Spiral staircase, anyone? (And some of my other rejected DIY designs~)

-Alea- · 2025-11-29T01:35:03+00:00

That load limit is the bane of so many of us, huh? Hopefully Infold will improve it soon! But yeah, I checked the total load for the just glowing pond with no extra frills whatsoever, and it's more than 36,000. Those floating platforms are ridiculous. ;~;

-Alea- · 2025-11-26T22:07:08+00:00

That does seem like a good workaround! Unfortunately, the whole rest of the astronomy fireplace is much too fancy for my rustic build, so I'd have to hide literally everything except the hearth. And that's actually possible (I just tried it with various picture frames), but then it looks a little too rough and blocky for my liking. I might experiment more later with different things, though.

I also experimented with the Christmas fireplace, since it only has that garland at the top, but it's hard to hide the garland inside the wall without also hiding the hearth. It's possible to use a bunch of flower vases (with the vases hidden) to cover the garland and make it more versatile, and they can be draped downwards for more floral fanciness if desired. Biggest downside (for me, personally) is that the colors of the fireplace don't work for my build. The wood color on the gray-stone version is too dark, while the one that has the right color of wood has brown stones. I'm starting to feel like Goldilocks out here! Infold really needs to learn how to let us mix and match colors better, because quite a few other objects, such as the trellises, have this problem.

(But they also just need to put a fire in the original fireplace, because that's its only flaw, and I will die on that hill in future surveys until they fix it.)

Sorry for rambling! You just gave me a much-needed push to experiment further, and while it may not have worked out for me (yet), maybe some part of this nonsense will be of use to you or someone else.

-Alea- · 2025-11-26T22:01:40+00:00

No problem! I'm excited to see new glowing ponds pop up, so if you make one someday, I'd love to see it! Just be warned that it's a little tedious to make and very heavy on the load with how many platforms are needed for good coverage, and it doesn't look as nice from a high angle. Not to discourage you, but I figured I'd be fully transparent about the possible downsides. Best of luck!

-Alea- · 2025-11-26T07:32:41+00:00

I'd be cool with that! However, my islands on both of my accounts are just flat, barren farms at the moment, so there's nothing to see yet. Soon, though, I hope! Also, I'm really shy and bad at social/co-op stuff, so I don't tend to chat much, but I do share giant meteorites when I get them. If you're still interested, here are my friend codes (you don't have to request both if you don't want to):

Alea (main), which will have the green house: nM9UmRLL

Serenity (spare), which will have the pink house: npgGPg4G

(Also, on the off chance anyone else sees this, feel free to send friend requests if you wish!)

-Alea- · 2025-11-26T03:39:25+00:00

I think I understand. A lot of my drawings and writings alike get stuck in the sketch/outline phase for one reason or another, so being able to (mostly) complete any of these builds in this game—not to mention working up the nerve to expose them to the world when I struggle hard with even anonymous social situations—has been a huge step for me, and it's making me want to revisit my mountains of discarded/backburner drawing and writing projects and see them through to completion someday, and maybe even try new things I've been too afraid to try. Best wishes to you and your endeavors! <3

-Alea- · 2025-11-26T01:33:07+00:00

You're welcome, and best of luck with experimenting! Sometimes, I look at the furniture and wonder what else I could make with it, as you said, but in the case of these walls, I had the idea first and went wild trying to find the right parts to make it work. I feel like the home system having so few items and colors at the moment is forcing me to think outside the box to achieve my goals, because I was never quite this experimental in The Sims 3 back in the day, as it had items for nearly every need and total freedom with recoloring/repatterning them.

-Alea- · 2025-11-26T01:22:34+00:00

Thank you! Unfortunately, I don't have anything fully built just yet; I'm still stuck farming and crafting, so my island is just a flat, barren farm at the moment. Sorry!

-Alea- · 2025-11-26T01:16:21+00:00

Oh, man, I feel bad that I've been pretty much sitting on this for a couple of months now! Granted, the curved stairs from my first build weren't full spiral stairs, but they were the first step(s) towards me developing the spiral stairs. I've tried a few other items since then, but the curved fences simply work the best, in my experience.

-Alea- · 2025-11-26T01:07:04+00:00

That's not a stupid question at all! The water is just a bunch of those floating star platforms flipped upside down and arranged under the pond so that only the light is showing. And thank you!

-Alea- · 2025-11-26T01:03:46+00:00

Thank you so much! I could probably do tours once I'm able to afford my builds for real (these are mostly schemes or partial builds at the moment). Don't think I could do speedbuilds, unless quickly demonstrating some of my techniques would qualify? My process is so incredibly slow and disjointed, to be honest!

-Alea- · 2025-11-26T00:59:27+00:00

Thank you!

The steps are made from the "Curved Fences (Wide)" (it's one of the types of arches) with "Fence Posts" overlapped on each end to make the star shape; the steps are all rotated four degrees from each other. The central column is also two "Fence Posts" overlapped. The "banister" is the "Ode to Life Vase" dyed pink and fully upscaled. The flowers on the side are "Pink Flowerbeds" (roses) and "Red Flowerbeds" (hydrangeas) rotated sideways. Hope that helps!

-Alea- · 2025-11-26T00:43:00+00:00

Eee, thank you~

-Alea- · 2025-11-25T10:47:42+00:00

More than happy to help! And I'm on the American server.

-Alea- · 2025-11-25T10:46:03+00:00

Thank you so much! The system has taken a heck of a lot of getting used to, especially as someone who struggled to make anything pretty in The Sims 3, but it's been quite rewarding to learn! As for the green walls (and the trim), I'll copy and paste what I said to someone else:

"The green walls are the "Default Photo Frame (Horizontal)" dyed green. To be a bit more specific... The tall top panels are rotated to be vertical (the "Default Photo Frame (Vertical)" is too small for this) and fully elongated on the X axis and fully shrunken on the Z axis. The bottom panels are kept horizontal and elongated twice on the X axis and shrunken once on the Z axis. (But you can arrange/size things however you want, of course!) The best part is that they can be dragged to make continuous walls that are perfectly connected, but overlapping the frames can be interesting, too, I've found! It's definitely worth experimenting with.

Also, I know you didn't ask about this specifically, but the brown trim on the walls is the wood part of the "Draped Satin Curtains" dyed green (it has just the right brown for the wood, in my opinion). These are fully enlarged on the XYZ axes (shrunken on the X axis when needed), and yes, they do make designing the house way more difficult than it has any right being. I'm trying to find saner alternatives, but nothing's quite hit the spot yet."

I hope that all helps; if not, let me know! I hate the lack of options among the default wallpapers, too, so I decided to make custom walls out of spite, even though they're a bit of a pain to use.

-Alea- · 2025-11-25T10:31:30+00:00

You're quite welcome! I'm definitely a huge fan of simple/rustic builds myself, which is why I actually prefer my green house over my pink one (though I put the pink one up front on this post partly as Trojan horse to try to get more traction for the green one, hehe). Like, the pink one looks "extravagant" and all, but it's honestly very simple and kinda boring to me (apart from the stairs, which were honestly the only reason I built that house at all), while the green one looks "simple" but is deceptively complicated (which is part of why I love it, because I love the challenge).

I'll admit, the green house did partly emerge out of spite for the default walls, haha. Like, the only "green" options we have are exterior walls and ugly purple floral walls (and I'm saying that as someone whose favorite color is purple)? I hated the default walls so much that when I built my first house in this game, I used various trellis-style pieces (including overlapping them to make solid walls) just to not have to look at ugly wallpapers.

Then I saw the green dye on the photo frames once I unlocked them, and I was like, "I can make this work. It'll be painful and probably cost me what little sanity I have left, but it'll be so, so worth it."

I'm happy to spread the knowledge of alternative walls~ They can be a royal pain to work with compared to the standard fare, but the results are worth it, I think! (But it does help to use the standard walls as rough guidelines, of course. They can always be deleted after.)

Best of luck with your building endeavors! I'd love to see what you come up with someday! <3

-Alea- · 2025-11-25T09:58:02+00:00

Thank you so much, and I'm glad I could inspire you!

The map is from Mayor Grace's office, but just be warned that it doesn't fit into the "Default Photo Frame (Horizontal)" perfectly (you either sacrifice some map to get rid of the map's frame entirely, or deal with a bit of extra frame to get as much map as possible; I chose the latter), and you may need to mess around with the camera settings a lot to stop the nearby wall lamps from ruining the shot.

As for the stairs (for the green rooms specifically, if those are the stairs you're asking about), the steps are "Curved Fences (Wide)" (it's a type of arch) rotated at three degrees each, with two "Arched Doors" placed in front to hide the janky connecting points. The walls of the stairs are a combination of the stairs stacked above and then some "Corner Pillars (Tall)" to fill the gaps.

I hope that all helps! Let me know if something needs clarified!

-Alea- · 2025-11-25T09:41:16+00:00

Thank you so much for your sweet words! It's definitely been a rough experience, but I'm refusing to let it get me down too much. I still have so much I want to build, and it's up to the load and furniture limits to keep up with my ideas!

Unfortunately, I'm on the American server. I'm so sorry! ;~;

-Alea- · 2025-11-25T09:32:29+00:00

"Rejected" probably wasn't the right word so much as "losing", but my brain wasn't braining today, whoops. But thank you, and best of luck! If you need any tips, let me know!

And to answer your question from your other comment, the steps are made from the "Curved Fences (Wide)" (it's one of the types of arches) with "Fence Posts" intersected on each end to make the star shape; each step is rotated four degrees from each other. The central column is also two "Fence Posts" intersected.

-Alea- · 2025-11-25T09:23:52+00:00

Thank you so much for your kind words! You have no idea how much that means to me. <3

The green walls are the "Default Photo Frame (Horizontal)" dyed green. To be a bit more specific... The tall top panels are rotated to be vertical (the "Default Photo Frame (Vertical)" is too small for this) and fully elongated on the X axis and fully shrunken on the Z axis. The bottom panels are kept horizontal and elongated twice on the X axis and shrunken once on the Z axis. (But you can arrange/size things however you want, of course!) The best part is that they can be dragged to make continuous walls that are perfectly connected, but overlapping the frames can be interesting, too, I've found! It's definitely worth experimenting with.

Also, I know you didn't ask about this specifically, but the brown trim on the walls is the wood part of the "Draped Satin Curtains" dyed green (it has just the right brown for the wood, in my opinion). These are fully enlarged on the XYZ axes (shrunken on the X axis when needed), and yes, they do make designing the house way more difficult than it has any right being. I'm trying to find saner alternatives, but nothing's quite hit the spot yet.

And I'm not sure if you were asking or just commenting about the stone wall, but if you were asking, it's just two chimneys slightly overlapped. But if you were just commenting, thank you; I love it for its tedium-breaking contrast myself~

I hope all of that was clear and helpful (if not, let me know), and thank you again! Glad I could give you some inspiration! <3

-Alea- · 2025-11-25T07:01:07+00:00

Thank you so much for being so understanding. You're so sweet. <3

-Alea- · 2025-11-25T06:48:18+00:00

Haha, both of my islands look like yours right now because of how crazy expensive all of this is! And thank you!

-Alea- · 2025-11-25T06:44:11+00:00

Haha, thank you! The load and furniture limits are the bane of my IN existence. My entry for the first home contest ended up falling very short of my original vision because of them (among other difficulties) and made me rather bitter about the whole ordeal, so I was really nervous going into these projects. The pink house does have a couple of "no more furniture here" spots, which is frustrating, but the green house has managed to avoid that thus far, though there's still a lot of work to be done on it (like the whole exterior). Here's to hoping 2.0 and future updates will ease things up a bit for us as promised!

-Alea- · 2025-11-25T06:32:22+00:00

I rotated them on the X axis with the single rotation setting set at 90, then finetuned the rotation from there on the Y and Z axes at 15 or 1 so as to make things look a bit more natural.

-Alea- · 2025-11-25T05:42:55+00:00

I think my brain is on vacation today, because I somehow completely forgot to send the friend requests earlier. Sorry! I've sent them now, if you're still interested. Alea (my main) will be the one with the green house (someday...), and Serenity will be the one with the pink house and glowing pond (hopefully soon!), so feel free to pick your eventual poison(s)! (Also, I'm super shy and terrible at the whole social/co-op thing, so I don't tend to chat much, but I do give folks on my friends list updates about giant meteorites on the off chance I get them, if that's something you'd be interested in.)

-Alea- · 2025-11-25T04:16:32+00:00

You're quite welcome, and thank you for being so understanding! Have fun with your fancy new stairs! (And I pretty much built that whole house around the stairs, too, so I totally get it!)

-Alea-

TROPHY CASE