Building the perfect house for your perfect Sims family can be a bit of a task. If you’re not a very confident builder and the gallery doesn’t have exactly what you’re looking for, you’re left with little options. Although it may seem intimidating, building your own house can be really rewarding and will ensure your Sims get exactly what they need! I’ve built two family homes in two different styles to show you just how easy it can be to create the perfect home!
A lot of Sims players often seem to struggle to build anything that isn’t just a rectangle. Although this can be frustrating, I wanted to show that it isn’t necessarily a bad thing, and, with a little bit of inspiration, you can transform your dull and boring rectangles into something really interesting! This Cottage Home makes the most of the rectangle. At its core it’s a very simple and easy-to-build shape but by adding wall decorations and colourful landscaping I was able to make it look much more complicated. The English country cottage style is perfect if you’re not the strongest builder. Cottages are known for their simple structures and are often very symmetrical, meaning it doesn’t take incredible building skills to create something that looks amazing. I also think the cottage style, with its cluttered and mismatched feel, suits a family home really well!
This build started out as a 2 storey rectangular block and I really didn’t add much more to it to create the final shape. A lot of the build evolved naturally. When I was deciding on my floorplan I felt as if didn’t have enough room for the kitchen so I simply added a square extension onto the back of the house. Family homes can be daunting because you often need to provide enough space for lots of Sims. Don’t be afraid to extend where you need to, add a bedroom in downstairs, or create a box room. All of these things are part of family life and will help make your build feel that little bit more realistic!
I almost never start a build with a set idea of exactly what I’m going to create and often even the most distinctive and unusual builds are born out of trial and error. Start with a simple shape and just keep adding to it. I guarantee you’ll eventually end up with something to be proud of!
The second build I created is a modern home. Like the Cottage style, modern homes, too, are often made up of simple shapes. This house is comprised of two rectangles placed side-by-side, with one slightly ahead of the other. Although this was super easy to create, and is technically only made up of rectangles, the end result looks contemporary and stylish.
To make the structure look a little bit more interesting I added a balcony. For this I simply followed the shape of the building itself. It didn’t require any crazy building skills but it helped to add more detail to the build’s exterior.
One of the things that can make a build look dull and boring is empty space. Even the most basic of structures can end up looking incredibly impressive if you surround them with decorations and features. Windows are a surprisingly good way to liven up a build. Not only do they help fill up any blank walls but, in The Sims 4, there are plenty of windows that are detailed and interesting in their own right. In the Cottage Home I solved the problem of empty space by surrounding the build with flowers and plants. Landscaping is a really easy way to add a lot of detail to your build without much effort. In this build I chose a flower that I liked and held down Shift so that I was able to place it over and over again without re-selecting. By repeating this step with a couple of other plants I was able to very quickly fill up a space and create a luscious garden.
I also added plenty of vines and flowers growing up the side of the house. Again, this fills up any empty walls and disguises the simple shape of my house, while also fitting perfectly with the cottage theme. Although a few of the vines I used came with DLC, you can very easily create the same effect using Base Game items.
In the modern build, I filled out the garden with a pool and a sandpit. Not only did this make the house look family orientated but it helped to add detail. To create the sandpit, I used one of the lower lying fences from the base game and drew a rectangular shape. I then grabbed out the sand-coloured terrain tool and filled in my box. I finished off the look by randomly placing toys throughout.
It’s always easier to furnish bedrooms when you have specific Sims in mind. Generic bedrooms can look great but builds always look a lot better when a room is fully personalised. Most of the time I’m not actually building for a set of Sims that already exist but I still like to make my houses look personalised. In order to achieve this, I like to envision what kind of Sims would live in my house even if I never intend to make the family.
In this room, which I built for a set of twins, you can see my thought process at work. One side of the room is full of space-themed items whilst the other is darker and is designed for a Sim who is a little less nerdy!
These two rooms are both designed for a teen but they are completely different and help give each house a bit more character!
One thing to remember when your building for a family is that the parents room should match the style of the living room, kitchen and bathrooms. Although you’re free to go wild with the kids bedrooms, in most homes the parents will have not only designed their room but will have been responsible for the rest of the rooms too. In both of these houses you can see how I’ve used similar colour palettes and styles for the downstairs and for the parents’ rooms.
I also like to design toddler’s rooms in a way that matches their parents’ style. After all its unlikely that a two-year-old would be allowed to style their own bedroom! With the cottage build the toddler’s room has a lot of the same wood tones as you see in the rest of the house whilst the toddler’s room in the modern build is contemporary and sports bright colours!
I hope this has given you some inspiration to build the perfect family home for your perfect family! Happy Building!
Click here to download the Cottage Home!
Click here to download the Modern Home!
