Have you ever started up on a house in The Sims 4 and after thirty painstaking minutes of trying to shape your dream abode you find yourself giving up? If this feeling of despair is familiar to you, chances are you're not alone. With how much you can do in the game, it's natural to feel overwhelmed or even clueless about what exactly to do in order to achieve your result. It definitely doesn't help to see all the amazing builds from talented content creators, but don't worry, with these ten tips you'll be well on your way to becoming a master architect in The Sims 4.
Updated on the 3rd of March, 2020 by Anastasia Maillot: If there's one aspect of The Sims 4 that's very detailed, it's definitely build mode. Even years after the game's release, the developers keep tweaking this game mode and adding new features to it, namely the possibility of tiny houses.
Given that there's so much to cover in build mode and that more is getting added all the time, it was only natural for us to share five additional building tips to help players recreate the house of their dreams. While practice definitely makes perfect, these tricks will help anyone get started.
15 Start Small
One of the biggest rookie mistakes that most people unfamiliar to build mode in The Sims 4 commit is building extremely large houses with too much space. The rooms tend to be big and square, without a lot of definition. However, the reality is that most actual houses can feel surprisingly cramped.
Builds will look much better when they're smaller, with just the right space for everything. It's better to at first build something that's too small than build something too big. Smaller houses will feel cozier and more defined than big ones which can't be nicely furnished.
14 Get Creative With Stairs
The stair tool available in-game was one of the most highly anticipated free updates for The Sims 4, and for a good reason. Stairs can really make or break a build, as they help give definition and separate the different levels of a build.
With the stair tool, players can easily change the shape of the stairs to fit their needs. It also lets players adjust the length of certain parts of the stairs, and decide exactly where the staircase takes a turn.
13 Play With Floor Heights
Depending on the style of the build, players should decide how high they'd like their floors to be. There's three different heights to choose from, and each floor can be of a different height. This is a super useful tool, which can help distinguish a modern build from a more classic one.
This tool is, however, particularly important when it comes to choosing doors and windows for the house. Depending on the height of the floor, different objects will be available or unavailable, so that's something to take into consideration as well.
12 Don't Ignore Landscaping
A great house can only do so much on its own, even if the interior looks absolutely amazing. Any house will be greatly enhanced by good landscaping, which basically means adding some realistic terrain around the house itself to make it look less like a box plopped in the middle of nowhere.
With the terrain tool, players can add some realistic variation into the terrain and even lift the house itself on a hill. Terrain paint around the house will make the gardens look more organic, especially when paired with a few trees, bushes and specks of grass. Use the bb.moveobjects cheat liberally when doing this for best results!
11 Use Half Walls
Undoubtedly the most overlooked functionality in The Sims 4 is the half wall and its trims. This tool is often difficult to find for build mode newbies, because it's not exactly clearly indicated in build mode. Tips in loading screens alone might not always help players find their way here.
Half walls allow the use of five different heights of walls, and any separate panel of wall can be turned into a half wall of any height. This gives so much freedom when it comes to building. Players can make cool modern concrete balconies with these walls or just use them as old school room dividers. The options are endless, and it's a must use tool for any builder.
10 How To Add Foundation — And Vary It
Let's start from the basics. You want to build a house but have no idea what it should look like. Either you can Google a ton of interesting looking builds from other Simmers or just search for real floor plans you can turn into houses in game.
If you just can't find what you're looking for, the best way to begin is to start simple: build a square or a rectangle and start shaping your house from there. Randomly add rooms and walls, until you find a shape that you like. The goal is to introduce depth and variety, so your house doesn't look too blocky.
9 Merge & Move Rooms
Once you have a bunch of rooms on your lot, you can move them around freely by clicking on the walls. You can also scale them to your liking without destroying the walls or even compromising the furniture inside. Let's say you already have a house built but want to switch around the rooms.
Just click on a room and drag them on the lot to the place where you want them to be. Alternatively, if you want to merge two rooms, place them side by side, click on the wall that separates them and choose "merge". Now your two rooms should be a single big room.
8 Level Up Your Indoors
It's not just the outer shape of the house that matters, but the inside, too. Don't feel obligated to keep every room square or rectangle shaped and vary the shapes of the walls. A great thing to bring some style and edge into your modern house is to create a split level. First, create a room on a foundation and divided with a wall.
Then, using the hammer tool, delete the foundation on the other half and then delete the separating wall. Now, you have a slightly lower and slightly upper level for a nice modern build. Don't forget the apply a floor above the part where you deleted your foundation so get your roof back!
7 Understand The Roof
Roofing is one of the most challenging tasks any builder will face in The Sims 4, simply because of how limiting the tool can be. However, if you know what all the different buttons do, you'll be good to go.
Always build with the roof in mind, so that when you eventually get to it, you won't find yourself struggling to cover every inch of it in a logical way. The best way to fix any mistakes, such as protruding roofs, is to adjust the length of your eaves by making them shorter with the diagonal arrows.
6 Build A Porch
One of the best ways to spice up your house is to work on the outside, especially the entrance. A nice porch area will boost the appearance of your build significantly and it's very easy to make a quick porch by creating a tiny at the front of your house.
Then, select spandrels from the build menu, press shift and click on the walls of your tiny room to turn it into a foundation for a porch. You can top it off with a roof of your choice and add pillars if you'd like.
5 Place Objects Freely
Once you have your foundation down, you might want to start decorating and furnishing the outside and inside. The most useful cheat that can help you get rid of the pesky grid placement is "bb.moveobjects".
You can now place objects inside one another and if you press your ALT key you'll be able to freely move them anywhere on the grid regardless of their size. Be warned, however, that if you place interactive objects in strange places your Sims might not be able to reach them. This is most useful for decorative items.
4 Commit To A Style
A house will always look best if you have a certain color scheme or style in mind. If your palette is all over the place, it might mess with the general look of your house. Once you're furnishing your house and trying to pick the best color swatch for each object, press the + and - keys on your number pad (make sure it's turned one).
You'll be able to quickly go through the swatches and pick the one that best suits the style and color scheme that you're going for. Unfortunately this tip only works for keyboards that have a number pad!
3 Scale Objects
If you've ever felt disappointed that a certain statue or potted plant wasn't big enough for the build you had in mind, don't worry, there's a cheat for it. By pressing SHIFT and either one of the bracket keys, "[" or "]", you can change the size of any object you're currently holding.
This is especially useful for those of us who are just dying to have cars in our game, but can't have them. Pick the toy car decoration and scale it to the size of an actual car, and there you have it!
2 Turn Off Automatic Counter Placement
Another great tip for interior building is to turn off your automatic counter placement tool. Whenever you try to put counters together in The Sims 4, the game automatically changes the look of the counter depending on the shape you're building.
Click on any of the counters and open the swatch menu. Then click on the cogwheel and turn off automatic counter placement. Now, you can choose exactly which type of counter you'd like to use and bring some much needed variety to your bar and kitchen builds.
1 More Objects
Lastly, you don't need to have a ton of custom content or all of the expansions and packs to get interesting items. A simple cheat "bb.showhiddenobjects" will unlock all of the game's items to you, even the ones that are merely for show and decoration.
Paired with the scaling tool and "moveobjects" cheat, you can now create the ultimate cluttered house of your choice and truly bring your decorating and building to the next level.