Lottie will help you meet your first client, Eloise, the yellow elephant. This is the first vacation home you’ll design, and Eloise will mention her theme. All clients have a theme, or vision, they’re going for. If you haven’t met Eloise yet, feel free to use our Decorating Your First House Walkthrough page.
While designing her house, you’ll notice she has cardboard boxes inside her home. This is the required furniture that fits her version, and you need to use it to make the client happy. This will be the same moving forward for all clients, who will eventually add outdoor furniture that’s required as well, depending on their concept.
Happy Home Designer Controls
Here’s an overview of the decorating controls, since there are so many! If you don’t have a specific control yet, no worries, You’ll unlock more items and features over time. We’ll link the appropriate how-tos on the controls in case you’re curious how to get a certain feature.
- Press the right button on the left Joy-Con to open up storage and view available items.
- Press the “+” button to alternate between editing the floor, walls, and ceiling.
- Press B to escape design mode and walk around the house normally.
- Press L to put on your cleaning/polishing outfit
- Press and Hold A to polish and continue until shiny enough for your liking
- Press Y to remove shine
- Outdoors, press the up button to change the weather and time of day outdoors
- Outdoors, press the + button to alternate between editing fencing, furniture and paths
- Outdoors in Decorating Mode, hover over the home to press X and customize the exterior siding, roof, shape and more.
- Indoors in decorating mode, press the left button on the left Joy-Con to adjust the size of the room.
Vacation Home Design Guide
We like decorating houses in the following order, although you can do it any way you like! Remember to refer to the “Order” menu in Decorating Mode to see which furniture your client already has in mind, and which pieces they absolutely require.
- Customize the exterior of the home, including siding, roof color, shape, door and door decoration
- Place pathing outdoors in areas where you think it fits, such as from the house to the exit
- Add furniture you feel fits the outdoor aesthetic
- Add any plants or flowers you like after unlocking planting
- Fine tune these items by customizing their colors and options and head inside
- Choose wallpaper and flooring from the “Order” menu
- Select the furniture you’d like to add to the room or yard
- Choose the wall-hanging and ceiling-mounted items you’d like
- Customize these items by customizing their colors and options
- Fine tune any changes you’d like to make and wrap up with the client