Welcome back to Room Reno #77 here at The Sims Resource! Today we’re helping a Sim who wants to renovate her sad rental bedroom into a downtown girl inspired space. Let’s meet the Sim we’re helping!
Meet Shana!
Shana is a Sim who recently moved to Evergreen Harbor, and she lives in one of the industrial sections of the city which is made up of mostly high-rises and other apartment complexes. She’s been really inspired by other Sims living in places like San Myshuno and even in her new city of Evergreen Harbor who have managed to maximize their small spaces, and she’s also gotten very into the downtown girl aesthetic, so she wants to marry the two concepts together to make the ultimate bedroom.
According to the Aesthetics Wiki, the downtown girl aesthetic is “an aesthetic that revolves around the romanticization of living in downtown New York, especially in Autumn“. Who said you had to wait until the winter for New York to be magical? Not me (even though I will say the snowy city is by far my favorite version of it, if I’m being honest). It’s all about warm and cozy vibes mixed with just a touch of color, based on the inspiration photos I’ve looked at. In terms of furnishings, there’s a lot of emphasis on eclectic groupings of wall decorations, like having lots of different posters, photos, or even things like records hanging up on the same wall while arranged in an aesthetically pleasing way. Fairy lights are another aspect seen in most of these rooms, along with white walls and white bedding (probably to help balance out all the color on the walls!). Now that we know what we’re going for, let’s see what we’re working with.
The Before
This room has a pretty good amount of potential! It’s got some nice natural light coming in from the windows, high ceilings, and a solid amount of space. However, I have found that square (or close to square) rooms can actually be really hard to furnish, especially if using a double bed in a smaller room. In other builds I’ve found that rooms of this shape tend to limit me because the double bed either has to be placed against one wall or take up most of the floor space in the room, so I’m going to do my best to conserve as much floor space as possible in this room.
This is not just because it’s an apartment bedroom, but because having open floor space means the room feels significantly better to spend time in (and means there’s less danger of tripping over things!). I wish the windows weren’t placed directly next to each other at the corner of the room, since it makes it a little hard to furnish around without blocking the windows, but I think it can be worked around with the right curtains and strategic furniture placements. Speaking of strategic furniture placements, let’s get planning!
The Planning
The basic layout of the room is going to be pretty similar to what was there before, but with a bit more functionality. The bed is going to be in the same spot because I wanted both sides to work in game (it drives me crazy when Sims have routing issues with double beds–I read at some point that those issues were patched out, but I can’t seem to get my Sims to share if one side of the bed is against the wall!). Instead of using the huge, heavy wardrobe that was in the original room, I’m going to be using a tall but shallow set of shelves with lots of storage bins and spots for things. Along with this, I’m going to be putting in hanging clothing racks with extra shelves on top to allow for even more storage space without making Shana have to step over or around big, heavy pieces of furniture.
For the desk, I want to add something really sleek and low-profile that won’t get in the way of the rest of the room. This isn’t your usual big, heavy desk with lots of extra surface area for stuff–we don’t have enough space for that in this room! I considered creating an L-shaped desk using the moveobjects cheat, but I thought that would still take up a bit too much room for my comfort. Let’s get building!
The After
I have to say, I think I can really get down (haha) with the downtown girl aesthetic! I think that sometimes all the new aesthetics and -cores can get a little overwhelming, but this one is something that I can really get behind. I like how it takes advantage of limited space and how simple a lot of rental spaces are when you move in (required white or beige walls, really high ceilings that you can’t hang anything from) and manages to make the space feel warm, inviting, and magical despite all of it. Shoutout to everyone living in rental spaces! Making a space you aren’t allowed to fully customize feel like it belongs to you can be really hard, but there are a lot of ways to make it work (if you have the time and ingenuity).
Having an art wall above the bed is also not a particularly new idea, but I think here it functions as more than just a way to display art. It manages to bring the room together without making it feel smaller, and I think having the all-white bedding and walls manages to help this feeling instead of making the room feel too busy or overwhelmed with color and pattern. Shoutout to the mini-desk that hangs off the wall, which is a really cool idea–it would be even cooler if you could close or open it as you needed, maximizing the space even further than it already has been.
Thanks for checking out Room Reno #77! If you liked this blog, check out Room Reno #76: Cozy Teen Bedroom or our Gilmore Girls inspired lookbook. Looking for something else? Read about my thoughts on the Pastel Pop Kit or check out our Emily in Paris inspired lookbook! Have a great day 😎
