Author Topic: Help with tips for building mansions  (Read 3938 times)

Chuckles_82

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Help with tips for building mansions
« on: April 22, 2013, 05:22:19 AM »
I've just started work on my very first mansion. I don't normally build mansions. But I found a style and ran with it, and have come up with what I hope is quite a good exterior. I'm looking for tips on ways to improve the exterior (without store content) and for tips on decorating the inside of large houses in general.


Offline Seabody

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Re: Help with tips for building mansions
« Reply #1 on: April 22, 2013, 06:15:42 AM »
Too much grass. I think it needs a pond or pool or fountain or something to break up the grass in the front.

Also, I think that house has a billionaire eccentric feel to it. Maybe a bunch of traps "burglar alarms" in the front hall, controllable from a master switch in a safe room?



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Chuckles_82

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Re: Help with tips for building mansions
« Reply #2 on: April 22, 2013, 06:43:16 AM »
Ooh definitely. It already has the HOSFAC industries safety system installed in the basement downstairs for inventing and the like. I might break up the front lawn with something else though. I have put a massive fountain and a pond out the back. Perhaps I'll change the hedge to a fence, which might make the green area seem smaller, and perhaps the mowed lawn instead of flat green?

Offline pallyndrome

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Re: Help with tips for building mansions
« Reply #3 on: April 22, 2013, 08:13:24 AM »
I have to disagree with seabody, I love the green of the lawn and hedge and plants - the building is also simply stunning - I wish I could make something like that!

Offline saltpastillen

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Re: Help with tips for building mansions
« Reply #4 on: April 22, 2013, 03:16:29 PM »
I really like the hedge too. How clever to use 2 heights of the hedge together like that, I'd never have thought of it.

Leaving it with just grass makes it look very formal and a bit forbidding in my opinion. If you are going for eccentric millionaire style that might be a good thing. I think a fountain or something like that in the front would make it more inviting.

The question you should ask your self is - do I want that? i Think you should make 2 different ones and see which ones you think works best. Trying the mowed lawn seems like a good  idea. There are a lot of great effects that can be made using terrain paint.

Personally I think I would remove the awning over the balcony doors, I think it takes away some of the refined quality of the mansion.

On the interior I suggest doing it full on formal. Don't know why but I get a Bruce Wayne feeling from the house. Maybe it's his mansion. The house is his show boat mansion and in the basement is the secret bat cave.  ::)

Chuckles_82

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Re: Help with tips for building mansions
« Reply #5 on: April 22, 2013, 07:52:52 PM »
All good suggestions. I wasn't entirely sure about the awning over the doors, but I needed to do something to break up the squareness of that section. Perhaps it is ok just being square. My biggest problem was that it is 7 squares across, which means I couldn't have a 2 square window, because it wouldn't sit in the middle. And there is nothing to match the 3 tile one from seasons.

I do like the green on the front - but perhaps a small courtyard between the drive and the entry may work.

I made a start on the interior last night - and stayed up entirely too late for someone with 3 kids now running around!  I was just enjoying it on a level that I haven't enjoyed building any other house before. I've decided that when I become a millionaire, I want an edwardian kitchen. Formal seemed to be what I thought, too. Here are two of the rooms that have provided inspiration:





I've not put quite so much clutter in the sitting room, but it's easy to do that in less space in sims and still achieve the same effect.

EDIT: I've tried a few different variations on the front lawn, and none of them looks nice. I do agree that it was too much solid green of the same colour, though. What I've done is add light touches of two different greens, a slight shade either side of the base colour. I also brought a thin edge of rock and even thinner of dirt around the sides of the steps.

I decided that mowed lawn and courtyards only works for confined gardens. Mine are kind of sprawling.

So the large amount of green remains - I liked that anyway - but it is now more realistic looking.

Offline bubbles

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Re: Help with tips for building mansions
« Reply #6 on: May 02, 2013, 12:12:29 PM »
This house is going really well, Chuckles. One amendment I would make is to make the towers one story taller. That way it would look a lot more like the medieval England/Normandy style castles I have seen. I'm not sure well it would work with that house but post a picture so we can see what it looks like.   ;)
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