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XQ Showcase. Latest: The Art of Charm

XinqunXinqun Posts: 612 Member
edited July 2021 in The Sims 4 Lots
EDIT: This first post was originally just about my first major build, Oasis Shades; I wasn't planning on making a showcase thread at the time. But that's what this thread now is, and every showcase thread needs a table of contents, so here we go. The original first post is under the spoiler tag.

CONTENTS

Oasis Shades
OSx.jpg
Original post:
I wanted to show off, and this doesn't fit into the places where I normally post my builds. It's a tiny bit bigger than a tiny house, and a little bit pricier than a starter. It's the mansion that I'm replacing Affluista Mansion with in my game.

Gallery link: Oasis Shades (Couldn't think of a better name, sorry.)

Oasis1.jpg

Oasis2.jpg

Oasis3.jpg

See how the paving by the pool ends abruptly at the row of wild grass? There used to be a set of stairs going up to the patio there ... there *should* be a set of stairs ... but it seems that, as long as that patio has direct access to the ground level, the game automatically assumes one of the doors giving on to it (in order of preference: kitchen, dining room, gym) must be the front door. Had me pulling my hair out in frustration until I decided that I could jolly well sacrifice that one small exit if it meant that the actual front door would be recognised as the front door. (Yes, I know "set front door" exists, but it exists in Live Mode, and I don't believe that the setting carries over into the gallery.)
Gallery link

Spa Romana (a spa)
Comment link ... Gallery link

Babylon 600BC
Comment link ... Gallery link

Hungarian Farmhouse
Comment link ... Gallery link

Hungarian Starter
Comment link ... Gallery link

10K Cottage
Comment link ... Gallery link

St Joe Cupertino Church (a church, built for a forum challenge)
Comment link ... Gallery link

Crystal Classic
Comment link ... Gallery link

Birchbower Manor
Comment link ... Gallery link

Robinson's Retreat
Comment link ... Gallery link

Victorian Fixer-upper
Comment link ... Gallery link

Ophelia Redux
Comment link ... Gallery link

Carolina Breeze
Comment link ... Gallery link

Lady Delilah
Comment link ... Gallery link

Ivory Grove
Comment link ... Gallery link

Villa California
Comment link ... Gallery link

Casa Grenada
Comment link ... Gallery link

Summer Sweetness
Comment link ... Gallery link

Tenebraea
Comment link ... Gallery link

Old Glory
Comment link ... Gallery link

Place Alexandre-Schaunard
Comment link ... Gallery link

The Green Lion Inn (a pub)
Comment link ... Gallery link

Buttonmasher Cafe (a cafe, if the name wasn't enough of a giveaway)
Comment link ... Gallery link

Happy Ever After
Comment link ... Gallery link

The Windenburg Neoclassical Harbour Redevelopment Project (five non-residential builds)
Comment link ... see comment link for individual gallery links to the five builds involved.

The Silver Stag Inn (restaurant)
Comment link ... Gallery link

1 Strawberry Lane
Comment link ... Gallery link

Tudor Gables
Comment link ... Gallery link

The White Elephant (restaurant)
Comment link ... Gallery link

Winterbourne Hall
Comment link ... Gallery link

Twin Townhouses
Comment link ... Gallery link (west half) ... Gallery link (east half)

King's Hallow
Comment link ... Gallery link

Ubrite Student Union
Comment link ... Gallery link

Science Centre
Comment link ... Gallery link

Skeldale Veterinary
Comment link ... Gallery link

Volcanic Temple
Comment link ... Gallery link

The Art of Charm
Comment link ... Gallery link
Post edited by Xinqun on

Comments

  • rosemowrosemow Posts: 163,519 Member
    The exterior design of Oasis Shades is very nice! :) Very nice layout of the build! It looks very nice how you have placed the windows in the build! The stone texture of parts of the exterior looks nice. It looks nice the way you have water on the edges of the building. Very nice roof covered pool area! The trees look nice how you have placed them and suit the world. Very nice outdoors living patio for sims to enjoy sitting outdoors on the seating there, having a drink and listening to music from the stereo or from sims playing the piano.
    The home is very nice :)
  • XinqunXinqun Posts: 612 Member
    edited April 2017
    Thanks, @rosemow !
    Post edited by Xinqun on
  • XinqunXinqun Posts: 612 Member
    edited March 2017
    I have another build that doesn't fit into any of my usual discussion threads, so I am claiming this one for a showcase thread.

    The new build? I finally dug out the wallet, blew off the dust, and picked up both the Spa Day pack and the Perfect Patio pack last weekend. And the first thing that came to mind (once I was done checking out all the new stuff) was that I wanted to build my own spa, something different from the ones available ... something that wasn't vaguely modern-Asian-fusion-ish. It occurred to me that the spa is closely related to the old Roman bath, and so....

    Gallery link: Spa Romana

    Street view, from the left:
    spa01.jpg

    More images below the tag:
    Street view, from the right:
    spa02.jpg

    Back view:
    spa03.jpg

    Closer view of the pool -- I mean, of the bath -- and the surrounding colonnades.
    spa04.jpg

    Playtested, and I would say that about 75% of the playtesting was just about the yoga mats alone. Each yoga mat has a placement footprint of 3x2, and it turns out that once they're in use, the 3x2 footprint suddenly becomes verboten and you can't walk across them. Which meant that, since my yoga area was only 6 squares wide, a neatly organised 2-per-row grid of yoga mats wouldn't allow people to pass to the mats in the back if the mats in front were both in use. It took a bit of rearranging and retesting before I found a layout that worked and didn't look like a mess.
    Post edited by Xinqun on
  • rosemowrosemow Posts: 163,519 Member
    It is great that you have bought Spa Day and Perfect Patio packs! :) You will enjoy using the items that came with them in your builds.
    Spa Romana is such a very nice spa venue! :) The design and layout of the build is so very nice! It looks very nice how you have placed the columns in the build! The roofing is very nice! It looks very nice how you have set up the outdoors yoga and mediation areas on the colonnades. The colonnades sections look very great! Very nice hot tub nook! Sims will enjoy relaxing in the tub. It looks nice how you have placed the hedging on the edges of the nook. Very nice pool area! Sims will enjoy swimming there. Sims will enjoy having a relaxing foot and hand massage whilst sitting in the massage chairs.
    It is a very nice spa venue for sims to enjoy visiting! :)
  • XinqunXinqun Posts: 612 Member
    Thanks, @rosemow ! I only hope everybody else likes it that much.
  • superbibi11superbibi11 Posts: 486 Member
    Very beautiful works! Oasis Shades has a very nice color scheme. And I love the architecture of the Roman Spa. Definitely my sims are going to do some meditation there :)
    I'll be following you in the Gallery and adding your works to my fav :)
    Happy simming! :)
  • XinqunXinqun Posts: 612 Member
    Thanks, @superbibi11 ! I plan to be adding more stuff here as time goes by, and I hope you will like them too!
  • Savage_Patch_KiddSavage_Patch_Kidd Posts: 2,937 Member
    Spa Romana is sooo stunning!!!! :star:
    tumblr_oy1xa2eHV31uvsi7jo2_1280.gif
  • XinqunXinqun Posts: 612 Member
    Thanks, @Esine ! I'm glad you think so!
  • yanti68yanti68 Posts: 19,017 Member
    Your 2 new builds looks lovely! I especially love the grandeur of the spa! Stunning design and decor! :)
  • XinqunXinqun Posts: 612 Member
    Thanks, @yanti68 ! I usually feel like I'm just blindly flailing about (or else resorting to a very narrow tried-and-true template) when it comes to furnishing and decor, so it's very encouraging that you like it.
  • XinqunXinqun Posts: 612 Member
    edited August 2015
    New build! Well, sort of. This one is more of an academic exercise ... it's a courtyard house based on a sketch of a floorplan from ancient Babylon, circa 600BC. It's not exactly a new build because it's actually a revision of one of the first builds I ever made, back before the introduction of half-walls made the roof parapets possible. (The first version, which I've since removed from the gallery, had one of the masonry fences instead. It ... didn't look half as good.) I've also tweaked a bunch of other things.

    Gallery link: Babylon 600BC

    Here's the sketch; I've mostly been looking at "House A":

    merkes.jpg

    The front facade is nothing to write home about; the main point of these houses was that the rooms looked inwards to the main courtyard, and presented a mostly-blank wall to the street. Here's the plan I adapted from the sketch:

    600BC02.jpg

    As you can see, I simplified and reduced a bunch of things. The biggest change I've made is in the back: I've added a dining room and a walled garden, and I've replaced the two-room suite with a second bathroom and a passage to the garden. I don't think I've diverged from the principles of the typical Babylonian courtyard house in doing this.

    And then, of course, there's the roof:

    600BC03.jpg

    I admit I took a few liberties here. I don't actually know if that thing with the pergola was usual, or if it was even ever done; but it adds a bit of variety to the rooftop, I think, and I like it.

    Finally, a view from within the garden. I was actually surprised at how charming this turned out.

    600BC04.jpg
  • rosemowrosemow Posts: 163,519 Member
    Babylon 600 BC is a very nice home! :) It looks very nice how you have created a simversion of the home from the sketch. The courtyard house looks very nice! Very nice rooftop level of the home! The pergola outdoors dining area is very nice! Sims will enjoy cooking meals on the BBQ there and eating them at the umbrella covered table in the outdoors air. Sims will have fun playing chess at the table, enjoying the sunshine. The walled garden area is very nice! Sims will enjoy growing and harvesting plants in the gardening boxes there. The trees and flowers there look very nice.
    Your simversion of the home in the sketch looks very nice! :)
  • XinqunXinqun Posts: 612 Member
    Thanks, @rosemow ! I'm glad you like it.
  • XinqunXinqun Posts: 612 Member
    edited March 2017
    Two houses to showcase this time around.

    For the 4sims4 seventh building challenge (the thread is here, though of course it's moved on to other challenges since then) I was challenged to build a house in a "traditional" style. "Traditional" in North America usually means "Cape Cod, Craftsman or Carpenter's Gothic", as far as I can tell, and I thought, why not take a look at some European traditions? I'd been thinking of doing a Hungarian farmhouse for a while, so that's what I decided to do.

    And the build tied for first in the "Open" category! So I'm pleased. I'm actually using the build in my game now, too, and I don't usually do that.

    Gallery link: Hungarian Farmhouse

    I must confess that at the time I made this pictures, I didn't actually know how to use the tab camera in live mode. So they're not, perhaps, as wonderful as they could be....
    4S4-07-1.jpg

    More images below the tag:
    4S4-07-2.jpg
    4S4-07-3.jpg
    4S4-07-4.jpg
    4S4-07-5.jpg

    AND! I also made a much cheaper, starter version of the house: Hungarian Starter

    The live mode tab camera adds the potential for a little more drama in your pictures, I find....
    hungary.jpg
    Post edited by Xinqun on
  • rosemowrosemow Posts: 163,519 Member
    Congratulations on coming first in the Open category! :) I will repost here what I wrote in challenge thread.
    Hungarian Farmhouse is very nice! :) The exterior design of the home is very nice! It captures well the traditional theme! Very nice roofing and the yellow flower box windows look very pretty! The texture of the exterior suits well the build type. Very nice design of the roof covered front porch! It looks nice how you have used the columns. The flowers around the front porch and the lavender on the side of the house are nice homely touches there. Very nice front garden area! Sims will enjoy growing and harvesting plants in the gardening boxes there or enjoy painting in the sunshine on the easel. It is nice that you have placed seats there for sims to enjoy sitting chatting and watching their children having fun playing on the monkey bars. Sims will enjoy cooking on the BBQ there and eating their meals at the picnic table, enjoying dining outdoors in the air. The birdbath and flower cart are nice touches in the garden. Sims will have fun swimming in the pool. It is nice that you are areas on the front porch for sims to have fun playing chess and card games at the tables. The white fencing looks nice and suits well the type of home. Very nice furnishing of the interior of the home! The design of the kitchen is very nice! Nice corner nook curved counter for sims to enjoy making a cup of coffee. It looks very nice how you have placed the plates decor at the different levels on the wall. The crockery display cabinet, the hanging pans and the pears picture on the wall are nice home touches there. It is nice that you have an eat in table area there. The stove type suits the kitchen. Very nice layout of the living room and bedrooms! It looks nice how you have angled the armchairs either sides of the sofa. Sims will enjoy sitting resting there warming up near the fire and reading a book. The tea set is a nice home touch on the coffee table. The floor mat complements well with the furniture. The teddy is cute in the kids bedroom! Nice corner nook computer study desk area in the master bedroom.

    Hungarian Starter is very nice as well! :) The texture of the exterior looks nice and nice front porch sitting area. The lavender placed on the edges of the home looks homely and pretty. Very nice front outdoors areas for sims to enjoy painting on the easel in the sunshine, or enjoy sitting on the seat bench having a chat. Nice gardening nook under the tree for sims to enjoy growing and harvesting plants in the gardening boxes. The garden floor paving looks nice.
    Both homes are very nice :)
  • XinqunXinqun Posts: 612 Member
    Thanks, @rosemow !
  • pronteruspronterus Posts: 2,166 Member
    Your Hungarian houses and other builds look great @Xinqun :) I personally liked Spa Romana.
  • XinqunXinqun Posts: 612 Member
    Thanks @pronterus ! I'm using Spa Romana in my game too, but, unlike the Hungarian houses, that was my intention when I built it. Only thing is that I wound up moving it to a bigger lot, and now I don't know what to do with the extra space all around it.
  • yanti68yanti68 Posts: 19,017 Member
    Oooh! Your farm house is so charming! How I wish we had chickens, cows and pigs in the game! So that we can make a real farm! The house and the garden is adorable! Good job! :)
  • XinqunXinqun Posts: 612 Member
    Thanks, @yanti68 !

    I imagine that cows, chickens, etc. would be part of an "animals/pets" expansion set, maybe two or three years down the line. Imagine having a pet cow in your apartment! Personally, though, the thing I want (after spiral staircases) is the ability to make terraced townhouses with separate lots ... have a neighbourhood with lots of deep, narrow lots right up against each other, and the ability to build right up to the property line instead of having to stop a square away from it. We can only hope, right?
  • yanti68yanti68 Posts: 19,017 Member
    True! We can only hope! I have been hoping to have a farm expansion pack since Sims 2!
  • XinqunXinqun Posts: 612 Member
    Just a tiny one, this time: a starter home on a 10K budget.

    Gallery link: 10K Cottage

    Mainly it's for the Mini Micro Builds challenge (theme 6: Under Budget) though I've also posted this to the Starter Homes thread.

    I could probably fit more stuff into the build if I went to the absolute cheapest for everything, but I'm kind of reluctant to go to any bed with an Energy rating less than 5. I want to minimise the time your sims need to recharge their energy via sleep, thus giving them more time to do everything they need to do, so getting a good bed is a top priority for me. And for all the plumbing and appliances, I try to avoid anything that could give a sim the "uncomfortable" moodlet, or at least reducing the possibility of it, so that means avoiding the cheapest of the cheap. Second cheapest is good enough for me.

    10K.jpg
  • rosemowrosemow Posts: 163,519 Member
    10k Cottage is a very nice home for sims to start their sims lives in! :) It looks very nice how you have used the spandrels in the front porch! The dome windows look nice how you have placed them either sides of the front door. The roofing is very nice! The flowers look pretty on the front edges of the home and the trees give a nice look to the entrance area of the home.
    It is a very nice starter :)
  • XinqunXinqun Posts: 612 Member
    Thanks, @rosemow ! I agree about the trees ... and I had to do a bit of trickery to get them to show on the gallery picture, because they weren't showing up initially. I figured that this was because the camera was too close to the lot -- you know how trees disappear when you get too close to them. So I put a false second floor under the roof, without any walls, and set it as having medium-height walls. This fools the game into thinking the building is a bit taller than it actually is; so the camera takes a step back to capture the whole building, and that in turn gives the trees the distance they need to not disappear.
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