I'm just curious because right now, I'm finally back into the game, and am REALLY finding decorating to be difficult on my own without any outside ideas. (To those who can decorate with their own ideas very well, please share your talents, lol!) I'm certain I'm not the only one who finds decorating and getting ideas/inspiration to be hard! I personally check out Pinterest a whole lot, there's tons of ideas that get me going, and I follow those ideas (Mostly because I'm not a talented decorator.). But what about you? What do YOU do to get ideas and inspiration?
generally, i have whims that i want to try and build, and then i attempt it. when i play things like the sims franchise, it's really caused me to envision things in my mind and try to recreate them within a set structure of a game.
so, for the most part, i'm trying to come up with my own ideas and think of new things or arrangements to try out. youtube and pinterest have been really nice just to gather some ideas from as well, though; i had no idea what to do with my peninsula until i had gathered some inspiration from other players.
all i know is when i'm crafting and scalping my island, i want it to be outdoor-sy. so i just keep that in mind and generally go with it.
I really need inspiration for the rest of my island. Most of the areas that I am happy with has been from using items from friends gifts and working around. Just love special memories of kindness my island might not be the best but, apart from overgrown flowers and areas that do need some love it is my happy place
I honestly use my own ideas only. Most of the islands I've seen on youtube aren't my style, and my idea is not that complex; in fact, it's very simple, as it's just an animal village in the forest (even though we're in an island this time, so because of that, I had to take the beaches into account). It does have a more well developed part, but I see it as if the town had been founded decades ago and some parts of the island inevitably got more urbanized than others (and this is also reflected on the species and personalities that inhabit these areas).
While I get inspired to make interesting worlds by outside media series (think Legend of Zelda, Over the Garden Wall, etc), my actual builds end up being something of my own (with a few smaller areas inspired by what I’ve seen online).
I usually think of my ideas, but recently i've wanted to do more projects and so i've been looking at landscapes online for inspiration! i'm going to try to make a fjord
I've used youtube town tours the most. Now that random dreams are back, I've been using those the most! I also use pinterest for qr codes and random ideas
despite how uncreative i can be at times, i try my best to come up with ideas on my own but when i can’t, i look for inspiration from irl designs, whether they’re ones that i find from the interest or from areas that i’ve personally come across!
generally things I put on my island are things that I've decided myself to build, but I'll often search for similar things on pinterest or youtube or something so that I can maybe think of new details I wouldn't have ordinarily included! and if I'm feeling really stuck then I'll do it the other way round and start by looking on pinterest, then adapt it to my personal taste as I go
I mostly think of it myself, but if not i take a lot of inspiration of islands on youtube, reddit, twitter etc.
I also visit a lot of dreams, and whenever i see something cute i tend to try to rethink it and make it fit my own style
I try to take replicate real life settings to the best of my ability. For example, I eventually want to replicate the garden located at the Getty Villa. Googling pictures of it, I try to see what I know is possible (statues, palm trees, bushes, flowers, pathways, and waterworks). Then, ideas that may be possible like forced perception. Then, I accept the impossible such as neatly lined up pillars; or making this project 95% accurate without using a large chunk of land. Finally, I decide if I want to put some of my own "artistic liberties"into it, like adding a section for a zen/botanical garden or the Tower of Pisa.
I feel that the look of my town isn't a very common one (rusty/rundown sea town), so I just look for patterns online that fit that kind of theme and pick items that would be cohesive. Sometimes I note how others have terraformed their islands because some of the perspectives are really interesting and to me, terraforming is the hardest part of decorating an island.
I get a lot of my ideas from instagram and reddit, and occasionally from youtube videos. I screenshot ideas I like and then put it in a google doc for later. Then I will just try to make the idea work on my island, though I usually end up changing it quite a bit. Decorating the outside of my island is easily my favorite part of the game, so this is what I spend the most time on. I feel like I constantly redo areas, but there are so many great ideas out there!
Games and anime I like inspire me as well world culture and history . I have found inspiration from visiting others islands or from looking at screenshots - but not so much for specific ideas but inspiration to push myself to try to work with the limited furniture. While I have based designs on locations in games and anime, I tried to add more to them and add a personal touch to them rather than do what i did in the past like in NL, by making the design look as close as possible to what i was basing it off of with little modifications.
I generally choose an idea of what I want theme wise...say for a room...I collect the items I like and place them and go from there with either swapping other items that work with the core ones I like the most or rearranging till it suits what I want.
When it comes to outdoors, I feel like I struggle more with picturing what to do with a space. But I feel like the same concept goes with throwing down some main items and going from there.
It’s a combination of several things. I have pne area that will be based on recreation of a place I visited irl. There’s another area that is going to be based a TV drama I watched... for filling in small spaces, I would look for inspirations from visiting other islands. For interior designs though, it’s gonna be basically me freestyle throwing together all the items and furnitures I like lol
my island might not be the best but, apart from overgrown flowers and areas that do need some love 
it is my happy place 
While I have based designs on locations in games and anime, I tried to add more to them and add a personal touch to them rather than do what i did in the past like in NL, by making the design look as close as possible to what i was basing it off of with little modifications.
