Building a household in The Sims is one of the first things you’ll be doing, and it is also one of the most creative parts of the game. So, we have made a guide that lists some of the most useful building tips and teaches you how to build a perfect house in Sims 4.
How to Build a House in the Sims 4
Depending on your experience with previous The Sims titles, your grasp on the slightly time-consuming art and science of building homes may limit what you can do. For most players fresh to the series, it can be a challenging and exhausting experience.
This guide should help you start building your home in The Sims 4. We’ll look into different methods of creating rooms and how to make your house the most comfortable place possible.
The Sims 4 Build Mode Controls
Once you have started building your house in Build Mode, to make your life easier, Sims 4 have introduced a control bar on the screen housing all the controls needed to build a house. We have explained every control down below:
Arrow:
While using this tool, you will convert any item or element to its active state and make changes.
Eyedropper:
You can utilize this tool to duplicate an item. But it has some drawbacks as it cannot duplicate objects like rooms and roof parts for now.
Hammer:
You can use this tool to delete an object. To use this tool, click on the tool from the menu bar and then click on the object you want to delete. Everything that is outlined in yellow will be deleted.
If you want to delete more than the outlined object, then Drag the cursor over the object while holding the shift key you want to delete.
If you are unhappy about the changes you made, you can reverse them by pressing the undo button. The old-fashioned delete button on the keyboard also deletes the items. Just select the object by clicking before pressing the delete key.
Color Palette:
This tool changes the color of any object that is selected. The tool will give you a variety of colors to choose from. Click on the color to modify the color of the object. The only drawback of this tool is that this tool isn’t compatible with all items.
Undo:
This tool can be used to undo an action that you did last.
Redo:
You can use this tool to continue the sequence of events.
Lot Information:
This tool contains information about your lot and has sub-menus explained below
Lot Type (1/5)
This tool lets you decide if you want to make your lot a house or a public place like a bar, Gym, and library. If you choose to make your lot a public place, a list will appear showing the progress bar you need to convert this place into a functioning venue.
The game lets you add more items other than the list, but first, you need to procure the list of items. Once you have added the items from the list, a green check will appear on the right, improving the total progress bar.
Lot Name (2/5)
By clicking this tool, you can select or edit the name of the lot.
Size of the House (3/5)
Before saving the progress to the library, this tool lets you decide how many bathrooms and bedrooms you want. After saving, the game won’t let you edit this information.
Lot Worth (4/5)
This tool shows the total worth of the lot.
Bulldozer Tool (5/5)
If you don’t like how your lot is coming together, for some reason. This tool lets you destroy the whole lot. You need to think twice as once done can’t be undone with this tool.
Saving to Library:
If you feel good about the progress, you can save a specific part or the whole lot into the library. Select the room if you want to save only the room while you are building it
Move House:
If you have a big property and want to move your house within that, this tool is the one. To move, click on the tool and the house first, then drag the house while clicking. Drop it wherever it fits in the new location.
Move Lot
If you don’t like the surrounding of your property, then you can change a Lot of your property by clicking on this tool. The best thing about this tool is that it allows us to move everything, including the landscaping.
Time of the Day
Suppose you are unsure about the new home modifications and how they would look at different times of the day. You can choose morning, evening, and night from the menu according to your liking.
House Foundations
It is a feature that lets you build foundations, but the best thing about this feature is that you don’t have to add a foundation for the building process to continue. You can add the foundation whenever you want during the construction process.
The foundation menu lets you customize everything on the foundation. Starting with the height. You can increase or decrease the height of the foundation by clicking on the handy slider on the menu.
You can also choose the material you want for the foundation and customize the color of the foundation from the available option on the palette.
How to Build Rooms
The game has introduced a new feature of the room Units. You can make them any shape or size you want by dragging them from any corner. The game has considered the room a separate unit, so you must change your perception of that. The room can have walls or not have walls or be surrounded by a railing.
Rooms with Walls
While building the room, the first option that will appear on the menu is rooms with walls. The walls are customizable in every way, and you make them bigger and smaller by clicking on the arrows on top.
The game has also allowed you to make your custom shape of the room by making three walls with straight tools and dragging them in any direction you want, and making the shape of your liking.
The second option is to choose from the shapes from the list and then drag the wall you want to make bigger. Once you have selected the room’s shape, you will be presented with an option to rotate the room 90 degrees.
You can also relocate the room without changing any dimensions. And move your room to a different level.
Floating Walls
Unlike when building a house in real life, Sims allows you to build a wall on the first floor without having anything beneath. But to use the room with floating walls, you need to approach from some side to get there.
Styled Rooms
At the start, you’ll have an empty lot with a grid that shows the area of the house.
Don’t worry about it for now, as unlike the previous Sims, and you can alter the area of this place even after placing the Styled Rooms through a slider (and also adjust the size of the rooms themselves).
To start, you’ll want to select the Styled Rooms option from the Build menu. Here you will have access to all kinds of rooms, including kitchen, bedroom, bathroom, living room, dining room, study room, and even patios for the external part of your house.
In addition, 16 career rooms are unlocked once you reach a specific level in a Sims career.
Once you pick a Styled Room, you will have a few options for changing a few things. The first will be the style, which will alter the room’s furniture, decoration, and general structure.
Once you have selected that, it is time to move on to the color scheme. Once you have chosen both the style and the color scheme, you can buy the room and place it on your lot grid. While placing it on the grid, you can orient it by moving it or rotating it and re-size the room to fit your lot.
This way, you can combine multiple styled rooms and create a complete household. You’ll probably have a few gaps here and there, which can be taken care of with the Room tool or the Wall tool and by adding a few doors here and there.
You can use the cheat if you want to unlock everything overnight without waiting for them to unlock. To apply cheat, you need to access the cheat menu by pressing CTRL+Shift+C. and the put code “bb.ignoregameplayunlocksentitlement” and then exit the menu by pressing CTRL+Shift+C again.
It’s best to build your styled rooms first and then build your remaining house around them so that you will pick the color and theme of the house according to the pre-made ones.
Using Player Made Styled Rooms
There is no stop to your imagination of making your custom room. If you don’t like the pre-styled rooms, you can make your own custom room using the filter to search for the perfect room type, length, and cost.
You can then bring your custom room to your lot to get the feel of how it would look in the house and then save it in the library to seal the deal. And then use it whenever you like in the future.
Wall Heights
Sims allows you to choose the height of your walls from the three sizes if you don’t like the standard height of the walls. You can modify it at any time during the building process.
Half Walls
If you want to make small walls that aren’t tied to the ceiling, then by using the half walls tool, you can make them by choosing between five sizes. One short, three middle, and one tall are your options to choose from. You can put these walls anywhere and make them smaller to fit them anywhere you want.
The sims can talk and look through the half walls but cannot go through them. You can hang things on these walls. You cannot build these walls on surfaces that are not plain.
Helpful Hints for Using Half-Walls
- You can build the half walls on the roof or around the house to have an additional protection
- You can divide any room into two half and make one for a different purpose
- Make a glass fence by using the windows if you want to have a transparent look that will allow more light through.
- There are a plethora of inventive methods to make the half walls work for you. Using windows, you can use various heights together as a creative backsplash or use them to make readily visible transparent borders.
Basement
The Sims let you make your house a maximum of 6 floors by adding two basement floors. To add the basement, select the tool from the wall menu.
You need to check the dimension of the basement indicated by green lines. Once you have made it, it goes under the ground and disappears. So remember the location while making it.
How To Make Split Level Basements
To get the most out of one basement, you can make split level basement by following the easy steps below:
- Construct a basement that is the same size as the space you want to be open. Then, beneath it, build the equivalent sub-basement.
- Now remove the first basement’s floor.
- Sketch the “loft” space using the wall tool for the first basement level when on it.
- The wall dividing the loft and the other basement should not be removed. The floor will return because of this.
- Fencing should be used to replace the wall that divides the loft and basement.
- With the addition of stairs, the split-level basement is finished.
Open Basements
Who wouldn’t want an open hole in the land you own? You can do this by following the simple steps below:
- Construct a basement.
- Select the basement by clicking on it.
- Now click page up to go on the ground level.
- The contour of the basement will be visible. Delete the ceiling by clicking on the thick yellow line.
- You have successfully made an open basement, and now you can put stairs to access it.
- If you don’t like the shape, you can change it before removing the ceiling.
Adding Decorated Rooms To Basements
You can add a styled room directly to your basement. Follow the steps below to add a styled room to your basement:
- Use the Page Down control to get to the basement level. When you are there, you will see black surroundings everywhere.
- Choose the room from the Construction catalog and then click on the basement. After a little pause, the room will appear.
Wall Coverings
Now that you have your walls and doors, it’s time to give them some nice patterns. Remember, Sims care a lot about how their surroundings look, as the environment plays a large part in giving out emotional moodlets that can affect a Sims productivity and lifestyle.
Click on the textured wall square on the side of the house in the Build menu to open up all of the wall covering options. Several kinds of patterns are available to you for your walls, and you can put them up one wall at a time or for the entire room. Here are the options:
- Paint
- Masonry
- Wallpaper
- Rock and Stone
- Tile
- Siding
- Paneling
Start adding these to the walls once you have selected the desired patterns. The patterns will be quite dark for now, but that’s mainly because you haven’t added lighting or windows.
Floor Coverings
Once you’re done with the walls, it’s time to move on to the Floor Patterns, accessed from the Builds menu. This includes the following options:
- Wood
- Linoleum
- Carpet
- Metal
- Tile
- Outdoor
- Stone
Once you’ve picked a pattern, select it and lay it on the floor. Again, it will usually appear dark, but that’s only because of a lack of lighting through lamps and windows.
If you don’t want to be painting the entire room manually with the pattern, simply hold SHIFT and click, and it will be pasted on the entire room floor.
How to Build Floor and Ceilings
You can add and delete the floor when the whole room is selected by clicking on it. Once you have selected the room, a yellow outline will appear around the room’s foundation. Click on the floor to bring up a pop-up to construct the floor. Click create a floor from the pop-up menu, and the floor will be created.
It’s worth noting that rooms on the bottom level don’t need a floor. If you still want to add something to them, then you can add floor coverings.
Ceilings are another feature you may add or delete after you’ve decided on space. Simply select the room and go to the top floor using the page up button. A yellow border will surround the room’s outline. Click on the yellow line to bring up a pop-up menu. Select Create a ceiling from the menu. A ceiling will be erected in the room
How to Move a Room
Select the room that you want to move by clicking on it. You will see a menu in the center. Click on the move button, relocate where you want to, and click again to dock it. This is very good as you can move the room with all of your customizations to a new place.
The doors and windows connecting with the room will be moved to your new location, and when you dock the room in the new location, all these will be moved to your inventory.
How to Build Decks
You can build a deck just like you would a room as the game considers both as the same type. Simply select from the menu and place it where you want. The new deck will be formed of a curved shape. You can join to form a circle or semi-circle.
How to Build Stairs
To build the stairs, you need to select the stair image from the menu to access the stairs catalog. Click the stairs you want to add from the catalog. And they will be added. They will automatically adapt to meet the height of the foundation.
To adjust the width, grab the arrows and push or drag them to the appropriate position. Price of the stairs will depend on how tall and wide they are.
Stairs can also be used externally on the main door as steps if you elevate your house’s foundation, so if your house is slightly above the ground, make sure you have a few steps up to the front door.
How to Build Fencing and Gates
To build the fence, click on the picture of the fence. Choose from several styles. After you have selected the style, you will be prompted to select the color from the palette.
You can also use your free hand to build the fence. You can build fences anywhere on your property.
Once you have made the fences around the property, you will need a place around where you get in and out from. That’s where you will need to build the gates.
To install a gate, click the gate symbol from the menu. You can build the get anywhere on the lot except next to a wall or foundation. You need to move the fence to make space for the gate.
How to Build Windows and Doors
To conserve energy during the day, your house needs sunlight to keep the internals well lit. For this, you’ll need windows. There are two ways to add windows: manually placing them one by one or adding them to entire rooms.
Select the windows from the builds menu and choose which placement method you want.
Once you have selected the windows, place them along the exterior of your house, ensuring that every room gets enough sunlight during the day to keep it well lit.
If central rooms like the living area or dining in the middle aren’t too well lit, you might consider using glass doors between them and another room with a window.
Now that you have the skeletal structure of your house set up, you want to connect the different rooms through doors. To access the Doors, you need to either click on an already present door or go to the menu through the catalog.
Once you’re there, you’ll have several kinds of doors to choose from. Some of these doors will be for the main access, while others are more appropriate for transitions inside the house.
After choosing a door, simply select it and then drag it onto a wall to install it there. Note that some doors have a wall height requirement and may not fit your house if the walls don’t have enough height. The same is true for Windows.
Roofing Tips
- You can use many roof shapes to add variety to your construction. Even if you are building a roof over a single room, fuse two forms of the roof to make it more appealing to look at. Adding a roof patio will also help break the flow.
- You need to find the balance between the house wall and the roof. Make sure that it is not too large and adjust the height according to the house’s walls to reach a balance.
- You need to make sure that the roof looks like a uniform aesthetic. Try connecting all of the house’s parts on a single roof.
- Look for any gaps in the connections of the roof and extend the roof to cover all the edges as that will give a more professional look.
- Because there isn’t an octagon or conical roof form available, you will need creative thinking to combine two roofs. Attack a hip roof section to get the dome shape you need.
Roofing Collision
The game uses enclosed room units to determine the roof collisions. If the roof collides with the enclosed room, then the roof vanishes. You can still use the room interiors area.
You may also build a loft as the way room units interact with roofing. Any area beneath your roof containing a room unit becomes available to your Sim.
Roofing Textures
When picking the roofing units, you have seen that you have no option to choose a color. This option lies in the roof pattern, and you can examine it by clicking on the piece of the roof on the menu.
You can choose from various textures and find the one you like the most. To use, click on the texture you like and then click on the part of the roof you want to modify.
A roof comprises discrete components rather than a single drawn object, and you may color each roofing portion differently if you like.
Roofing Trim
To access the roof trim menu, click on the picture of the house’s roofline. You will see different options for contrasting your roof, like adding a hint of silver.
You can mix different roof colors to achieve a distinctive look for your roof textures. You also have the option to color the base of the roof differently if you are feeling creative.
How to Build Pools
You can build a pool by clicking on the pool picture to access the Pool tool. You may design a rectangular form of any size by dragging the mouse while clicking. You can make it in the shape of Square, Triangular, Diagonal, and Octagonal by clicking it from the menu and the rest of the process is the same.
The only drawback while building the pool is that you cannot free-hand a pool. It must be one of the shapes described above. The pool behaves just like a room. After selecting it, you will gain access to a menu and can move and rotate it from there.
House Decorating and Furnishing Tips
- Choose the theme for the remainder of the space using the style and color of your major item (bed, couch, kitchen countertops). Then arrange the rest of the room around it.
- Follow the “shopping list” in the lot information panel if you are building a Community lot. First, put the big items and then build small things around them to get the idea of space. Make sure that the community lot has many open spaces where sims can hang out.
- While you are furnishing the room, it’s best to put a pair of lights on top so that you can see what you are doing. You can swap them for a more fancy light matching the room’s theme.
- You need to make sure that the space has plenty of light. To cope with that issue, you can use invisible light in conjunction with other lights to get the desired brightness. Remember to match the atmosphere of your space by adjusting the intensity of visible lights.
- To prevent seeming too fragmented and mismatched, you need to have the same color scheme in the room that opens into rooms. Treat the whole house as a single piece and make sure not to jump too many shades.
- Choose the wall and floor coverings after the furniture. This will save you time and stress. Since wall textures have more colors to choose from, it’s best to do the bed first because it’s easier to choose the matching color of the wall from a wide variety of palettes instead of another way around.
- Try not to make your space more complex by choosing only one or two colors only.
- You need to think of the Sims who will be utilizing the place and draw influence from them for the room’s appearance. Make sure the room reflects the personality of the inhabitants. flirtatious Sim’s room and Angry Bro’s room would be completely two different sides of the spectrum; just like Sim, who likes to cook, you need to give him space to cook
- After the mandatory furnishing, fill the empty spaces by hanging a picture on the wall or a rug on the floor. This will also increase your Sim’s mood.
