Welcome back to Room Reno #80 here at The Sims Resource! Today we’re helping a Sim who wants her tiny bedroom to be a fashionable and functional space that she loves. Let’s meet the Sim we’re helping!
Meet Maci!
Maci is a Sim who recently moved to the big city of San Myshuno, and she can’t wait to eat all the amazing foods and go to all the great museums the city has to offer. There’s just one problem–the city is expensive, so the only apartment she was able to afford was a tiny little shoebox in the arts district. her living area is alright, but her bedroom is super small and doesn’t even have a closet! How will she manage to store everything she needs to (like clothes and shoes) while also having space to walk around, or work at her desk? Looks like I really have my work cut out for me with this one! Maci also wants her bedroom to be fairly preppy and bright-colored, though she doesn’t want it to skew too far towards “kiddie” or “immature”. With all that in mind, let’s take a look at the room we’re working with!
The Before
Wow, this room is…small. And so, so tall, for some reason. If you’ve followed this series for any amount of time, you’ll know that I have a vendetta against the tallest wall height in this game. I will never willingly put it in a build, and pretty much only work with it when I’m doing renovations, because it’s such a challenge to decorate and work with. It looks especially egregious here because of how tiny this room is, acting to make the room look even smaller by looming over the minimal floor space. This room is actually a pretty workable size overall, but the walls are making it look like a totally unreasonable space that can’t be renovated.
The fastest way to fix this is to paint them white and get rid of these awful vertical stripes. I stand by nobody having striped wallpaper to begin with (it just overwhelms a room in the wrong hands, like it did here), but my number one rule to prevent things like what we see in this room is to use it as an accent wall if you really feel like it’s what the room needs. Also, be careful with color–this gray would be even more imposing if the wallpaper was black or another dark shade by making the room appear like it stretched on forever upwards while also looking tiny on the ground. Also, I’m getting rid of the carpet–I’m not a carpet person at all, as someone who is prone to spilling stuff. Regular floors for life! Let’s get planning.
The Planning
This plan probably looks a little wonky, so let me explain. The elephant in (or in this case, outside of) the room is that it looks like the shelving is going to end up in the apartment building’s hallway, but don’t worry! I haven’t totally lost my marbles yet. This is just an easier way for me to show that I want to utilize some of the insanely tall wall height as shelving and storage for clothes and shoes, since the apartment didn’t come with a closet. Hanging shelves is one of my number one ways to increase storage in a small space, and the tall walls I was complaining about earlier make that whole process a lot easier.
I couldn’t find one, but I imagine if this were a room IRL I would have added a pretty stepladder or stool for Maci so that she could reach her high-up items and really make the space into a functional storage room along with bedroom. Since it’s The Sims, though, I just left it at that when it came to the shelving. The next most important piece in the room was the bed–I refused to skimp on this and get a twin bed, even though it would save more space. Having a nice big mattress to spread out on while you sleep is a little luxury that I adore, and I want Maci to have it too! I also added a tall mirror so that she can take outfit photos, along with a desk with a small footprint so she can play video games. Let’s get renovating!
The After
This bedroom is absolutely adorable! Not to toot my own horn, but I think I did a really good job at balancing the pretty and girly aspects of the room with some darker colors, so it didn’t turn out too “kiddie” looking while still being a sweet and cozy place to be. The pink heart mirror with the hooks for hanging is a special touch–I wasn’t sure if it was going to look too cutesy, but I’m really glad I added it as it marries the style of the room with the functional storage theme that I had going on.
Speaking of functional storage, I love the hanging shelving units from the Dream Home Decorator pack! They really allow for more customization when it comes to how Sims store their clothes, and I’ve been using them a lot lately. I will note that some of the above screenshots still make the room look super tall–not gonna lie, in order to get everything I added into one photo I had to use a bit of forced perspective, and the room is pretty tall. But I think it manages to be a really nice little space on top of being really tall, and that’s all I was aiming for when I started out on it. Not all tiny spaces are easy to decorate, but I think this one was a really fun challenge!
Thanks for checking out Room Reno #80! If you liked this blog, check out Room Reno #79: Ye Medieval or our Gilmore Girls inspired lookbook. Looking for something else? Read about all the best Vanilla Girl CC or check out our Gossip Girl inspired lookbook! Have a great day 😎
