Welcome back to Room Reno #95 here at The Sims Resource! Today we’re helping a Sim who wants to have the sweetest ranch in the west. Let’s meet the Sim we’re helping!
Meet McKayla!
McKayla is a horse loving Sim who recently graduated from University of Britechester and can’t wait to start her own ranch with everything she learned! She and her horse, Lucky, are going to start out with just an empty plot of land to start their adventures – but she has some simoleons saved up, so they won’t be living in a tent. McKayla is funding the building of the ranch house itself as well as stables, though the first thing that’s going up is the home, closer to the edge of the property and with two bedrooms for both McKayla and any guests she might have. Or Lucky, if he manages to fit in the door and into a bedroom (I wouldn’t put it past him). Besides that, McKayla just wants the basics – a living room, a kitchen, a bathroom, and hopefully somewhere for her to do logistical work for the farm on her computer. Let’s see what we’re working with!
The Before
Well, there sure is… a lot of nothing! McKayla wanted to start her ranch from scratch, so this lot is completely empty, cleared out of any vegetation, and is ready to get building. But where should the build be? Where should the stables go? What if she wants to have extra stables for llamas, or an area for a chicken coop, or even a whole section of the ranch just for goats? Well, looks like things are gonna have to get creative in order for this ranch to come into existence! Or we could just leave it completely empty and see how McKayla and Lucky fare doing a survival challenge. Honestly, that sounds pretty fun – but not in the middle of this renovation project! When it comes to starting off on a completely blank lot, it can be pretty intimidating to look at all that empty space and not know what to do with it.
The first step is, of course, to start with a basic box. Just a square (or rectangle) shaped room, and then from there you can build out and create more spaces by adding smaller boxes, bumpouts, or bay windows until the box starts to look like an actual home someone would live in. That’s gonna have to happen here, but it’ll probably end up being a pretty large rectangle with a few bumpouts here or there to make it look a bit fancier. The living area, which is the main area that McKayla wants to focus on today, will be a long rectangle as well. Let’s get planning!
The Planning
Alright, now that we know that the basic layout of the room is going to be a rectangle, it makes it possible to plan the basic space layout even if there’s not an actual build to renovate quite yet! The Sim contractors are taking a really long time this build, they should really hurry up or else McKayla and Lucky are going to be out in the cold. The top left corner will have the kitchen area, but in order to fit everything that we need to fit on the rest of the property I decided to skip adding a separate dining room and go with a large island counter and stools around it so that we can save some space for the rest of the room and not have to expand the entire ranch house to fit an eating area.
The kitchen itself will be shaped like an L in order to fit all the standard cabinets and appliances that you’d find in a well stocked kitchen. Next to the kitchen, there will be a desk area for McKayla to do her ranch management work and do some reading, since I’m planning on adding some bookshelves there as well as the desk slash work area. The living room is going to be a pretty classic setup, with a large fireplace to suit the ranch vibes (does anyone miss the chimneys that would automatically appear in builds in The Sims 3? Just me?) along with a nice comfy couch and coffee table to make the space feel homey and relaxing after a long day’s work for McKayla. Let’s get building!
The After
I honestly adore how this ranch turned out! While the rest of the ranch is still in progress (Lucky’s stables could be upcoming…), this ranch house feels perfectly homey and cozy and really featuring that ranch theme. A lot of the larger furniture pieces came with the Horse Ranch pack, and my favorite ones may be the couch and lounge chair set. The color swatches are *chef’s kiss* (this burnt orange shade is to die for) and they look super comfortable and classically country in the build. The rugs really tie together the separate living and working areas of the room – the large, colorful rug under the couch in the living room and the smaller black and white rug under the desk in the work area of the home. The kitchen really benefits from going without a dining table, but I’m really happy I was able to work in a round island so that it still feels like there’s a table there even if it’s not quite the same. The only real difference is that it’s a lot harder to place clutter right in the center of a grouping of islands, but that’s a small price to pay for ~aesthetics~. The room was completed with tons of clutter, of course, because no room is complete without knick knacks to make it feel lived in.
Thanks for checking out Room Reno #95! If you liked this blog, check out Room Reno #94: Life’s A Beach or our Barbie movie inspired lookbook. Looking for something else? Read about summer CC looks for the whole family or check out our Gilmore Girls inspired lookbook! Have a great day 😎
