Ideas for my island

[TurnipBell20]

I want to restructure my island, and I don’t really know what to do and where to start. I‘ve yesterday changed my garden to look somewhat „nobler“, and I know that I am going to move my flower field to a different location because I want to plant tomatoes, wheat etc. where the flowers are now. My plan is to make the entire island look more like an actual town and less like a giant farm.

I would really appreciate any ideas, especially pictures!

 

[Croconaw]

My favorite part of my island is my hockey rink. It’s complete with center ice and the face-off circles. I’m using the soccer goals as the two nets. It would be perfect if we could customize the metal part to be red, but unfortunately, the soccer goal is not a customizable item. Surprisingly, this rink only takes up eleven/twelve pattern slots. It could take nine or so if you use less detail.

On another note, I actually prefer the look of the cedar trees. I think they look more noble. I’ve seen a few towns with a more urban theme. I hope this gives you some ideas, and I wish you luck with your island. Don’t feel overwhelmed by trying to do too much at once. Islands are big. Just focus on small sections of your island and take smaller steps.

 

[Bizhiins]

Do you have NSO so that you can visit dream towns?
I was having a lot of trouble figuring out my island - I knew a general “theme” like you, but not exactly what I wanted where, or how to really start.
Where I got most of my ideas was actually traveling to all sorts of dream towns and saving my favorites to get ideas from them. My town is a more gothic theme, and I saw a town that had an area of black roses, so I decided I wanted an area for that and made something similar.
I’ll look through the dream towns I’ve visited and see if there’s anything similar to what you’re looking for?

 

[TurnipBell20]

Do you have NSO so that you can visit dream towns?

I do have NSO! That would be really helpful, thank you!

 

[S.J.]

Did you end up making any major changes since your original post?

I agree with Bizhiins about visiting dream addresses! I think a great way to get inspiration without outright copying someone else's layout is to visit random dream addresses (though it's fine to copy too if that's how you prefer to play). I don't ever seek out specific dream addresses (unless someone asks me to look at their island), I usually just ask Luna to "surprise me" and see what she finds!

As for not wanting one large farm, there are a few things you could do:

• Instead of having an orchard, I spread my trees throughout the island. E.g. near the campsite are pears and peach trees, and in the gardens around the plaza are apple trees.
• If you feel that the vegetable farming area is too large, you could spread out your crops too. For example, if your villagers have front or back yards, you could have one or two types of vegetables growing in a villager's garden, rather than grouping all of the vegetables into one farm (however it means travelling between locations to water and harvest your crops).
• If you'd rather stick with one large farm for convenience, I know some people have chosen a villager and then built and decorated a farm around their house as though they are a farmer.
• I also use different flowers in different areas of my islands, but still in a way that they can grow. I line the path along the beach with a few types (green mums and purple tulips), and then the mushroom forest has all the oranges/yellows and some whites, and I grow all the pink flowers in the sculpted garden type areas (around the plaza, fountain, etc). It's less efficient if you want to grow flowers in bulk, but at least you have a decorated area instead of rows and rows of flowers.

 

[VanitasFan26]

I know I usually say make whatever stands out to you but I can give you ideas for your island based how I design my islands:

1. Have an open path that makes it easy to navigate. Not having cliffs being so cluttered and areas becoming too narrow
2. Have big flower gardens.
3. Put fences around your island
4. Make an Orchard that contains all of the non native fruit.
5. Organize your villager homes in one group either horizontal or vertical.
6. Make a Gyroid Garden meaning that if you have Gyroid fragments and you don't know where to plant them make a nice garden for them
7. Put Floor Lights on the ground so it looks better at night time and it won't be so dark.

Thats all the ideas I usually do on my island but like I said its your island and you make whatever you feel stands out to you.

 

[TurnipBell20]

Thank you all for the tips!

Did you end up making any major changes since your original post?

I did decorate two little areas. I used custom design paths and blankets. I tried using mostly light colored furniture and flowers. The inspiration actually came from a YouTube video I watched. I think I want to give different areas different themes, but stick to a certain concept, so things don’t look messy?

 

[S.J.]

Thank you all for the tips!


I did decorate two little areas. I used custom design paths and blankets. I tried using mostly light colored furniture and flowers. The inspiration actually came from a YouTube video I watched. I think I want to give different areas different themes, but stick to a certain concept, so things don’t look messy?

That sounds like a great idea. I decorated my island one section at a time, and I was worried the different sections wouldn't come together well, but it was surprisingly easy to connect each area. What sort of themes are you interested in?

 

[TurnipBell20]

That sounds like a great idea. I decorated my island one section at a time, and I was worried the different sections wouldn't come together well, but it was surprisingly easy to connect each area. What sort of themes are you interested in?

The main themes I am interested in are spring, autumn and vintage. In the spring areas I want to use more flowers and bushes, in the autumn areas I want to create little forests with mushrooms, and in the vintage areas I want to build marketplaces and areas with vintage items such as a typewriter for example.