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Test Subject
Old 6th Aug 2013 at 4:54 AM
Default Modern Gingerbread Formal
Hello fellow Sim lovers, and congrats to all the submitters here!

This contest entry is my first time participating in a building challenge. Thank you, QBuilderz, for creating this one – I was hooked as soon as I saw the post. I started building idly, with no real intention of participating. But after getting sucked into this project, there’s no way I’m letting my work of these previous 10 days go to waste. :P
Without further ado, I present the Modern Gingerbread Formal!



My building theme came from a random generator of house ideas. It suggested the following:
Quote:
This moderately-sized house looks fairly modern and is in good condition. The interior is done in colors that remind you of a gingerbread house. The yard is large and looks very formal.

From this prompt I kept three main ideas: gingerbread house color theme, modern furnishings, and a formal yard. Hence the terribly original name Modern Gingerbread Formal.




Hopefully the theme(s) came across well. I tried to keep the color palette limited to the browns of gingerbread and chocolate, the white and cream of frosting and custard, and the bright colors of candy. Windows and doors had of course to be cream-colored with many window panes, just like real gingerbread houses. A pleasant challenge came from balancing frilly decorative touches (after all, some gingerbread houses are really elaborate!) with modern furniture. I tried to use furniture with “modernized” traditional shapes and materials. Outside, in the yard, a few spruce trees complete the gingerbread house theme. The white gravel in the alleyways is meant to suggest sugar. So in the end, the Modern Gingerbread Formal dwelling is more inspired by gingerbread houses rather than copying them.

Here’s a picture-heavy tour of the house, done entirely in optional pictures, starting from the dining room in the corner of the first floor.



Favorite part of Round 1: The formal yard! I usually make very... utilitarian Sim houses, shall we say, so this is my first attempt at landscaping. I am very proud of the outdoor dining nook, and of the pine trees' arrangement on the little hill. I can’t wait to hone my landscaping skill further with this challenge. I also like to place windows indoors, instead of screens or half-walls, so I went a little crazy with them, as you may have noticed. :P

Difficulties encountered in Round 1: I ran into some weird problems while building, from inexplicably vanishing floor tiles to wonky ceiling tiles to an unCASTable half wall. I gave up on decorating the ceilings at all after the moldings decided to rotate on their own for the third or fourth time. Sad panda. The bare ceilings make rooms look cold. I also didn’t pay attention to the rules when I started building (I wasn’t even thinking I’d participate), so I think I turned the lot around when placing it – the back became the front. The front of the house ended up quite close to the sidewalk, with no front yard to speak of. Lastly, I also need to learn how to take better pictures in-game.