Room Reno #71: Thankful Dining Room

Welcome back to Room Reno #71 here at The Sims Resource! Today we’re helping a Sim who wants to turn a spare room in his home into the ultimate den and office space for both work and family time! Let’s meet the Sim we’re helping!

Meet the Eriksons!

John and Nadia Erikson live in Brindleton Bay with their three children: Joey, Maya, and Jessica. They love their home, but it was definitely in need of some updates, and they recently put up some walls and arches to help change the flow and layout of their home. While a lot of people love open floor plans, the older house works better with more segmented rooms, though they all still have arches to keep the spaces between rooms light and open. This is a key Sims building tip for you guys–arches are your friends. A lot of homes don’t have doors between every single room, especially not common areas. Arches (or just a floor plan that allows the absence of walls) are definitely the way to go in your builds if you’re having trouble making the floor plan feel continuous. Let’s see what we’re working with!

The Before

This is a pretty standard dining room, though it really isn’t made for the Erikson family at all. There are only chairs for 4 people, and lots of pet accoutrements for pets that they don’t have (yet–this is Brindleton Bay, of course!). The furniture definitely needs to go, and so does this wallpaper. This is a wallpaper that I want to like, but the color swatches it comes in aren’t my favorite. The other features of this wallpaper are great! I love the wood paneling along the bottom and the molding on top (though the paneling could definitely sit a little closer to the middle of the wall instead of towards the top). The colors just make it less than usable, which goes for a lot of the wood paneling wallpapers in The Sims 4. Give me more basic colors please!

Wallpaper aside, this room has more than enough space to fit a table for six as well as a small sitting area and maybe even a bar or serving table. I know the sitting area might seem unorthodox, but I really like the idea of having even more seating for entertaining or even just relaxing while in proximity to the table. This setup could prove especially useful for using the space while John or Nadia works from home, or for helping the kids with their homework. Also, who doesn’t love a good old comfy couch? I know I’ll take any comfy couch I can get, that’s for sure. Let’s get planning!

The Planning

Alright! I’m sure all of my rambling in the last section makes a lot more sense now that you see the plans. I put the table in the center of the room, which is pretty natural. I haven’t seen many dining rooms that aren’t a shared kitchen and dining space that put the table anywhere but the center of the room, and this space didn’t call for anything different. The indented side of the room (outdented? Hard to figure out what that area is called. Maybe a ‘bumpout’, as lilsimsie would say) is where I want to put the sitting area with the couches and comfy chairs. This also feels natural to me, just because the extra space is there and it seems like a perfect space for a cozy seat in the sun (putting a bookshelf in front of those windows would have been a crime).

Instead of a bar or serving area, I went for an accent table on the bottom wall. I thought that having a spot to display some decor would be nice, as well as having a spot to hang some wall art that ties together the rest of the room. The accent table is really just there to accent the room, as is its name, so it doesn’t really have a lot of other things going for it here. Sometimes a decorative thing is just…decorative. Along the right wall, I wanted to put a bookshelf. Having a piece or two of furniture that span the room in height help draw the eye upwards and makes you think of the entire room as bigger. Just a little optical illusion trick for you to use in your Sims (and real life) interior design. Let’s get building!

The After

I know I always say this, but this renovation turned out way better than I expected! It doesn’t have as drastic a transformation as some of my other builds, but it makes me think of a lot of real life room refreshes and renovations I’ve seen online or on TV. Without building new walls (as part of this renovation) or changing the windows, this room still has a totally different feel than the room it started as, and that’s really the spirit of most renovations when it comes down to it! The accent table area is one of my favorite spots in the whole room, and it wouldn’t have fit in the old space at all.

My favorite piece of furniture in this space is probably the orange dining chairs. The bright, vibrant shade of orange manages to be a pop of color without overpowering the entire room and making it feel too tacky or gaudy. I’ve found I actually really like decorating with bright and vibrant furniture pieces against a more plain or neutral backdrop. It makes changing up the room a lot easier, and you don’t have to repaint your entire space to change it up (though in the sims it’s pretty much equally easy to do both).

Thanks for checking out this edition of Room Reno #71! If you liked this blog, check out Room Reno #70: Dad’s Den or our Gilmore Girls inspired lookbook. Looking for something else? Read about my thoughts on the Pastel Pop Kit or about the latest game updates! Have a great day 😎