Can someone critique my lots?
Hiya! I've been building houses and lots in the sims since Sims 2, but for some reason, I just cannot get that wow factor. I wondered if anyone would be kind enough to take a look at my lots in my ga...
Forum Discussion
First off, sorry for the fuzzy pics. IDK what happened with imgur. These pics are much nicer.
So I'm building a lot in Glimmerbrook so I'm using Get Together and Realm of Magic. #1 thing about building is to narrow down a style. I'm going for German tudor/magical fairy mansion vibes here with the Get Together wallpaper, the bricks, turrets, interesting roof shapes, and the stained glass windows from ROM. You can get a lot of inspiration for different styles online. For this style, I google image search keywords like "tudor" or "storybook". One thing to note is cottage plans IRL can turn into mansions in the Sims so I always search for "small home/house floorplan/exterior"
https://i.imgur.com/FBXtSdJ.png
https://i.imgur.com/ti5EXMU.png
https://i.imgur.com/v8fOvTA.png
https://i.imgur.com/FpE8ydM.png
So once you have a style picked out for your build and either a floor plan to follow along or some inspo pics, you need to build. Start with a rectangle (NEVER a square). Off of the rectangle, you build "bump outs". These add architectural interest to your build. I have several kinds of bump outs on this build:
1)Turrets--these are great for castle/magic/tudor/old world/medieval vibes but they're not good in suburban builds (excluding cape cod builds but those are super complicated), small lots, tiny homes, or furnishing. Octagonal rooms are sooooo hard to furnish and they're kinda difficult to place correctly, roof into a build, and landscape around. There are 4 types of turrets (assuming a 2 story build) and I have 3 in this build. The first is 1st floor only with a roof slapped on top. The second is 1st and 2nd floor with a roof adjoining into the main roof. The third is 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floor like a Rapunzel tower. The fourth is 2nd floor only, no 1st floor so the turret appears floating off the side of the building. This look is difficult to achieve but can look nice.
2)Dormers--I LOOOOVe dormers. These are when you have a bump out jutting out of the roof. You can find premade ones in the chimney sort of the build catalog or if you want a space to be playable, surround the second floor with roofing and the make some bump outs. It's difficult to show in pics or write about but if you download my build Double Bargain Bend (origin Id is the same as here) you can play with the roofing pieces to see how I make it work and also get to look at two classic shotgun houses, which are super easy to build and ALWAYS look great. Southern homes make a lot of use out of dormers.
3)The traditional bump out: a simple rectangle off your big rectangle. In the pic I posted previously, you can see that I have a lot of simple bump outs. There are three types (assuming a 2 story build): a) 1st floor only with a roof on the second. b) 2nd floor only with a trim on the bottom (or overhanging a roof on the second story like over a patio). c)1st and 2nd story with a roof on the 3rd. The latter can sometimes look a little big and brazen so I usually make those smaller, thinner, skinnier, etc. On Little Boy Blue, I made it bump out further but it was skinnier. On my WIP, it is fat but it only bumps out a little. That's very important to note about bump outs, they look better in rectangles than in squares. You can see I play with not only how far my bump outs come, but also how fat they are.
4) The barn roof bump out. idk what it is actually called, but it reminds me of barn style houses. I built one house recently (Model Living) where I demonstrate this nicely on the lefthand side of the front. As you can see, it requires at least two stories. The first story is a wide bump out and then the second story goes on top and juts out the same amount but it is skinnier so you can place half roofs on either side and a roof on top. This can either be done with straight roofs at different angles to make it look like a barn, you can curve it like I've done here and on my WIP, or you can make it super straight with the same angle on both the half roofs and the top roof and make it look like a triangle. I have aLOT of builds with this kind of feature where I vary the width of the half roofs, and the curves and angles of the top roof. I really encourage you to check out some of my builds and just play around with the roofing. It really is what makes these bump outs pop and when you look at how someone else put their roofing together, you can learn how to put your own roofing together.
https://i.imgur.com/elIsvjC.png
To be continued........ (I'm scared I'm gonna accidentally delete this so yeah)
So I'm building a lot in Glimmerbrook so I'm using Get Together and Realm of Magic. #1 thing about building is to narrow down a style. I'm going for German tudor/magical fairy mansion vibes here with the Get Together wallpaper, the bricks, turrets, interesting roof shapes, and the stained glass windows from ROM. You can get a lot of inspiration for different styles online. For this style, I google image search keywords like "tudor" or "storybook". One thing to note is cottage plans IRL can turn into mansions in the Sims so I always search for "small home/house floorplan/exterior"
https://i.imgur.com/FBXtSdJ.png
https://i.imgur.com/ti5EXMU.png
https://i.imgur.com/v8fOvTA.png
https://i.imgur.com/FpE8ydM.png
So once you have a style picked out for your build and either a floor plan to follow along or some inspo pics, you need to build. Start with a rectangle (NEVER a square). Off of the rectangle, you build "bump outs". These add architectural interest to your build. I have several kinds of bump outs on this build:
1)Turrets--these are great for castle/magic/tudor/old world/medieval vibes but they're not good in suburban builds (excluding cape cod builds but those are super complicated), small lots, tiny homes, or furnishing. Octagonal rooms are sooooo hard to furnish and they're kinda difficult to place correctly, roof into a build, and landscape around. There are 4 types of turrets (assuming a 2 story build) and I have 3 in this build. The first is 1st floor only with a roof slapped on top. The second is 1st and 2nd floor with a roof adjoining into the main roof. The third is 1st, 2nd, and 3rd floor like a Rapunzel tower. The fourth is 2nd floor only, no 1st floor so the turret appears floating off the side of the building. This look is difficult to achieve but can look nice.
2)Dormers--I LOOOOVe dormers. These are when you have a bump out jutting out of the roof. You can find premade ones in the chimney sort of the build catalog or if you want a space to be playable, surround the second floor with roofing and the make some bump outs. It's difficult to show in pics or write about but if you download my build Double Bargain Bend (origin Id is the same as here) you can play with the roofing pieces to see how I make it work and also get to look at two classic shotgun houses, which are super easy to build and ALWAYS look great. Southern homes make a lot of use out of dormers.
3)The traditional bump out: a simple rectangle off your big rectangle. In the pic I posted previously, you can see that I have a lot of simple bump outs. There are three types (assuming a 2 story build): a) 1st floor only with a roof on the second. b) 2nd floor only with a trim on the bottom (or overhanging a roof on the second story like over a patio). c)1st and 2nd story with a roof on the 3rd. The latter can sometimes look a little big and brazen so I usually make those smaller, thinner, skinnier, etc. On Little Boy Blue, I made it bump out further but it was skinnier. On my WIP, it is fat but it only bumps out a little. That's very important to note about bump outs, they look better in rectangles than in squares. You can see I play with not only how far my bump outs come, but also how fat they are.
4) The barn roof bump out. idk what it is actually called, but it reminds me of barn style houses. I built one house recently (Model Living) where I demonstrate this nicely on the lefthand side of the front. As you can see, it requires at least two stories. The first story is a wide bump out and then the second story goes on top and juts out the same amount but it is skinnier so you can place half roofs on either side and a roof on top. This can either be done with straight roofs at different angles to make it look like a barn, you can curve it like I've done here and on my WIP, or you can make it super straight with the same angle on both the half roofs and the top roof and make it look like a triangle. I have aLOT of builds with this kind of feature where I vary the width of the half roofs, and the curves and angles of the top roof. I really encourage you to check out some of my builds and just play around with the roofing. It really is what makes these bump outs pop and when you look at how someone else put their roofing together, you can learn how to put your own roofing together.
https://i.imgur.com/elIsvjC.png
To be continued........ (I'm scared I'm gonna accidentally delete this so yeah)
