Sims 3 - The Official Building/Remodeling Showboat Thread

[Katluvr]

Hi TCR, I love the amenities you've included in your generation 4 nursery, but I agree that it is too dark for my taste. 

As Pam mentioned, the violet that is the sims favorite color is much brighter - it is almost a magenta color.  It was the favorite color of my generation 4 immortal and this is what I did with her nursery.  This is brighter than I would normally choose to go, but being a child's room I decided to be more whimsical.



When she grew up and I wanted to decorate the house with her favorite color (violet) and her husband's favorite color (aqua), I chose a neutral gray and pale blue, then accented it with the more vibrant violet and aqua.



I think both Pam and Phyre have excellent ideas in terms of looking towards the yellow and green spectrum, too.  You aren't limited to pastels.  I used a themed pattern from the base game that had violet, bright orange, pale orange, and turquoise for her clothing and it was surprisingly pleasing.



In the end, though, you really only need to please yourself.  If you find a color combination that you enjoy looking at then go with it!

[Gogowars329]

I like the indoor pond!

[TheChronicR]

Amazing idea, Salty. I didn't know you could do that. I'll Google it now.
Thank you for the tips, Kat. I too think the current theme is too dark overall, but Violet will have a complicated life when she grows up. Why? See the story's next update.
Looks like I have yet another question, this time about landscaping. Y'all know that it is what most of my houses are missing. Well, this is my (rather modern) official dynasty house. If anybody can help, I'll be very grateful. Also, please don't allow the landscaping part to exceed 10,000$ - they don't have much money. In addition, what roof would suit this house in your opinion?



P.S. The house doesn't have any "normal" windows, because a woman who lives inside aka my founder is believed to be an "alien which is afraid of sun". In other words, they don't have the money. Lol.

[Seabody]

It doesn't need a new roof. I think that the flat roof suits it fine.

There are hyndrangeas in the landscaping section that cost around §1. Use those - they're light, and, in the light shown in your photo, they'll lighten it up. Maybe put a pool in there - with a vivid colour. It seems dark-ish. (Bearing in mind that the photo is low-light.)

[samoht04]

First, take a picture in Day Light for us. If it's Night in Sim Time go into Build/Buy and press L or the Day/Night button switch. I for one can't see anything.

On the roof, you could make an octagon type roof or as Seabody said, it doesn't have to have a roof. If you go that way you can add a railing around it, I find that makes me happier than just a flat roof sometimes.

As for landscaping it needs trees and flowers, your House doesn't seem to carry much of a theme so it's a bit tricky. Modern can be green and little colour but thats up to you, for some reason I seem to keep thiking of a line of small trees along that front wall, not tall just short?

[Anushka]

Salty, You could even have some plants and small shore inside, like a real pond - I thing in water pyramid there are some wonderfull ideas for inside pond landscape. I also got this when making basement aquarium - Sims could fish from upper floor. It's funny bridge you made there hehehe. I also once had inside garden, only thing that I don't line with inside outdoor areas is that Sims usually get that unfinished room moodlet - because there is no floor on ground (That is why I gave up on idea of inside garden without moveobjects on).
Katluvr that is so cute I also love experimenting with colors and am lead with same rule - if I like it - I won't change it, after all I'm suppose to look at that while playing so priority is to be nice for me.

Chronic, you might want to check few pages that are linked in topic hex codes for colors Pam started on this board.
About house, you again took picture while it is dark outside so home is not really showing in it's full. This flat roof is nice - goes well with large modern windows you place. As for other things, well, wait till they earn more money You can always place hydrangea as Seabody told you, but couple of trees won't look bad neither, plus some terrain painting and maybe few rocks will work fine. Maybe get rid of that fence you place in front door - it may cause some routing issues beside not really fitting in. 1 or 2 white hydrangea and white flowers terrain paint might do the trick.
My favorite tree now is Cinnamon tree, and after that, Olive tree. Check around in that section and see what you like. You don't even have to have a theme. Bougenvilla and Cypress tree look great together

I'm havinga inspiration block again with my CAW project - suddenly I don't like flagstone that much and would change it back to asphalt, and would love to put dark grass all over the place, so I'm playing a dynasty instead of destroying everything I build so far.In dynasty I'm still using the same small starting home with 2 bedrooms and smal living room, even if they have more than 650 000$ in cash. I'll be happy to give you some money Chronic if that was the OK, but it isn't. I'm planing to keep it minimalistic, so file don't end up too big and lot too cluttered like it did last time..

[TheChronicR]

Thanks guys. I always work with "daylight on" in Build/Buy mode, but I like taking the screenies in Live mode, because I cannot take that white squares that appear in Build/Buy mode. They have around 20,000$ in funds, and with Agnes' masterpiece painting they'll get richer quickly. I am just very careful not to lose my museum pieces.

[danefaith]

I'm claustrophobic enough as is.  

Simer Hall is done.  it's in the swap shop here and should be in the exchange sometime soon.  Make sure to read to the bottom for pointers on how to switch or add player rooms, if you wish to use a room other than the default or play with multiple Sims.

[Anushka]

Well, I planned to go minimalistic with dynasty mansion, but it didn't turn much small. I didn't have money limitation, but decided to make only 2 large bedrooms, one for immortals and one for immortal to be and spouse and heir. So here is what I made so far.
Entrance - the only yellow/orange part for now. I made this first.

Entry hall, a bit empty but I'll call it spacious:

Immortal bathroom (they all have steel bladder before YA so I really don't need toilets in their bedroom):


Immortal to be sleeping area (I love the idea of waking up with fresh lemonade):

TV and gaming area with laundry room behind:

Bookworms dream - for some reason I liked the idea of having different colors of chairs:

Patterns in dinning area(not finished, just that I used one pattern, painted parts of it one way on chairs, and the opposite on walls):


Whole house is painted/decorated in light wood, green and rose colors. I just played with patterns for outdoor stairs and got that contrast combo, and liked it. It's in different shades, and sometimes not obvious (rose pink is almost white, and green is almost black) but that's the theme. Whole outdoor and kitchen and parts of hallways are not finished, but how you guys like it so far? Is something obviously wrong?

[Seabody]

I like it! Is that bed CC or Store Content?

[danefaith]

Those colors are working together very well.  You definitely know how to assemble a quality palette.

But what I'm thinking is, that you're capable of taking a great leap forward if the pattern usage here is addressed.  I find that you're very capable, but I think your repetition of a pattern in both the furniture and the walls is negatively impacting contrast.  An intricate design loses its impact if it saturates the entire room.

Basically, seek a bit of contrast between furniture and walls.  Not blaring contrast, mind you, but just enough to separate the different elements of a room.  A dark green with a light green; a light pink with a light green; an intensely patterned green with a a soft, textured green.  Notice that in each of those examples, one trait is shared and another trait contrasts.  This is the paradox that Phyre mentioned a few pages ago, that dance between unity and contrast.

I think you can also address by expanding your wall coverings.  I'm noticing that flat wall with baseboard is the only wall covering used throughout the interior.  The flat wall is especially limiting when it comes to using patterns.  If you throw an intricate patterns onto the flat wall the room becomes completely drenched in that pattern and it can easily be overwhelming if the furniture doesn't work in a way to subdue it.  What you should look into is some of the more complex wall covers, like walls with dados or beadboard walls with bordered frieze.  You could then place the more intricate patterns in the dado or frieze.

Now I hope that all wasn't too esoteric.  You're doing a good job, but essentially, if you broaden your approach just a little I think you can take it to the next level.  

[Anushka]

Danefaith, thank you! That's the kind of advice I was looking for - I want to learn more to take it to that next level, and you gave me some very good direction for it. I wanted to play with complex patterns, but find it hard to adjust metalic "modern" themed windows with borders that are more rustic or victorian, wood paneling that has dark nails so light wood is not an option, or more complex walls that have borders etc - which meant putting together several patterns in theme to look compact together (which would be that next level). Also, laydown of rooms is not too creative, central room /entrance/hallway is divided with half walls on two sides, one with bookshelves, and other with TV. I don't really like how those bookshelves are huge, but I want the boxy look.. I'll definitelly try finding more wall coverings that would fit better, and I can see what you meant with too much patterns and contrasts - it really look messy and can't really see the pattern when it is all around. I can see that more wood on walls might work nice in dining room. And putting different shades in same room to visually divide them might be a progress.  Ah well, it was late night when I played with this so hopefully today I'll have more fresh ideas, specially after checking some sites about interior design . Again, thank you for detailed and directions very carefully put together!
Seabody, I think bed is from OLS - I don't use much store items, except for few patterns and hairstyles specially since after fresh reinstall of game no sets are loaded in game even after successfull install in launcher. And Eco set gives me an error message that game is not up to date.

[samoht04]

I've never seen that Bed before and I have OLS?

[RubyLovesSims]

Anushka, I LOVE your Dynasty mansion! The colour scheme is especially nice.
But I don't think the bed is from ODL, because I have that EP, and like samoht, I haven't seen it.

[Gogowars329]

I'm almost definite the bed isn't from Outdoor Living as I'm pretty sure no beds come with it.