Struggling to fill rooms!

[Hsn97]

I’m planning my rooms out on Harvs island and I dunno if it’s my rubbish designing skills or simply the lack of furniture available in this game, but I’m really struggling to fill up the rooms...

I went and fully upgraded my house figuring that I’d faff around decorating it later so it’s not even like I can just stick with using the smaller rooms! /).(\

Does anyone else struggle with this? How do you over come it?

 

[Bilaz]

I tend to overcome this by picking both a theme and a function!!!

For example for my main room I picked nautical and living room. So I went on villagerDB and I made a list of every nautical item I could find in the game, as well as living room furniture that fits with it (I decided to go with white rattan and birch log). Then I traded for all the items and pulled everything together!

Here’s the result!!!
I find the theme helps because it allows you to add furniture that doesn’t have a function otherwise (like the shell stuff and the pirate helm) and it also helps you to look through alllll the variations in villagerdb, because there are a lot of random themed things hidden as a variation (for example the boating stripes flags)

I hoped this helped a little!!!
Sometimes picking a colour helps too!

 

[rezberri]

no!! u r probably doing just fine with decorating, its just rly hard to make things work sometimes. for me, ive been having a lot of problems with my bathrooms on allll the many islands ive made then eventually let die and reset. there's only so many things u can put into a bathroom that make sense.

my suggestion would be to make some rooms dual purpose in a way. i have 2 examples of this: my right room and my basement. my right room is kind of like a garage but not rly. like i'd have a trash can, trash bags, basketball & bike, crafting table, 2 laundry machines (2 be a washer and dryer), and some sewing stuff. the dual purpose of this room is to be a garage with the crafting and trash stuff, and to be a laundry room. my basement is supposed to reflect irl basements in that ppl use them as a messy storage and living room area. so, since it's a bit more easy to walk down the stairs and go to the right (its just how it flows for me u know), im making the left side of the room storage, where i keep a lot of boxes and weird antique looking things along with spiderwebs and stuff, while the right will have a tv and a couch, along with random workout equipment.

 

[John Wick]

Mine are as basic as can be due to lack of items.

I reckon that's why our houses and rooms are so small.

They knew that we'd have trouble filling them with anything unique.

 

[Mick]

It's a challenge, but there are certainly enough items in the game to make most ideas work. I really suggest just taking your time, figuring out what you want to make, and then start figuring out which items you want to use for it.

A lot of the items in this game don't come in easy to assemble sets so trying to do it the other way around, throwing a bunch of items together without a plan, usually just leads to headaches and frustration for me.

It takes some effort and creativity but it certainly isn't impossible!

 

[Lavamaize]

If your problem is filling rooms with funiture and you have a theme for the room, I would try to go with certain color(s) to use for the rest of the funiture.

If you are having trouble finding ideas for what to fill a room with, I find that finding a wallpaper you really like, then designing a room around that seems to work fairly well.

 

[Imbri]

I plan my rooms out as if they were actually someplace I'd live, so I have a mix of furniture and lots of things strewn about. It puts my personality in there and gets rid of dead spots. TBH, I usually have to pare it back, because I cram too much in.

 

[tajikey]

I struggled with my alt's house, then had an epiphany about decorating the rooms to precisely match that of my favorite villagers. So far I have Stitches in the back room, Molly in the room to the right, and Tasha in the room to the left. Now I've got to figure out how I'm going to decorate the main room, attic, and basement.

 

[Nefarious]

I'd recommend cataloging as many items as you can. Even if you think you'd never use them. I find that having all the items at my disposal on Harvey's really helps figuring out what looks good together and what doesn't. You might even end up using those items you never thought you would.

After that, I'd say look for themes you want to hit and look up pictures of such things, from NH screenshots or even irl photos. That'll help in figuring out what to focus on first.

 

[Millysaurusrexjr]

Themes definitely help. And trying to tell a story through your house. Also really helps to just catalog everything; all color variations and whatnot.

 

[Dracule]

It takes awhile honestly. I rearranged my rooms in my main character's house so much. I think the few rooms I got correct right away were the upstairs bedroom and the left side room kitchen; barely had any changes--just a few switches here and there.

What everyone has been saying is a good way to go. Make sure to just take advantage of cataloging lots of furniture, wallpapers, flooring, and carpets. There has been many times where something I thought was unappealing turned out to be really cute once I tried it with certain furniture. It's hard to know what your rooms will look like for sure, because Harvey's room sizes are much different than most of the room sizes in a fully expanded house.

The easiest way to theme your rooms is to mimic an actual house: living room, kitchen, bathroom, spare bedroom, upstairs bedroom, downstairs whatever-you-want-it-to-be. The colors and styling can be based on the theme of your island. If it's a rustic/vintage island, then make your rooms very cluttered, rustic, and old-looking. Sometimes throwing stuff around looks really good, haha.

Another thing is that panels, bookcases, and rock climbing walls can fill up a lot of space if you want to condense your room. Lots of Pinterest/Tumblr/Reddit posts have people using these because of their size and colors, so you can carve out separate areas within a single room, while at the same time making it feel really small and cozy.

I hope this advice helps!

 

[BigBadButterfree]

With some of the bigger rooms it helps to sort of divide the room up. My upstairs is like a little high end restaurant, and the entrance leads to a little sitting area with a fireplace and a jukebox, then there's the single dining table with chairs and art around it, and then in the corner (blocked off by panels) a kitchenette.

The main room might be hard but it sort of divides itself, with the doorways. You can leave space for asking between little areas like maybe a sitting/tv area across from... Idk a small kitchen area.

The small room are easy. Just pick an idea and cram that baby full of anything you can find that matches the theme. If you're still early game, don't fret about unused space. You'll find some things you've never seen and go "oh! This would be PERFECT in my garage!" Or whatever room. Ya know?

 

[Tentacles]

Going to Harv's and tossing some furniture around usually helps me. I usually end up getting inspired by how some of the furniture looks together and then I try to make it match with other things that look nice until I'm satisfied. After that I recreate it at home and that's that.

 

[Jaco]

TBH (and I'm only speaking based on my own experience), dreaming and going to some extremely impressive and unique islands has made me realize how lacking my own knowledge and creativity is when designing. Saying there isn't enough stuff has been sort of a cop-out for me (although I'd certainly like more stuff too).

 

[mikanmilk]

I also struggled with filling the rooms. I’m not a fan of themed rooms, and just like having what I need. I have my bedroom upstairs, kitchen in the right room and bath in the left room. Middle is the living room. My basement is kind of an arcade room but I’m probably gonna change it.

I could not figure out what to do with the back room so just closed it off with the simple panels.

 

[dizzy bone]

I always plan out my rooms thinking of furniture size compositions, colour blocking, and walk ways/doors. As a general rule, I like to always have a section of each room have a "bulkier" area that consists of a 2x2+ furniture or furnitures lumped together to make a 2x2+ space. This doesn't mean make a cluttered space, but having a "bulk" of items together helps the rest of the room feel less sparse elsewhere (eg. as opposed to having space between every item and only using smaller items). I find that this helps break up the space, especially when you have other smaller furnitures you want to use. Colour blocking is easily done by the use of rugs to break up the space so everything isn't so one-toned, especially if you are using furniture sets. Wall items/paintings also help with colour blocking. And finally, planning around the way you actually navigate the room and the doors (mainly applicable to the first room). I'm not the best interior designer out there but these guidelines have helped me plan out my spaces better and "fill in" areas that seem too empty. Here's some examples under the spoilers!!

Spoiler: my living room/kitchen

My go-to 2x2 bulky space is the middle table area + the extra furniture around it. I used the red rugs to split up some of the colour spaces, so one corner is the TV/seating area, the other is just a low table with misc items. There's a lot of doors in this room so I wanted to make clear walk ways around all the "sections", and this composition seemed to work out best for me.

Spoiler: bed room

My go-to 2x2 bulky space is the bed area + items around it. I used the tatami rug to make a whole new section of the room, my study area. Generally, all my bigger furniture items are placed on the very back wall, making the front/middle part feel more spacious even though there's a lot going on in the room in general.

Spoiler: music room

Similar to my bed room, most of my items are placed to the back wall. My 2x2 space is the clutter of stuff in the left corner. I could even move the synth further back to give the middle more room to breathe, but I like to be able to squeeze behind it so I can play/have the space be functional.

My best advice is not to be afraid to "double up" on items (putting items close together) to create denser spaces. Hope this helped a little!