When it comes to The Sims 4, I am by far the least creative person in regards to terraforming and house design. At the very least it’s never the first thing I set out to do when I sit down to play. But that doesn’t mean that I’m without some design ideas, because let me tell you, I got a boat-load of those! Need some quick inspiration for your next design? Here are 18 ways you can spruce up your Sims house game.
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Vampire’s Lair
I love the gothic interior objects from the Vampires expansion pack. Take it as far as you can and make a secret passage that leads to a basement vampire lair, lit up by nothing except for the soft glow of candles.
Witch’s Lair
The Realm Of Magic expansion pack is filled with heavy gothic vibes and a touch of light herbalism. In short, it’s the perfect baby witch starter pack to help you build a lair for brewing your potions. Another cool idea is to build a potions shop on a commercial lot and try to sell potions for a living.
Single Parent + Kids
This is a concept I saw from the lovely SimLicy, an amazing interior designer within the Sims community whose work you can find in the Gallery. I happened across one of her YouTube videos where she was designing an apartment for a single mom and two kids. It kind of shell-shocked me. I was raised by a single parent and this means the world to me. Representation for all types of families is important and this goes beyond the traditional family homes/apartment designs we typically see within the community. I highly recommend you check out her work and give her some love.
Self-Sustaining Farm
This can be a challenge on its own, but try and create the perfect, self-sustaining farm. Complete it with livestock for a full-rounded farmer effect. Thanks to the Cottage Living expansion pack you can even preserve food and with the Srsl Cookbook you can rest easy knowing you have everything you need in your backyard. Who needs to pay for groceries? Clearly not you!
Tree House
I’ve seen it done before, but this is a serious challenge for experienced builders and designers. Can you imagine living in a tree house like this?
Eco-Friendly
This isn’t necessarily the most unique idea, but it certainly is the most challenging. Living completely off-the-grid and using sustainable products make you ten times more intentional with what you place on your lots and the types of sims that live on the lot. You can fix a lot of traits to be more conscious of your eco-footprint within the various worlds. This may seem similar to the Self-Sustaining idea, but being eco-friendly means living off-grid and using materials in your home that are safe for the environment and your neighborhood. Eco-friendly homes shift the clean or unhealthy meter in your neighborhood. Make that shipping container your home!
Hogwarts/Castle
This is a bold choice, but you can always attempt to build our own castle. I’ve seen some pretty neat renditions of not only the Hogwarts castle, but folks’ own unique design and spin of their royal mansion. Brings me back to the Sims Medieval days. Vlad the Impaler has nothing on you and your secret dungeons.
Invisible Fences
Now this is more a mod, but I cannot stress how important of a tool this is for aspiring builders. Let’s say you terraform a cute pathway that leads to your sims house and they decide to completely disregard it. Well now you can direct their movement by adding in invisible fences to make your sims walk specifically in a direction of your choosing.
Secluded Entrance
The Sims 4 has a few secret worlds in various neighborhoods that are a cool concept to recreate. You can’t build in these secret worlds, but you can definitely attempt to recreate your own secret world with a secluded entrance.
Cottagecore
This theme is so whimsical and fits perfectly in the new world that came with the Cottage Living expansion pack. There are a bunch of CC furniture, clothing, and hair that you can find that will complete the look and feel of your fairyland cottage.
Dark Academia
I love the mystery feel of the dark academia vibes. Dark, neutral colors are what you wanna go for. Candles, Roman sculptures, renaissance paintings and soft, sad boy piano music will be your go to when attempting this design choice. The entire thing gives me major Dead Poet Society vibes mixed in with a bit of Kill Your Darlings. Classic, but dark.
Light Academia
As you can guess from the title, this is the polar opposite of the Dark Academia aesthetic. Light academia has the same aspects like the renaissance painting, sculptures, music, and history, but is slightly more intune with nature and obviously has a light, neutral color palette. This aesthetic is more along the lines of Little Women.
Mazes
Backyards, in my opinion, are often so neglected (and I only say this due to personal experience) but if your house lot has the space for it and creativity strikes you, try making a maze!
Greenhouse
In real life, I am a massive plant lover and a newly converted plant mother. Needless to say, I love gardening in The Sims just as much as I do in real life. It has always been a goal of mine to have and own a personal greenhouse. So I took to The Sims! Creating a beautifully, overstocked and vibrantly colorful greenhouse in any sim’s backyard is sure to give your sims a happier mood if they are having a bad day.
Atrium
I have always adored the Bollywood movies set in medieval times and the breathtaking architecture with stunning open atriums. Now you don’t have to recreate a Bollywood inspired atrium, but an open-no roof design in bigger properties is a fun way of getting households to connect, host parties, and enjoy the seasons all within your house. If you have the Courtyard Oasis Kit you can pull some amazing fountains, decorative tiles and lush plants to help design the center of your sims homes.
Fairycore
This is a slightly more exaggerated aesthetic that places a heavy emphasis on nature and whimsical creatures. Think of butterflies, flowers, and bunnies, all while being centered around the spring season. You could potentially mix this with Cottagecore if you so wanted too.
Piratecore
Ahoy, me matey’s! This is a cool interior design idea for those sims living on Sulani right by the waters. Think of Piratecore as an aesthetic based around the theme of, well, pirates! Driftwood, shells, mounted fish, and other sea treasures you find are the perfect way of decorating along with nets, paintings and seafoam colors.
Minimalist
Sometimes less is just better. A clean, crisp house and interior design choice. If you’re someone who is big on less clutter and open-space design concepts I suggest checking out some of mushunosun’s CC kits.
