✨ 🍑 💗 Coral Key Island Journal 💗 🍑 ✨

[Pintuition]

Today I wanted to make a quick post to switch gears and finally give an update as to what’s going on with my island. Like many other folks, the items that were released this fall made me excited to redo a lot of the parts of my island. Initially I promised myself I’d stick to a few key areas but it quickly turned into a full redo of Coral Key. The process has been both exciting and daunting for me but I’m loving my progress so far. So with that said, I’m going to discuss that whole flattening process for Coral Key today…

I get comments all the time on social media about how many folks really liked parts of Coral Key 1.0. So many people would comment when visiting. Still… I really hadn’t touched much since 2020/ early 2021 and for me it was starting to get stale. When spending time on my island I kind of felt like it was a place out of time, it hadn’t kept up with new items, and was starting to look super basic as a result. I guess it just really wasn’t bringing me any joy and I stopped playing for months, only hopping on occasionally.

Shortly before the big update was released I put my hard hat on (the first time in at least 8 months) and started to remove some of the pathing at my entrance. Then I dug some flowers. Then I made some cliffs, and so on until my entrance area was completely unrecognizable. With the initial shock of seeing my little entrance all dug up I stopped for a few days, wondering whether I would regret it. One day I woke up and decided to just go for it… and gutted my entire island!!

I took a lot of screenshots in case I chickened out and wanted to put everything back. To be honest I never looked at them again until I started drafting this post, many months into my redesign. I kept my dream address intact as well (for now) just in case. I put an ungodly amount of stuff in my storage that I thought I’d use. I dumped every flower onto my beach, even using my second island Lórien as a huge item dump as well!

Even though I want to redo Coral Key I decided that I still wanted to keep to the pink theme and retain most of my villagers. It wouldn’t feel quite right without that. Besides, there are so many cute new pink/white items in the game it felt criminal not to put good use to them. So Coral Key 2.0 will have the same spirit, just upgraded!

It took a very long time just to dismantle areas and tear down tiered cliffs. I think I spent most of November doing that, my hands were so sore! When I finally had torn down enough areas in the front and right side of my island I knew I wanted to have a go at a new entrance. I’ll be making a post showing my progress with that next! I hope to show my new shopping area, home, cafe, carnival, and more in the coming weeks as well! I’m hoping everyone will love Coral Key 2.0 as much as I do!

 

[Pintuition]

(Can we talk about how cute my girls posed for this pic, I went to go take cute pics and they decided to randomly join in!!)

As I mentioned in my last post, my island is now completely being redone. Currently the only part that is more or less finished is the entrance to my island. I thought I’d show my progress building that in this post!

In November I saw a lot of posts about heart waterfalls. It was definitely a new craze last year! These were multilevel hearts (see below) with the top of a heart terraformed with water on an upper level with a waterfall leading down to the second and terraformed into a point. I knew my entrance needed one of these as soon as I saw it!

I decided to put one smack in the center several tiles away from the airport so I could put staircases leading up on either side of it. My old entrance was so long I wanted to save space this time! While this was a great idea in theory, I didn’t anticipate that using only one waterfall would make it off center, which was really distracting with it being so close to my entrance. I tried setting it back and sandwiching it between two heart cliffs to mask that but no dice- I still knew it wasn’t centered and it really bothered me.

(See how uncentered it was in the first pic?? The stairs were meant to go where the storage shed is and be hidden by heart waterfall cliffs- oh well. But!! You can see here my gazebo and pathing concept as well as flower/bush placement kind of went unchanged though!)

(Bonus pic of me crying that made me lol)

I left it wonky like that for several days until one day I was browsing Pinterest and saw the prettiest entrance that caught my eye. The video was by minsuuuuuya who showed how to terraform an elegantcore entrance. I knew immediately I could do a variant on Coral Key! They make video tutorials online if you want to look them up and try something yourself!

(These trees will be pink cherry blossom trees in the spring, which is when I'll set the time when I release my new DA! You can see I've messed with the placement a bit already.)

I played around for a while with the same shape as the video but in true “me” fashion decided to riff a little. Of course I also had to do some thinking about how I’d pink-ify the design as well. I decided that the best way to do this would be to interject some of the Valentine’s Day heart bouquets, wedding stands, and other pink flowers and bushes. I think it will look the most lively and vibrant in the spring- it’s a shame to be designing during the fall and winter months! Still, I aimed to make it look decent in all seasons.

I thought the best way to tackle the off center heart waterfall problem would be to create two of them on either side of the entrance. I was surprised how well it worked- and it looks great during the flyover and when going up the staircase.

(Here is the final version I have for now!)

After I placed the waterfalls I noticed I had an awkward bit of land in the middle. I knew I wanted to place a staircase up in the center to get to the rest of my island but after placing several different types I found I hated them all, nothing matched! I decided to cover it to make a faux castle entrance using the castle gate and medieval building sides. I played around with different items before landing on columns and topiaries as an accent. I’m really loving the new Nook Mile items too!

I changed the shape of the water a lot and decided to add a few little islands to it as well. The heart waterfalls kind of enforced some shape changes from the tutorial as well. It took me a minute to decide on the second and third level waterfalls on the sides. I had played around with more castle walls but waterfalls looked the best in the end.

So that’s pretty much it for the lower level. Lots of terraforming, crafting, and tweaking and it all came together. This post is getting long so I’ll have to cut it here and do a part two. Since I don’t really know where to put it I will talk about my multi-level castle next, which is sort of a part of the entrance. See ya next time!

​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Pink marble tiles, cobblestone, steps, hanging lampost roses, pink and white stone circle, etc: MA-5037-1104-8762

Cherry blossom heart: MA-2666-2445-8950

Pink flowers: MA-1791-9718-8119

 

[Pintuition]

(Please don't look closely at this lmao, this is the worst stitch ever and yet the sparkles exist to cover my photoshop sins!!)

So sorry I couldn’t fit this all into one part but with the amount of screenshots I thought this might be better. Today I’ll show my grand two-level castle at the top of my entrance stairs. It really makes my entrance striking from above too. I really love how it turned out in the end!

My greatest shame is my off-centered Resident Services so I wanted to block it off from the entrance. My previous one was far enough away but still bothered me being off centered. The castle towers and staircases leading down are centered to the airport rather than the building, and do a great job hiding my least favorite part of my island. It makes it kind of hard to see the plaza sometimes but the camera positions usually help me out and give me a bird’s eye view of the place. I don’t really mind covering it up to be honest!

Let me tell you…getting these castle pieces cost me an arm and a leg. So pricey! I probably spent well over a million bells just to get everything I needed. Thankfully a few shops here on TBT helped me out with some of that as well. I ordered everything slowly over time, using HHP and Nook Shopping. I’ll admit I did time travel a time or two to speed things up. One thing I'm mad at myself for is not taking more progress shots- I just kind of waited until I had enough pieces then set it up. I can't find a single shot during building- that's so unlike me. Urgh!

Anyway, initially I wanted to have an overlook at the top of my entrance with a few tiles out, then going back to the lower level into a pond for a mote. Essentially I wanted to set the castle back on the lowest level, have it rise a few tiers, and have some water in front of it. What I didn’t really anticipate was that the hearts and big water feature of my entrance took up way too much room and it definitely couldn’t be done. This halted my progress in a big way and I ended up moving on to look at other areas while I thought of how to fix it.

I waffled with what to do to both keep my castle and the entrance and landed with what I have now- a two-level castle beginning on the second level cliff at the top of my entrance. I lost my overlook and my mote but it still looks fine! At the end of the day my theme is cutesy and pink and not medieval or castle so I thought I could make it work.

The issue I grappled with next was where to end it. If I ended it at the endpoints of Resident Services, it looked off at the entrance top. But ending it on top made it much longer than I wanted. I ended up going for the longer walkway and decorating it, with two staircases leading down centered to the airport. I’m going to choose not to worry about it!

Decorating the castle was not a big deal for me at least- I found some unused statues in my inventory (and padded with some bought on TBT), Turkey Day garden stands, heart bouquets, wedding stands, and some strategically simple panels. I decided to customize these to a pink rose trellis pattern to better bring in my island theme. They don’t quite go to the top of the castle gate but from most angles they look great. Initially I wanted these to be able to be looked through like windows but with the cliff above they gave a great view of…a brown jagged cliff, haha. So it had to be done!

I also wanted to use some of the new Nook Mile items like the plaza bench here- I think it makes it look straight out of a fairytale! That's kind of the dreamy vibe I wanted for the entrance. I wanted it to work well with the spaces around it and tie everything together. On either side of the entrance castle I was able to transition into new areas well- the castle walls are so versatile. On one side I have my Nooks and Ables shopping complex (still a WIP in a big way) and the other my cafe, which is nearly done!

(On left you can see the current skeleton of the shopping center as I'm setting it up and some homes I stashed on the lower level while I terraform. On the right side of the castle walkway it leads to my cafe and ultimately to a land bridge that runs up to my museum area! Both builds should be done within the next few weeks hopefully!!!)

And that’s pretty much it for my entrance area. It’s a fairly large chunk of the front section of my island but I feel as though it was well worth the space. It was from this point that I built up and out- it’s kind of like the heart of my island in a funny way! All of these spaces are being tweaked bit by bit but I really liked how this came out! I'm not sure what my next post will be about. Potentially new villagers, my recent birthday, or maybe even another build (if I ever finish one lol). Until next time!!

​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

All main pink pathing (marble, paths with borders, sideways steps, pink cobblestones, etc), hanging street post roses, pink and white stone circle under items, etc: MA-5037-1104-8762

Pink and white diamond tiles (under castle pieces, etc): MA-7230-6684-0984

Cherry blossom heart: MA-2666-2445-8950

Pink flowers: MA-1791-9718-8119

 

[Pintuition]

I think this is my last villager update I’ll have in a while. I’ve grown so attached to most if not all of my villagers and at this point I could only see myself letting go of maybe one of them in a way far off future. And that’s a big maybe!! Unless more new villagers are released (wishful thinking haha) the list stands thus…

I know, I know- such a shocker to see both Raymond and Sherb get booted for new friends. Believe me I nearly shed a tear myself. Both have been on my island since the early days and it was a really tough choice letting them go. It was such a struggle to actually do it.

But when the new amiibos dropped that changed a lot of things for me. I thought a lot about some of the “popular” villagers I found and brought to my island and kind of why I had them there- was it kind of an “ooh you have Raymond?!” thing? Or did I actually genuinely deep down want him there over other villagers. After thinking it over as I waited for my new amiibos to arrive I came to the conclusion that though I had grown to love villagers like Raymond and Sherb, I didn’t want them there quite as much as everyone else and I was kind of keeping them for superficial reasons. Because of this I thought I’d do the right thing and let them go.

The first to go was poor dear Sherb, who I had already been considering letting go in my last villager update post. I started this process while actually creating my entrance, which I detailed in my last post. There was a lot going on!


Sherb got booted for Ione, who I fell in love with instantly after designing her a vacation home. To get Ione I bought a case of mini amiibos (i.e. homemade unofficial ones) and they took until about December to arrive. Fortunately she was included and I was able to bring her in through my island’s campsite. Even more fortunately, most of the furniture she wanted was already unused and in my storage from when I tore everything down. The process was easy and smooth. My only regret is that Sherb got voided. With it being the holidays I didn’t have the time to list him up for grabs- which is something I still regret! I would have liked to have given him a nice home- oh well!

I regret not really taking pictures of Raymond’s exit but it was a struggle and a half so I don’t second guess why I didn’t. Flashback to December, I’d been thinking a lot about Sasha and how cute he’d be with my other villagers and wanted to swap him out with Raymond. At the same time, Raymond began following me around a lot while I terraformed, showed interest in my changing island, and kept saying things during special events that felt like he knew he was leaving. Which is total nonsense of course but it still made me feel really bummed for him.


But through that struggle I came up with the idea to keep both- Raymond would come live on my other island Lórien so I wouldn’t be totally giving him up! I knew I wanted to tt out a villager I felt meh about (Chief) so I set to work. Little did I know that every other villager would ask to leave but that specific one, leaving me to spend probably at least an hour a day for weeks trying to get Chief to leave. I thought about just using my Raymond amiibo to boot him out but I wanted him to be my Raymond from Coral Key so I persisted and finally- albeit in like 2024, I got Chief to leave.

Sasha fell into island life back on my main island so easily. He’s so cute and loves to hang out in my carnival area where Raymond used to stop a lot. I think that’s kind of funny how they both did that! I couldn’t be happier with my choices of Ione and Sasha- they really match Coral Key’s spirit a lot more and I don’t see them going anywhere soon!

(Why's Ione got a better set up than me tho? Lmao!!)

And that’s all for (hopefully) my last major villager update!​

 

[Pintuition]

I’m back with another build story! This time I’ll go over part one of my island’s fun fair/ carnival space, the ticket queue! Nearby there is a souvenir stand so I’ll show that a little bit too. This build went up really fast and to be honest I’ve not done much but tweak it a little since early February so I’m thinking it’s pretty much done unless I get another wild idea!

(the cutest loading screen!)

After I got cranking on my entrance I was kind of building this area concurrently with my cafe and museum area (those are still WIP though!). I was flitting back and forth whenever I felt inspired. I knew that since the land bridge atop my entrance pushed you up to the second level that I wanted a staircase nearby that would lead to the ground level for easier access to the beach. I actually ended up making two stairs down to that level, centered against my island entrance, one at the ticketing queue, one down from my cafe!

I knew I wanted to keep the river bed accessible this time (last time I blocked both off and I knew my museum would block one so this was the clear one to stay!) so I decided that the area down the stairs would be separate from my carnival and that you’d have to cross a diagonal bridge to get there. Problem was I didn’t really know what would go there. I toyed with doing a big fake store area but it was just too big to fill with something that has no real utility.

(this shows a little sneak peak at how my carnival area was coming when I was starting that too!)

Then I came across a build by redditor cpr1711 who made a really creative ticketing area on their island using fencing and ticket stalls. Immediately I was inspired by their idea (all credit to them for the idea and initial build!!) and knew I could expand upon it and make it work in my space. I LOVE coming across ideas like this, it energizes me to play regularly so much and really helped me through my burnout slump.

I knew this build would allow me to have something that would make sense with my carnival area nearby but would also let me control the flow of foot traffic so it dumps you out exactly at my new bridge. It took quite a few hours of fiddling (and a couple hundred thousand bells to move my bridge around haha) but I did finally make the shape work with the terrain I had.

I think the next thing I did was scour pinterest for the right design codes to use. My old island didn’t really have a huge carnival space so I had no idea what vibe to go for. The pink and rainbow carnival pathing and pastel Nook Mile item sets really informed the aesthetic and I tried to find things that would match that when possible. Pink/dreamy is the overall vibe after all! If I’m honest all I could do in late December/ early January is look for the designs online as I personally was too ill to play and had two surgeries during that time. Fortunately, though, that time allowed me to find a bunch of things that were perfect and eventually I was well enough to lay them down. Yay!

(Here you can see me experimenting with the pathing I used- it definitely has come a long way since December!)

One expansion I knew I wanted to make on the original queue idea was to use gyroids, I thought it would be so cute if they manned the ticketing booths. I set them up atop simple stools and as you’re walking through the queue they begin to get excited and start chirping and whirring and it’s all very cute. I also thought it might be fun to use actual tickets so I set out some unused tailor tickets and Saharah tickets to make it more realistic. There’s even a ticket stub box where visitors can leave bells if they want before crossing the bridge. So cute!

I also wanted a few beach access points outside of the queue. The first point is by taking a right directly after going down the stairs past the vending machines, through the small play park. When you come out of the line queue you are also free to go down to the beach or across the bridge. By going through either access point you end up in my souvenir shop- also manned by gyroids. I have an ABD and all sorts of cute items and Coral Key souvenirs on display. I thought this smaller area was a better fit for a store with less practical utility. The store is still kind of a WIP, I’m hoping to make more custom clothing for my island in the future to use here. For now, though, it looks kinda cute!

Recently I also decorated the tops of the cliffs with standees. These are largely to hide the buildings above, which weren’t there in some of the progress shots I shared earlier. They’re meant to look like a glass building with an awning and ticket booths. I carried these through to my carnival area as well. I’m hoping to share that too but it’s been vastly more complicated than I intended. In the end I ended up making a train, curating a double-level wall of games and prizes, set up a huge ball pit, decorated everything within an inch of its life, set up a food/ cotton candy area, made a whole ice cream shop, and more! It spans the whole bottom portion of Coral Key and truly is my favorite spot. Hoping to share that soon!

​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Carousel path and ticket booth: MA-2100-5129-5456
Glass standees and ticket standees: MA-8173-5519-5948
Pink bow: MA-5942-5094-8547
Pink and white diamond tiles: MA-7230-6684-0984
Sprinkles stool: MA-3269-0013-8733
Pink and white stone circle under ticket box: MA-5037-1104-8762
Dreamy pink cloud path: MA-1109-1974-9766
Pink and white stripe decking: MA-4522-0119-5541
Cotton candy: MA-5698-5260-1603
Fun fair sign: MA-1894-7994-2676
Coral Key shirt and fossil design are both by me: MA-6478-0820-9912

 

[Pintuition]

This build update has been a long time coming! I’ve certainly been working on my carnival area for some time now. The area is large and spans the entire bottom left portion of my island, extending into unfinished beach areas. For the sake of photo space I’ll probably show the ice cream shop that’s a part of this area in another update.

So directly abutting the area I wrote about in my previous post, the bridge at the ticketing area takes you directly to my carnival boardwalk. I had a hard time getting the river area just right so that it didn’t look weird. I went through several iterations of shapes, some with waterfall cliffs, some with simple panel buildings, and more. In the end I chose to make the carnival as straight across as possible and lined the whole area with curtain partitions to give the illusion that there might be circus tents in the cliffs beyond. This also allowed me to bring in some of the great dreamy custom patterns from the ticketing area!

Thankfully I was able to utilize my boardwalk design I already had from Coral Key 1.0. This was my own simple wood slats design. After the struggle with the river I wasn’t looking to reinvent the wheel! I also brought through the same carnival pathing from my ticketing area so it would blend well into each other. I had trouble lining up the cliff edge on that side since it was an angled line so I largely hid this area with a distracting path and glowing moss stools- whatever does the trick! I always feel self-conscious about these little weird ugly areas but nobody’s island is perfect…and if it is it’s probably modded…just saying!

(You can see the weird path edges I had to hide here during my final bridge placement during late 2021!)

I wanted the boardwalk to feel cluttered and overwhelming, like a real carnival space. Even though the space left for it is quite large, it still feels small since so many of the carnival rides are odd dimensions/proportions. It took me like a week to get all of the rides into position (while I ordered curtains for the back wall daily) before I liked it and began filling it in with other items like the crane games, balloons, etc.

One of the things I’m proudest of in this area is my train. I made all the custom designs myself to match the “cute” variant of the plaza train! Other more intricate ones may exist now, but back in the fall when I made it I hadn’t seen anyone tackle it yet. I think it makes for a super cute photo op right when you enter the carnival. My villagers love to come and examine it!

I made other use of standees in this area too- especially for my cotton candy cart! I used a cotton candy stall and placed the standees in front to look like kind of like a cotton candy cart. I placed a few Redd’s Raffle cotton candies on the shelf so you can see them inside when you walk by. The standees are so versatile- I’m so glad they added them to the game. In general I don’t change clothes that often so I had many pro design slots open. It’s amazing what cool areas you can build with the standees!

(why this is the only cotton candy cart shot I have is beyond me, but you get the idea!)

I also made use of some new items such as the popcorn snack sets to match my popcorn cart I’ve had since the early days, placed the balloon carts everywhere, and popped in the plaza game stands wherever possible. Fortunately on 1.0 I had a pink striped stall that almost exactly matches the top of the plaza game stands. On the second level I placed a stall and added some ducks, and in other areas stuffies and toys, to give the illusion the of the massive walls of prizes they often have at real carnivals. I had so much fun trying to intersperse some illusions using the second cliff. Of course the standees came to the rescue again, and I was able to hide my shopping and neighborhood area behind them.

I also knew I wanted to devote some space in front of the boardwalk area to be a big ball pit. After I saw the custom design while searching for other pathing I couldn’t not use it on Coral Key. So I placed a large plaza inflatable and slides in the ball pit and added the fencing to keep the ball pit in- or at least give that illusion, haha!. I left it like that for a while but decided something was missing. While dismantling my beach areas I found I had loads of extra beach towels. Then I had the idea to customize them so you can actually roll around in the ball pit. It really makes for a fun photo op!

Like the ticketing area I also decided that gyroids would man some of the carnival games. They’re too cute not to make better use of! So the gyroids, plus a few prizes or decorative items were spread throughout the area. The more clutter the better in this area. Even with all the items in such a small space I don’t notice it clips that badly. I’m a maximalist so even that wouldn’t stop me anyway, haha!

I’m pretty happy with the carnival area on my island- it’s certainly much nicer than the small area on my original build. The new plaza items really inspired this space- and I think the idea fits perfectly with my theme! Down the road I’ll show my little ice cream shop that sits beside the carnival space- that sure took a long time to build! It’s not even done, haha! Hoping to tighten that up and post more towards the summertime! We’ll see! In the meantime I’ve been hard at work on multiple villager neighborhoods, my shopping area, and redoing my home area. There’s almost too much going on to finish anything properly….but I’ll get there!

​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Ball Pit & Ticket Booth: MA-2100-5129-5456
Striped pink stall (matching to duck game): MA-0829-4765-3393
Cotton Candy panels/stalls: MA-5698-5260-1603
Cotton candy standees: MA-6113-2143-8465
Fun fair sign: MA-1894-7994-2676
Carousel path: MA-2100-5129-5456
Dreamy pink cloud design (curtains): MA-1109-1974-9766
Pink and gold stalls: MA-5037-1104-8762
Boardwalk path and train: My design, unreleased

 

[Pintuition]

Oops! It’s been quite a long time, hasn’t it? Truthfully I didn’t mean for it to be this long since updating but I took a massive break from playing due to my health and only now have started to get back into it to finish up what I started. To get back into my island journal too I thought it might be nice to have a little change of pace with a short post that’s more about recent gameplay than construction projects. Since then it looks like 6k people have viewed my journal- wow! Thanks for following along, I hope you enjoy the small update…

(Merengue is shocked by the number of journal readers, haha!)

Since my last post I celebrated my second birthday on Coral Key. This year I didn’t do anything big, just some visits with my villagers. It was at Merengue’s house this time! Marina and Dom also showed up to celebrate. I was super glad to pick up some more cupcakes, some of which I gave out, but mostly were kept for my cafe. The additional birthday cake was a big help for this area as well!

I also celebrated another cherry blossom period, which I truly enjoyed this time around. My island will be set to this season for my dream address so I spent a lot of time over those few weeks tweaking things and adding additional trees and DIYs to my island. I’ve been time traveling back to April ever since until I finish it up!

Thankfully bunny day happened outside cherry blossom season this year, but I didn’t really enjoy it all the same. Zipper keeps saying I’m missing a DIY but I’ve checked and double-checked…I’ve scoured the internet and I’ve had and made them all. I can’t figure out why he’s stuck on that and every year it’s the same old thing. About halfway through I said why bother and time traveled away if I’m honest!

One of the things I’ve been making more time for lately when I feel stuck redecorating is my daily tasks and chores around the island. This is especially true if I’m doing it in order to reup my nook miles I’ve lost since buying a lot of items to decorate with. There’s something really meditative about fishing for a half hour or just going to visit Brewster or watering plants. With my last island I saw these little moments as means to an end and I didn’t really appreciate how necessary they were to take a step back and enjoy the game rather than hyperfocusing on building. I think that’s what’s led to my two big multi-month burnout periods in the past. So far I’ve played at least once a week or more for a month now and I’m starting to get more into actually playing again.

One glaringly obvious thing about the way the game has changed for me is the lack of the social aspect. Many of my friends no longer play or at the least we don’t get together much. It’s sad but inevitable. Still I miss the days where you’d have a half dozen people running around your island causing havoc. I think the time the game was released kind of drove that to an extreme you otherwise would not have seen, but I think one of my goals down the road is to make some friends (or invite my old ones!) to spend some time in the game again and see if we still can have fun with the game.

(this little birthday letter from Merengue made me misty...not going to lie!)

A lot of people online say the game is dead…and to many it is…but I still can find the joy in the simple aspects of it, and I hope more people can too! I’m not holding my breath for any more updates, but perhaps a wave of nostalgia for ACNH will hit soon and some folks will pick it back up again. I, myself, will continue engaging with it in small ways and hope to post another update very soon!

(Sasha is a mood! This is actual footage of me taking a break from construction lol)​

 

[Pintuition]

Long time no see, friends! Since my last update I’ve found that several areas of my island are still in flux, they get tweaked everytime I sign on. One area that hasn’t changed much since I built it, though, is my first villager neighborhood. It has gone unchanged for a few months now so it’s probably safe to say it’s staying the way it is.

On Coral Key 1.0 I stuffed everyone’s houses in the back corner of my island in a big line. It took up a lot of space and didn’t really look great so I decided to break it up and make 2-3 smaller neighborhood spaces and fit them in where I had room. One of those spaces is the one I’ll show today, the area above my carnival that is next to my shopping area. It’s comprised of the homes of Sasha, Dom, Marina, and Chrissy!

To start with, I took inspiration from redditor, u/brusheswithdarkness off the ACNH subreddit, who posted photos of their “elegant entrance” online. I knew I could create something similar with my island’s pink angled pathing so I set out to lay down a mockup of how that would look first before I went through and paved everything underneath. Unfortunately the path I’m using has tiny breaks in it in the corners so it doesn’t make a perfectly straight line due to that tiny bevel. I largely hid this with topiaries and floor lights. I actually think it gives it a little bit of pizazz and it looks awesome at night!

While laying things out I blocked out where houses could go, but admittedly changed my mind about 10 times when trying to add in the pathing from my shopping area. It turned out a lot differently than the inspo photo- but that’s okay, I have to make it my own! I chose to add more houses in the front and added accents and lengthened some of the shapes to spread things out more. More or less, though, the underlying pathing and landscaping is super similar to the things I loved from the inspiration photo! I did try to interject some of the 2.0 items I liked such as the gazebo and the plaza benches to tie into my carnival area below.

Initially I was apprehensive about doing a neighborhood so close to the carnival. I thought since there were so many noisy rides below that it would be loud or otherwise distracting. After I set up all of the standees to act as a backdrop for the carnival it had an unintended benefit of acting as a buffer for my neighborhood area. I even brought some of the new tall 2.0 fences over to the side of the space to hide the edge of the cliff and beaches below, which are still undone. I had plenty of room and I didn’t feel the carnival or beaches were as intrusive as I had thought.

I did try to space everyone out equally and to make things a little bit more loose than the reference I used. This was largely done to fit in the land bridge to my home, which I’ll talk about in a future post. You can see early mockups of the bridge in some of the photos of this post, but I’ve improved it quite a lot. Rather than stuffing in houses randomly, I wanted sections of my island to flow into each other. Having homes near the shopping area and near my house just made sense.

This layout also gave each villager room to reintegrate the faux mailbox idea (made from tiny libraries) I loved so much from the 1.0 version of my island, as well as one or two “personal items” for the outside of their space. Since it is a major walkthrough area to get to the back of the island, so many villagers interact with these items, sit on their benches, and mill around here! I decided that even in my other two small neighborhoods, each villager would have a cute item outside that represents them. Dom has a bike because he’s a jock, Sasha has a skateboard because he always has the zoomies, Chrissy got a little rabbit, and Marina has a sea globe! Each of their houses got a redo inside and out to match them better too!

So sorry it’s been a long time since I last posted- my life got in the way! With the TBT holiday events I suddenly remembered I’m long overdue for a post so this was a bit rushed. I’m not sure what’s next on the menu- it could very well be other villager homes or possibly my shopping plaza. In any case, I’m about 90% done with my island now and will definitely be updating my dream address in 2023. See you all in the new year. Thanks so much for reading!

​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

All pink pathing (marble, paths with borders, sideways steps, pink brick, etc), hanging street post roses, etc: MA-5037-1104-8762

Neighborhood sign and rounded pink cobblestones are both designed by me but are unreleased as they are recolors of references I saw elsewhere and the original design ideas don’t belong to me!

 

[Pintuition]

(this is what it looks like in winter, current time)

What’s up, friends? I tried to do a post a bit quicker than last time (a massive over 6-month gap lmao) and this time it’s all about my shopping district. This spot consists of Nooks, Ables, and some faux shops/ walkways in the surrounding areas. This whole area is two tiers and took me an extremely long time to build. When I tell you I moved Nooks and Ables like 5 times I’m lying…it was probably more like 8 each. I almost thought I was going to tear it all down… but I didn’t! And I’m super proud I toughed it out. Here’s how things turned out…

Around the time the 2.0 update dropped I began to see people dramatically changing their islands. While I liked the look of my original shops next to each other, I did see people begin to stagger them on multiple levels. I think this saves space for decorating and actually makes the shops look bigger. I tried it on mine and it was, well… immediate disappointment. I couldn’t line it up with the carnival I built below it. I had awkward strips of land both in front of and to the side of both buildings. It looked a mess, truly. It wasn’t until I started decorating that I liked it enough to keep going with it.

I thought at first I needed a transition area to the shops (a park maybe? Or an overlook spot?) but in the end I decided to continue off the castle walls my entrance is built off of, this time building outward with the medieval building sides. If you cover enough of the windows with plants and other items they look just like a real building! I built it outward until it made the shopping area make sense there. Originally I just placed Nooks with the same building sides behind it, as if other stores continued in the back. The effect was poor, so I ended up building walls around the store too. This time, though, I used the castle walls since there’s a nice arch you can walk under. With a little bit of fussing this ended up looking great. I left enough area inside so the shipping box can still be accessed. On the other side there’s a hidden ATM!

I ran across a pattern online and an idea struck- I could make a little pond/waterway out of custom designs to lead through the area! I decided to make a little faux land bridge in front of Nooks that had a small duck pond on either side. After adding some fake plants, ducks, and cherry blossom petals I found I liked the effect and surrounded the building with a “pond” too. I used fencing to force you to stay on the path, and for the most part I think it works. I wasn’t sure how far to take it, though. I ended up still needing to build a small transition area to the carnival, but the space was less long now. I threw one of the umbrella tables out there and for the longest time didn’t touch it again until I got the idea to make a faux pizza shop for residents to eat while shopping or on the way to the carnival. Pairing food with fun made the most sense! This area I’m not 100% happy with yet and is still being minorly tweaked.

I did add a building “across the street” from the pizza shop to act as a sort of visitor’s center. It’s manned by a gyroid of course! There I have some shopping baskets and a rest area before you get to Nooks and Ables. It was a popular build I saw a lot of creators do at the time and I definitely feel like it worked well there. Especially since it gave me a place to put the custom shop sign I made that leads into the alcove up to Nooks.

I knew early on that I wanted a warp pipe to be somewhere in my shopping area. (though it's difficult to get in a photo) I moved it a few times (what a pain, I had to carve out the entire path to put it in from the carnival below) but decided having it “hidden” would work nicely. It’s placed inset in the ground just in front of the hidden staircase in the corner. Originally it was set in front of the staircase on the lower level but it showed too much. Now it places you in the perfect spot to get to either shop really quick! The other pipe is hidden inset in the ground near my house. Both took me days of digging little trenches through prebuilt areas to get right- such a pain!!!

I also struggled with where exactly to put Ables. I decided early on I wanted the shops to be offset, not just one on top of each other. Initially I threw up a cliff and it ended in the back a few tiles behind the shop, but as I decided where to put my neighborhood areas the need arose to have a cut-through to that area. I decided to remove one of the building sides along the back wall to create an opening to get to the back of the island. This effectively eliminated the need to use up another staircase, which I didn't have the room anywhere for. I'm happy I did, so many of my villagers use this path! I’d say of anywhere on my island, the shopping area has the most foot traffic. And because I clutter the sides with items they always stay on the paths!

On the side of this top area I decided to stay with the Ables Sisters theme and made an outdoor sewing station. I wanted to have a place for all three sisters to visit on the log sofa too, as well as make the space functional with a storage shed, workbench, and other tools I can use while I’m crafting and doing chores. I also thought that the tailor's shop might continue outside and created a little display with some of the custom design items I’ve downloaded. I’ve still been tweaking the layout of some of this stuff recently but it’s close to what I was looking for.

So that’s basically it for the shopping area! I use this space all the time and I’m decently happy with how things turned out. I love how so many of the 2.0 items work in this area. I’m not sure what I’ll cover in the next post…another neighborhood area? The museum? Cafe? Who knows! All I do know is I’ll be back asap!

Also, for those interested I started a journal for my second island, Lórien, which is going to have a castleccore/ Lord of the Rings theme! I’ll be posting there soon as well. Thanks for reading, as always!
​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

All pink pathing (marble, paths with borders, sideways steps, pink cobblestones, etc), hanging street post roses, etc: MA-5037-1104-8762

Cherry blossom pond pieces: MA-4495-7735-2618

Pink and white diamond tiles (under castle pieces left of visitor’s center, etc): MA-7230-6684-0984

Striped Bow Stalls: MA-4383-2294-1223

Open standee, shop sign, Coral Key bag, houses neighborhood sign, striped pillows: my designs; unreleased

 

[Pintuition]

Hello friends! It’s been about a month since my last entry. Since that time I’ve been hard at work on Lórien, my LOTR themed island, but I don’t want that to mean that I neglect Coral Key. There’s still plenty left to share. This time I’ll show everyone my outdoor cafe!

If you swing a right atop my entrance area you move straight into my outdoor cafe. This was one of my favorite areas in the 1.0 version of my island, so I had to bring it back! I kept most of the simple panels and other items I used in storage while I planned out the area. Of course some 2.0 furniture, especially in the kitchen, made its way in there too!

Terraforming this area was fairly straightforward, I essentially lined up the staircase with the one that leads to the carnival area on the other side of my island. Due to my airport being closer to the right, the space I had to work with was limited. Because of that I decided that the cafe should continue down to the ground level. So, directly down the stairs there is a small beachside Sanrio Cafe, which I’ll talk about later in this post.

The first thing I did on the top part of the cafe is carve out a little area for the kitchen at the back. Everything is workable; I use this space to cook all the time! Almost in the center I built out a big land bridge to my museum, so it took some adjusting to make sure it was still accessible. Villagers are always popping out of it and stopping to sniff the baked goods!

During the original building time I was also clearing all of the Brewster milestones so I ended up putting his gyroid as the counter attendant. I think it’s fitting- there’s even a coffee machine back there for him. I used a few bakery standees to help separate the kitchen from the seating area. This took so long to fill with items. Thankfully with all the time traveling I did I had plenty of Mom’s cakes to use!

I knew I wanted to place some tables in the center but I had a hard time laying them down and still having them leave room to access the staircase. I had to spread them out in such a way that they felt kind of awkward. To combat this I created a partitioned off more “crowded” area on the side that’s kind of a VIP section. I toyed around with removing some of the building sides there but no matter what I did it made the whole cafe look out of place. It’s a little cramped, but still cute! I think this makes better sense as there’s a little balcony area that juts out right near it- it’s the best seat in the house! There was an awkward little patch of land there I could terraform so I made the best of it.

One of the things I really liked about my original cafe were the booths I made out of diner sofas. Without realizing it, I made two booths in the same orientation, just like the original. It’s my little homage to the past I guess! Villagers love to come around and sit and play in this area, just like my old cafe. It reminds me so much of the good times I had on that version of my island!

Despite nostalgia being a big factor in this build I did also really want to include some “newer” items such as the Sanrio furniture, that didn’t exist when I made my original island. I knew I needed a Sanrio cafe, but didn’t necessarily want the entire thing to have that theme. So, I thought I’d make use of the wasted space underneath (and onto the beach) and decorate it as a Sanrio oceanside cafe. I ordered what felt like 1000 Cinnamoroll stools for this area, and just die at how cute everything is every time I pass through.

I did get to reuse some standees with a bakery design from CK 1.0 to cover the cliffs, but I used the Sanrio cafe as an opportunity to bring in some new designs too. I saw a Sanrio ice cream truck on Pinterest and wanted to use it in my carnival area, but couldn’t make it fit. Putting it here was a nice compromise! I also took the opportunity to do some design work of my own and made a simple pink tile design with stars (for little twin stars), hearts, and a blue moon for Cinnamoroll. I figure I can make use of this elsewhere on my beaches, as it looks really nice on the sand!

All in all, I’m happy with how my cafe has turned out. I wish I had about three tiles more space horizontally, but I really can’t complain; there’s so much I was able to fit in this area while still making a land bridge work. I think next time I’ll combine showing that bridge with an entry about my museum area, which also has an outdoor aquarium and overlook spot. Hope to see you next time!
​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

All pink pathing (marble, paths with borders, sideways steps, pink cobblestones, etc), hanging street post roses, bakery standees, etc: MA-5037-1104-8762
Sanrio ice cream truck standees: MA-1109-1974-9766
Cake shop standees (on balcony): MA-3446-2897-8288
Gingham prints: MA-2681-3232-5291
Pink beach tile and wooden planks: my designs, unreleased

*I cannot find the code for the dessert simple panels! If I find it I will edit this post!*

 

[Pintuition]

I had intended to do a post much earlier than now so sorry about that! But I’m finally feeling up to making a post about the museum. This covers a decent-sized portion of the right side of my island behind the cafe. Some of my favorite designs appear in this area, it was definitely the easiest space to put together!

Last time I talked about the cafe I showed the entrance to my long covered land bridge to the museum area. I was ordering pergolas for days! I had a vision for a long covered bridge somewhere on the island. The space between the cafe and back of the island was the perfect size; I really didn’t have many options other than to do a transition area like this because of the way I laid out the cafe.

(peep Dom photobombing lmao)

One of the things I liked on the 1.0 version of my island was the glass bottom bridge I used to have in front of my shopping area. I updated this design to make it look more realistic and applied this across the bottom of the covered area. Fencing on either side blocks the cliffs, which are waterfalls all the way down to the bridge exit. I used some castle arches to give the impression of a viaduct from the sides, and even made some custom designs of water with a border on either side of the bridge to make the arches look like they are actually in the water. So hopefully it reads like you’re crossing a dam and can see the water flowing underneath.

(again but with Marina photobombing this time lol)

Immediately exiting the bridge you enter the museum courtyard area. I placed a few statues as well as some fossils in this area leading up to the center fountain. While I loved my 1.0 cliffside museum, I think this looks just as cool. I carried over the same custom design sign and fossil flag from the original area- why change what already worked? I do think, though, that the 2.0 items like the topiaries and streetlights help elevate the area and make it look more elegant than it did before.

It certainly took me quite a while to frame everything in with the castle arches. You could see too much beach below and it took away from the elegance I was going for. Initially I wanted to box in the museum similarly to how I did with Nook’s Cranny but it just didn’t look good so I scrapped that. I settled for placing a few castle walls behind so I could gracefully transition to my new aquarium and overlook spot.

I didn’t start working on the overlook/aquarium until I built out my villager neighborhoods, but I always knew I wanted to bring these spaces back so I left room to grow behind the museum when I built that area. This sat unused for months and was the chief area I used as a “home base” for crafting, storage, and general prepping for new areas.

There is a separate entrance for the aquarium, which takes you through a tourist area and to a long thin stretch behind the museum. I wanted an entrance that took you straight through next to the museum but I couldn’t make it work and have the building still align with the bridge. Oh well! Separating it actually allowed me to better use the decking I designed as well as delineate the overlook area from the aquarium.

The aquarium stalls and creatures came straight from the beach area near where the original museum was. I was able to carry over most things I had in that version of the aquarium. I did improve the stalls by recoloring the design to match my island theme- I think they came out so cute! I’m so glad I stuck with learning the design app, there’s so much I made for my island I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to include.

I did decide to include a small ocean overlook and gazebo area for stargazing directly behind the museum. I was shocked and delighted to find Celeste using the space one day- nothing can convince me now that this space wasn’t meant to be! Besides, the overlook spot is super close to my two celestial villagers- Ione and Judy. It just makes perfect sense!

I think it makes the most sense for my next post to be about the next villager neighborhood that is directly behind the shops and extends down below to the museum. I am still working on some areas below that as well as the beaches. I haven’t actually put in serious work in months due to hand pain from my disability. I was so hoping to be done by now but it is what it is! One of these days I’ll actually finish this island!! (... maybe haha)

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Design Codes
All pink pathing (marble, paths with borders, sideways steps, pink cobblestones, etc), hanging street post roses, bakery standees, etc: MA-5037-1104-8762
Pink and white diamond tiles: MA-7230-6684-0984
Museum sign, fossil flags, fish stall, pink decking, pink diamond tiles, glass bridge, water with borders, diamond grass tiles: my designs and/or recolors of designs I’ve seen online all of which I haven’t released

 

[Pintuition]

Hello, hello! I wish I could have posted sooner but I’ve really been grappling with wrist pain and I didn’t play ACNH or really any games for almost all of April and May. Recently I’ve been trying to finish up a few areas of Coral Key so I thought it would be a good time for another update. In one of the last entries I wrote about building my shopping area; that area leads directly into my next one- a second villager neighborhood. I love how this street came out, but it was so hard won!

I built this neighborhood concurrently with the shops just outside it. I knew I was running out of staircases so I decided to make use of space on the same level and create an opening to walk through. I started by carving out a long straight cliff behind the shops, extending them far enough so that you could see the houses as you walked past. It’s a little tight but it works! I figured having a staircase down to the back of my island made sense, since there’s already stair access to the shops area outside of it. I did tuck in two vines/ ladders in alternative locations just as a shortcut for my own purposes but they are both hidden!

At this point of the project I determined that the amount of space I had for houses was awkward, I couldn’t fit as many houses as I wanted in the area, I’d be one house short or otherwise have to cram them together with no space for fun. That wouldn’t do so I had to come up with something else. I decided to make a fixed width for each house and yard and used trees to determine the boundaries, and to just omit two houses to be placed elsewhere. This allowed me to place the staircase easily so it looks nice and centered when you walk down.

Still, this left a medium-sized awkward spot just to the left of the shops’ entrance. At first I thought of turning it into my rock garden area but after reading online, I found I’d be unable to spawn all of them there. I then thought perhaps a garden but the area wasn’t big enough to make any cool shapes or do anything fun. In the end, I went back to Coral Key 1.0 for inspiration and decided to turn the space into a little cherry blossom picnic spot. This worked out really well as I was able to incorporate more trees and turn it into a little shared green space for the villagers in that neighborhood.

I outlined the picnic spot with an organic river shape. I made sure to make it small enough to be hopped over without a pole- I hate having to do that! I extended the brook over the side of the cliff on both sides. I was able to build that water feature out down below and use it near my house area as well. Sometimes even second or third plans can be the right choice in the end!

As for the villager homes themselves, most of my favorite villagers ended up in this area. Of course I redid all of their homes to look nice together- that took forever! Like the other neighborhood, each home has a faux mailbox and a little area with a few items that represent them. The first house is Merengue, who shares a yard with Chai. Together they share a little dessert area. Etoile has a Sanrio cloud maker outside for her item. I think my favorite is Cookie’s doghouse- complete with a little mini version of her, haha!

As I placed the houses I came to a realization- everything looked AWFUL from my entrance. It was a huge mess. I had to scramble and come up with an idea to “hide” my neighborhood so that the two areas- one fun and one more elegant, didn’t clash. I chose to build out the castle walls I used around the entrance to do this, in doing so actually improving the look of the Resident Services area.

Still, the extra additions left me with odd spaces to fill. I had to create a small line of trees, flowers, and waterfalls that runs parallel to the museum bridge to fill space. I also had to come up with an idea to use a big area of blank space in front of my staircase down out of the neighborhood. I chose to do a terrace cafe seating area. I have so many areas like this around but it was honestly the only thing that fit. Besides, the villagers use it loads!

I really struggled to build this area and changed it about a thousand times before I was happy. I’m thankful I did, though, as the last neighborhood was easier to build because of it. I think next time I’ll show that one just to button up the villager areas, and maybe even include the market space below. Then I think all that’s left is the beaches and my house’s area. I’ll probably show some interior transformations soon as well. Right now I’m just excited to be able to play a little bit again. We’ll see where it goes!​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

All pink pathing (marble, paths with borders, sideways steps, pink cobblestones, etc), hanging street post roses, etc: MA-5037-1104-8762
Pink and white diamond tiles: MA-7230-6684-0984
Gingham picnic blanket print: MA-2681-3232-5291
Cherry blossom heart: MA-2666-2445-8950

 

[Pintuition]

Welcome back! I tried to be a bit quicker with another update this time, just to button up my villager neighborhoods. I’m not sure this tiny space even really qualifies as a neighborhood, so I’ll also share some of the surrounding areas that aren’t big enough for their own posts.

Poor Ione and Judy ended up drawing the short straws and weren’t able to get a spot in the villager neighborhood above from my last post. Truthfully, I chose the two celestial villagers as the odd ones out since their houses are very close to the museum anyway. So it all works out in the end!

(live footage of a brewing fight between Judy and Sasha. He pulled up to her house just to drag her)

Judy’s house is extremely close to the museum and is almost connected to the wall that leads to the aquarium space in the back. Because of this, I was limited with what I could do with her yard. Instead I made sure to decorate things nicely around her, including adding nova lights on a water feature, a gazebo, and blocking off the aquarium from view with standees. I would have liked to have a little more room there, but I think it’s about the best I could do given the layout I already committed to.

Ione’s house is on the opposite side of the gazebo, closer to my villager’s home. I decided to keep her yard similar dimensions to Judy for space saving sake. This did leave me with a nice area nearby that has a seating area by the riverside. In the back there’s a secret path to hop along to lead back to my house, but it can be kind of tricky to navigate so I don’t use it much. Instead, I take the angled stone bridge that leads directly to my house area. This was extremely difficult to place, it’s impossible to line up straight paths with angled bridges so at some point I gave up and added smaller elements like hearts to the path to make things flow. I think it looks really pretty!

If you return to the gazebo space and head down the staircase it leads to a small market. I wanted this to feel like an outdoor fish/farmers market type of place. It gave me an opportunity to use a lot of extra stalls I had from my 1.0 island too. I may end up adding more items here someday but I’m content with it for now.

The rest of the space on the ground level is laid out like a boardwalk because, well, it was supposed to be one! Initially this is where I wanted to put my carnival area before it got too big and crazy. I’m very glad I trusted my instincts and abandoned that idea, there’s barely any room for anything in this area. Consequently, I walled it in and turned it into a scene outlook point that leads to a fishing area towards the secret beach.

Because of the shape of my mansion above, the secret beach is partially obscured from view by the cliff. I didn’t have a huge space to decorate so I threw some pirate and fishing items there. I think it looks kind of empty when Redd isn’t on the island but cute when the boat is there. Oh well!

And that wraps up the market and the last villager area. I’m kind of sad there’s not much left! Unless somehow by some miracle more content drops, I think these will be the last major changes to my island. When I finally finish posting about Coral Key I’ll be back to talk about my second island more as well. Until then, there’s still a bit more to show on Coral Key. I hope to have another post ready soon!
​

Spoiler: Design Codes I Used

Almost all pink pathing (marble, paths with borders, sideways steps, pink cobblestones, etc), hanging street post roses, etc: MA-5037-1104-8762
Pink and white diamond tiles under museum: MA-7230-6684-0984
Gingham prints: MA-2681-3232-5291
Cherry blossom heart: MA-2666-2445-8950
Cherry blossom pond pieces: MA-4495-7735-2618
Pink Floral Trellis Standee: MA-2202-7768-8299
White Floral Trellis Standee: MA-0687-4578-5842
Pink decking, fish stalls, diamond bow path and pieces: My unreleased design