Animal Crossing: New Horizonsprovides players with the tools to design islands and homes unique to them. The cozy island living simulator has plenty of things to do on a daily basis, but for many fans, the main draw is the decorating aspect of the title.ACNHhas many decorations, furniture, and other elements for creators to play around with, and even has a terraforming feature for reshaping the entire island.
But sometimes, this kind of freedom can be paralyzing and make it hard to know where to start. With an entire island as a creative playground, it’s easy to end up unsure of what to do with all the available space. Instead of starting from scratch, one great option is toturn to real-world locations for inspiration.
10The Japanese Countryside Gives Off A Ghibli Vibe
The Perfect Intersection Between The City And Nature
The best contenders for anACNHremake have a distinct style or look and work within the confines of thegame’s decoration and terraforming features. There’s definitely acharm and distinct look to the Japanese countrysidethat feels right at home in the game. From the sprawling natural landscape of winding rivers, hills, and rice paddies, to the quaint rural houses, there are plenty of elements to draw on forACNHisland design.
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Leaning into the countryside elements to craft a Ghibli-style island, like the island shown off inPeppy Crossingon YouTube, is one approach with endless potential. Another option is to create acozy rural town lined with telephone poles, vending machines, and cute small shopfrontslike the city street created by-deja-vu-on Reddit.
9Paris, France Is Full Of Charm
Creative Players Can Recreate The City’s Many Landmarks
Paris is widely known as the city of love thanks to its charming streets, historic architecture, and distinct iconic landmarks. Its instantly recognizable style makes it an excellent contender for being remade inACNH.Players can bring a touch of Parisian charm to their islands byrecreating a cozy outdoor café settingwithACNH’s many bakery decor items.
Inspiration can also come from the city’s many famous landmarks, like the Palace of Versailles, which Reddit userhiraversaillesrecreated in intricate detail, or the Notre Dame, remade byElraishem. Of course,it just wouldn’t be Paris without the world-famous Eiffel Tower,whichmewseilleexpertly recreates on Instagram with a well-made standee that blends right into the skyline.
8NYC Is Industrial Chic
The Iconic Skyline Is Perfect For A City-Core Vibe
For many players, the appeal ofAnimal Crossinggames is the chance to leave the confines of their everyday lives. And for many, this means leaving the city in favor ofnature and cozy vibes. That doesn’t meanACNHdoesn’t have its share of city decor, andcity-core is a popular alternative to the game’s inherent cottage-core vibes. In fact, it’s possible to recreate one of the most iconic skylines in the world, New York City.
Making a NYC-inspired island inACis really a no-brainer, as there’s already one essential component to the build: The Statue of Liberty. This key part of NYC can be acquired from Gulliver after finding his five communicator parts. The rest of the city takes some more lateral thinking and can be built using custom designs for roads, industrial decor, and more. YouTuberHappyIslandBloghas some creative ideas for how torecreate the city’s skyline using servers, neon signs, custom design cube lights, and other itemsthat build up to resemble the high-rise buildings of the city.
7IKEA And Other Big Box Stores
The Perfect Way To Display Furniture And Decor
Part of the fun of playingAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsis collecting the many decor items and furniture. It’s just a shame that players only have one house to decorate, the rooms of which can feel small compared to thenearly 2,000 items of furniture that the game hasin its catalog. Those who wish they could display more than several roomfuls of items at one time might want to consider recreating an IKEA or other big-box store on their islands.
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Redditorskidmore101has a perfect example of what this might look like. The Redditor turned their entireisland into one massive IKEA, complete with a winding path through the different displays.Various locations around the island could act as showroomsfor different types of rooms, like the kitchen and living room, while another area could be dedicated to the store’s famous cafeteria. Turning the island into an IKEA is a creative way to show off all the furniture and decor players have collected.
6National Parks Lean Into Nature
Terraforming Inspiration From The Real World
Animal Crossing: New Horizonsgives players the power tomove literal mountains, reshaping the land and waterwaysto suit their needs. This is incredibly freeing since it opens up many creative design options, but it can also be intimidating. Luckily, anyone feeling uninspired or unsure about where to start with terraforming has plenty of real-world spots of nature they can use to spark their creativity.
If natural locations are too wild and untamed,national parks around the world make a convenient, more structured blueprintto follow. Reddit userremmy5recreated several real parks, like the Everglades and Sequoia parks in the US, Zhangjiajie National Forest in China, and a few others. One park can make for a sufficient focus, or several parks could be recreated in different areas around the island for a more varied look.
5Holland Has Idyllic Landscapes
Recreate The Fields Of Tulips And Windmills
A field of flowers can really brighten up anAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsisland, and planting more flowers is a good way toincrease the island rating. Recreating a garden is a good way to display flowers, but an even more interesting idea is totake a trip to the Netherlands.
For instance, Reddit usertiara_kingremade the famous tulip fields of the country. The colorful and fun result shows why making a Netherlands-inspired island is afantastic way to show off flowers, especially tulips.Tokki Playson YouTube took it a step further and made an Amsterdam island, with city streets, waterways with boats, tulip fields with makeshift windmills, and more showing the huge amount of variety present for players to make use of in their designs.
4The Great Barrier Reef Brings The Water To Land
A Way To Show Off Some Coral Decor
TheAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsisland is, by the very nature of its name, surrounded by water, and seashells and other goodies oftenwash up on its sandy beaches.These seashells can be used to craft shell-themed furnituremeant to be used inside the house, but there’s no reason why these items have to stay indoors. The seashell and coral designs lean heavily into their inspiration, so they resemble large shells more than the furniture they’re supposed to represent.
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These shell designs canbring the ocean onto landfor recreations of Great Barrier Reef or other coral reefs like Reddit userch3rrysora’s work. Creative placement on different levels of land through terraforming can give the illusion of depth. A more realistic portrayal of a live coral reef can also be achieved by following the example of RedditorAuriVega. This designer had the creative idea ofusing the colorful ice trees as coral structuresand placing fish sculptures for the illusion of life. Since coral reefs are more random by nature, they can provide inspiration without requiring a rigid structure.
3Miami, Florida Is An Iconic Beachfront City
Recreate The Feel Of The Famous Beach Hotspot
Waterfront cities have a certain feel to them, from boardwalks selling saltwater taffy to palm-tree-lined streets. Miami, Florida is the quintessential beach city, with itsperpetually sunny orange glow with plenty of bright colorsand a touch of historic art deco-style architecture. All these elements make Miami a fun look to recreate inAnimal Crossing: New Horizons.
A great example can be seen inPigment_bfrom Reddit, whose vintage Miami island gets the feel of the city just right. This build, which has plenty of the city’s iconic pinks, blues, and citrus designs, lots of greenery and palm trees, surf shops, and more, is the perfect source of Miami inspiration. It’s a great options for those wholike more urban builds but don’t want to make a typical cityscape.
2Egypt Is A Sensational Sandy Spots
Replace The Grassy Island With A Sandy Desert
Animal Crossing: New Horizonsisland designs often lean either into natural or urban designs, but they rarely depart too far from the island’s original biome. This means they typicallyrely on trees and bushes, mountains and rivers, and other natural elements to frame their designs. Fora very different-feeling island,Egypt and the surrounding countries provide incredible alternative sources of inspiration.
YouTuberKristaTheeInternrecreates Egypt, Morrocco, and beyond in a stunning desert paradise. Egyptian design would make heavy use of textiles, lanterns, stone pathways, and custom designs to change the lush greenACNHisland into a sandy landscape. Of course,the pyramids are a mustfor any Egyptian design, and luckily,New Horizonshas some pre-made pyramids perfect for this, which players can obtain from the well-traveled Gulliver.
1711, In-N-Out, & Other Convenience Stores Make Unique Pit Stops
Provide Fast Food Spots For ACNH Villagers
The villagers in theAnimal Crossingseries might not actually need to eat, but that doesn’t mean they won’t enjoy browsing the aisles of a well-stocked grocery store. Convenience stores are a fun addition to any island, and it can beespecially fun to try and recreate the distinct look and style of a specific chain like 711, the wayLucy_baodoes on Reddit.New LeafandHappy Home Designereven have official 711 items in the game, though the items were only available through a special limited-time event in Japan.
Other convenience store franchises that are fun to recreate include In-n-Out, the wayapeycakezfrom Reddit does, or the Japanese store franchise Family Mart, as remade bytrainerbeibei. Chain stores look especially good in urban islands, but they can be fun to remake near the town hall. Including a store like this on the island can bring a touch of realism to anAnimal Crossing: New Horizonsdesign inspired by the real world.
