terrain paint outside. I think both are great and especially cheap ways to brighten up rooms/gardens. Especially if someone is making a starter home.
Haha, I would actually have prefered just a square more room at the kitchen side (kinda like it's on the living room side). The cabinets are a bit too close to the chairs for my liking
And cluttering up a small place is always far easier than a huge room.
Maybe there should be a seperate thread for practise challenges. With more experienced builders explaining what they did to create a certain look and giving tips to the newbie builders. And of course with different themes.
I think the practice challange is great and would definitely be up for doing more of them. I'm still working on my interior at the mo but I love the feedback and tips that everyone gives.
Your cottage looks amazing @lisa17ann I really like the lawn
@crysk I thought of doing a separate thread but then I run way to many threads as it is so thought I would just keep it in the comp thread but I may change my mind on that still
Well in theory anyone could start that thread and maybe have let's say 3 other have two main posts on the front page as well, which they could alter, that way several people would be in charge of it
@crysk ok you talked me into it
before I post the next practice challenge I will sort it out and transfer over the current 1st challenge
Feel free to post everything you have already on the 1st practice challenge
There wont be to much in it compared to these threads just have to list the practice challenges.
Though I had a thought that those who want to make a tips post on the new thread with your own tips list I will link them in the top post
If anyone else has suggestions for the thread also let me know
@Cbear13 hmmm yay for us and ad aww more work for you
Maybe let others provide shells and themes, so that it's not only you doing all the work? that way you would only need to update
Comments
For anyone who missed part 1 you can find it here:
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/14628190/#Comment_14628190
For anyone who missed part 2 you can find it here:
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/comment/14658432/#Comment_14658432
Part 3: Interior design
Download shell here or continue on with the shell from parts 1 & 2.
Ok so time to give that house some inside life, so this is all about decorating for now so please dont add any walls try and use what is in the shell.
One thing we all need in our life is a bit of clutter hehe.
My first tip for any interior is Decorate! Decorate! Decorate!
So you need to decide on your style/theme you are going for and try keeping within that style/theme through out the house so that it flows nicely.
Also you need to decide who you are building for, is a family going to live here with kids? Is it for a bachelor or bachelorette? Maybe a young married couple? What about housemates?
So with your post please include what style/theme you went with and also who you decorated it for (how many sims and what ages/sexes are they?)
So the requirements for this part of the challenge is:
1. 2 bedrooms (state who they are for)
2. shared bathroom
3. kitchen
4. dining area
5. living room
6. study nook
Make sure you concentrate on these areas:
What we want to see in this challenge is the use of clutter to give this house some personality and a lived in feel to it. bb.showhiddenobjects and debug items are your friends.
Fill bare areas
Required items
1. Clutter
2. at least 2 different floor coverings in the open living/kitchen area
3. at least 2 different wall coverings used in the open living/kitchen area
4. wall decoration of any kind
5. some pot plants/flowers used
Make sure the house has all the necessities needed to live day to day.
TIPS:
Get creative, try create out of the box decoration that gives your house personality and different from a normal plain house with the basics.
One thing we find is when using standing plant pots that most of them if placed on the tile the game places it next to a wall more often than not it will be sticking through the wall so hold the CTRL button down on your keyboard and move the item slightly away.
Cheat bb.moveobjects aka moo is great tool for decorating and placing items on shelves, or making things look more creative.
Always PLAY TEST everything, especially if you are using Moo make sure everything that can be used is able to be used.
When you think you are finished go back and decorate some more lol.
When your finished zoom your camera out and look for bare areas that could be filled, this also means bare walls.
You dont have to over decorate but you don't want big empty gaps
Try not to rush as that usually leads to finding placement and play issues.
IF YOU WOULD LIKE PERSONAL FEEDBACK ON YOUR PRACTICE CHALLENGE PLEASE ADD #qcfeedback TO YOUR UPLOAD CHALLENGE HOUSE
(Also let me know here that you would like feedback which will be mailed to you and can be discussed in detail with you)
✦✦ Origin ID: cbear1313 ✦✦ Gallery: cbear1313 Gallery ✦✦ Cbear's Creations ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Contest ✦✦ QC Monthly Contest ✦✦ QC Create A Room Competition ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Practice Challenges ✦✦
Gallery Link: A Little Retreat
The finished product
My roofing is a bit blah but It looked horrible on the gallery so I changed it a little
Part 3: Interiors
So my theme was a bit of a modern relaxing theme and the occupants are a single dad and his teen daughter.
Living Room
I love creating feature walls using a different type of wall covering and columns to cover up the seam. Also I used a lot of moo (bb.moveobjects) to place the wall decorations exactly where I wanted them
2nd pic is of the little study nook in the living room, I always add clutter to my desks and tables to give a more lived in feel. Shelving and clutter is always a great idea to give more personality to rooms.
Kitchen
I love making my own shelving and decorating it depending on the room its in, and getting creative with the shapes of islands is always fun.
Remember decorate, decorate, decorate!!! The fruit bowl is always great to add some color but you can always go to the debug items and use things from there to decorate, such as wine bottles, mugs and glasses on shelves or benches.
Bedroom 1
Single fathers bedroom, again I love the feature walls behind bed heads and I love getting creative with mirrors here I have combined 2 different types of mirror and the wall strip decoration. Always clutter up your dressing tables and bedside tables.
Bedroom 2
Teen daughters room, being a teen girl I tried to bring in a bit of bright colors, and again a feature wall. I realised while doing this post I have forgotten the blinds in her room (whoops).
Bathroom
Lastly the bathroom, my pet peeve is when people dont decorate bathrooms with toilet paper next to the toilet I mean come on sims have to wipe themselves to lol.
Feel free to download and pick apart my build I am sure Ive made mistakes in places, though I am such a slow builder/decorator because I take so long placing everything lol.
Sorry for the long post pics are a bit big but wanted you guys to see details
✦✦ Origin ID: cbear1313 ✦✦ Gallery: cbear1313 Gallery ✦✦ Cbear's Creations ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Contest ✦✦ QC Monthly Contest ✦✦ QC Create A Room Competition ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Practice Challenges ✦✦
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
✦✦ Origin ID: cbear1313 ✦✦ Gallery: cbear1313 Gallery ✦✦ Cbear's Creations ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Contest ✦✦ QC Monthly Contest ✦✦ QC Create A Room Competition ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Practice Challenges ✦✦
✦✦ Origin ID: cbear1313 ✦✦ Gallery: cbear1313 Gallery ✦✦ Cbear's Creations ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Contest ✦✦ QC Monthly Contest ✦✦ QC Create A Room Competition ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Practice Challenges ✦✦
Let's start with an Overview.
As you can see I used different colors of the same floor type to create a custom floor design. Or in the case of the master bedroom to create my own rug.
Master Bedroom
I tried something new for me with the design for the bed, by carefully moving it into the counters. I used a contrasting red color for the walls in the nook created by the counters. The final touch to the wall is created by those nifty stickers. If placed carefully you can create several different designs with them (like a flower, see the picture of Smurfette's room from my Schlumpfhausen built)
I filled the counter space with some books, a family picture and a clock (I really wish they had some more modern alarm clocks).
The window sill was created with two shelfs. Instead of a dresser I added some shelves with clothing and a shoe rack.
Guests Room
I placed two counters in the square between the tow beds in order to create some space for a flower lamp, some books and picture frames. On the wall I got creative with some of the wall pictures to create something new.
The items on the dresser were placed with MOO so they wont snap to the default spaces on the counter.
Bathroom
I added another wall to the bath to "hide" the shower behind. And cluttered up the counter next to the sink as well as the two shelves above the toilet.
Personally I feel the bathroom looks a bit bigger than it actually is because of the hidden shower.
Main room
I used some seatings to create my own surface below the television, this makes it unique but also makes them unusable as seating
The living area was seperated from the office with the help of bamboo and a fence.
The office itself was created with two bookshelves and some file cabinets surrounding the desk.
For the kitchen I added some counters on the wall next to the fridge and cluttered them up with a coffee machine, some decorations and debug items. With the help of MOO some were even added to the emptier parts of the cabinet (don't look at it from a lower angle, the bottles in the middle part of the cabinet don't fit the height of the shelf in it)
For dining I created an island, which is connected to the stove but still seperated from it by a glas fence.
The counter next to the stove got cluttered with some vegetables and herbs, to make it look like someone is preparing food here.
This is how I had originally planned the stove area. But my Sim stopped cooking once it was nearly done and had to be placed on a plate. With some testing I found out that she couldn't place it on the counters. Why she didn't want to place it on the free one right behind her is a miracle.
So instead of using the end counters I ended up using normal counters.
Of course I went with a cottage style and a shabby chic/boho interior
Front of house
Back of house (a bit more of a manicured garden in the back)
Overhead roof lines and floor plan
Living room Area
Dining room Area
Bathroom
Main bedroom
Your home is so very nice! @lisa17ann
I won't post about the details of your two homes because it is a practice challenge to provide ideas for other simmers, but I just wanted to say that the homes are so very nice!
http://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/817478/hello-come-and-introduce-yourself
http://tinyurl.com/OneRoomOneWeek
http://tinyurl.com/rosemow
My Showcase thread https://forums.thesims.com/en_US/discussion/948861/rosemow-s-rooms-showcase
One thing that I love doing and looks amazing is the way you do the flooring to make patterns and new flooring. Not alot of people do it but it really brightens up the rooms
@lisa17ann no way you did a cottage theme??? haha
If anyone wants tips on cottages go to lisa she is amazing with them, me not so much haha. Looks amazing @lisa17ann, it really has a great lived in feel with all the clutter and decoration and i love the mown lawn look
✦✦ Origin ID: cbear1313 ✦✦ Gallery: cbear1313 Gallery ✦✦ Cbear's Creations ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Contest ✦✦ QC Monthly Contest ✦✦ QC Create A Room Competition ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Practice Challenges ✦✦
Also if there is anything in particular you would like to learn to build let me know and will include it in a practice challenge
✦✦ Origin ID: cbear1313 ✦✦ Gallery: cbear1313 Gallery ✦✦ Cbear's Creations ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Contest ✦✦ QC Monthly Contest ✦✦ QC Create A Room Competition ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Practice Challenges ✦✦
✦✦ Origin ID: cbear1313 ✦✦ Gallery: cbear1313 Gallery ✦✦ Cbear's Creations ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Contest ✦✦ QC Monthly Contest ✦✦ QC Create A Room Competition ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Practice Challenges ✦✦
Haha, I would actually have prefered just a square more room at the kitchen side (kinda like it's on the living room side). The cabinets are a bit too close to the chairs for my liking
And cluttering up a small place is always far easier than a huge room.
Maybe there should be a seperate thread for practise challenges. With more experienced builders explaining what they did to create a certain look and giving tips to the newbie builders. And of course with different themes.
Your cottage looks amazing @lisa17ann I really like the lawn
Thanks @rosemow and @Amiejaidenalbie_1988
✦✦ Origin ID: cbear1313 ✦✦ Gallery: cbear1313 Gallery ✦✦ Cbear's Creations ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Contest ✦✦ QC Monthly Contest ✦✦ QC Create A Room Competition ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Practice Challenges ✦✦
before I post the next practice challenge I will sort it out and transfer over the current 1st challenge
Feel free to post everything you have already on the 1st practice challenge
There wont be to much in it compared to these threads just have to list the practice challenges.
Though I had a thought that those who want to make a tips post on the new thread with your own tips list I will link them in the top post
If anyone else has suggestions for the thread also let me know
✦✦ Origin ID: cbear1313 ✦✦ Gallery: cbear1313 Gallery ✦✦ Cbear's Creations ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Contest ✦✦ QC Monthly Contest ✦✦ QC Create A Room Competition ✦✦
✦✦ Quality Control Practice Challenges ✦✦
Maybe let others provide shells and themes, so that it's not only you doing all the work? that way you would only need to update