I finished my cottagecore Animal Crossing island
It’s finally happened! My cottagecore, flower festival Animal Crossing island has finally been completed!
It has been an amazing 9 months working on this island to get it up to scratch and something I was really proud of and it’s been amazing to share the island with the community. Today, I wanted to talk about some of my favourite builds with you, share some thoughts with you about how I managed the planning and decorating of my ACNH island and reveal some interesting things which happened during the process of decorating which completely changed how I think about my islands.
Pick a theme which works for you
The biggest thing that helped me with sticking with this island is that I picked a theme which I genuinely connected with. Picking a theme which you resonate with is so important because you will continue to look forward to working on your island even when you hit a difficult point where you think you may quit.
Naturally, the easiest thing for us to do is go back to the things which inspire us in our lives, and as I am someone who grew up in the British countryside, I thought it was a good opportunity to develop an ACNH island which would allow me to feel like I was at home again.
As I was going around the island, I was constantly looking for ways to include items which felt familiar to me and represented some part of British culture, whether that was creating a windbreak on the beach or adding a phone box next to Nook’s Cranny. Those small details mattered and really made the difference in keeping me engaged with the theme. So, next time you start struggling with a theme, go back to looking at the things which feel right for you to add in which make you excited. It’s so helpful!
Cottagecore Nook’s Cranny
Step out of the comfort zone
You know what I’m not good at? Terraforming. What did I decide would be a good idea to do for this island? Undertake a difficult terraforming project!
Normally when I decorate an Animal Crossing island I try to find something new to challenge me. Whether it’s a theme which I know is going to be difficult or decorating in a way I have never done before, I need a way to challenge me to keep me engaged.
For Sycamore, I decided to make a sunken lake within a larger terraformed section which had a pretty viewpoint at the top of the hill. It took many attempts to work out where both the lake and the cliffs were going and to make sure there was enough space the whole way around the cliffs so that I could decorate the cliffs.
Sunken lake in Animal Crossing
What was concerning about this build was whether I would be able to make a route where you could walk up to a villager’s house and if I could fit a house and garden on the cliffs. After discussing it on stream, we decided to leave Molly where she was and her house fit in perfectly with the overall background of the island.
Make the island functional
What was important to me as well for this island was that I kept my cottagecore island functional for both daily gameplay and for any games that I play with my community.
Making wide walkways, clearly signposting where different buildings were and making sure to include different sizes of rivers and ponds were really important to me so that I can easily continue to navigate the island and enjoy working on my ACNH dailies.
I also decided that I wanted a space to decorate for the different seasons, which doubled up as a space to play with the community as well.
Market in front of Able Sister’s store
As I didn’t know where Able Sister’s was going to go, and I wanted to make it fit into the cottagecore style I was going for, I made a community space so that we can play different games on the island which don’t need Resident Services or have to deal with the narrower spaces I have around there. We did test it out on stream and it worked well for having a meeting point for hide and seek or to play musical chairs!
The next time you are looking to design an island, if you think it is going to stay around for a while, I would highly recommend you keep your island functional so that you can mix up your gameplay from time to time as it is a good way to keep yourself engaged with Animal Crossing New Horizons.
Pick the right villagers
In terms of the island residents, I didn’t put too much thought into my villagers other than I wanted to have villagers which looked like they could be found in the UK.
Keeping with that theme, I stuck with pig and cow villagers primarily as they both are typically found in the UK. The big ones that I wanted were: Lucy, Gala, Tipper and Norma. Very few people had issues with that list, except when it came to Lucy.
Lucy in ACNH
The criticism from the community was that Lucy isn’t cute and her look felt slightly off from the rest of the villagers I had chosen. There is a harshness to her edges which I can see, but at the same time, I wanted villagers which fit into a cottagecore aesthetic, and Lucy is dressed in a typical cottagecore dress. So, I felt like she needed to be there.
The other villagers we picked were Molly, Chief, Diana, Goldie, Erik and Fauna. All a really good mix of villagers and I think we did well in getting a mixture of different cottagecore looks. Chief was a really good suggestion from my community when we were hunting for a replacement for my starter who hadn’t decided to leave until the very last minute, and as he is a fox, he was perfect for this island!
Normally, I have a theme and story for my villagers, and for this island, there was not as much story for the villagers as I typically have. The largest story we developed as a community was decorating my peninsula to be a wedding scene and deciding that this was recently used by Erik and Fauna which was a lovely idea!
The only other story I had was for Gala’s house. Originally, she was going to be running my flower farm and flower shop, but because of me accidentally autofilling the plot, I ended up taking Norma to fill that spot. So, Gala’s house was moved to be in the area next to the museum, but I had fun making both a flower market and a flower field for her instead. Both of these builds turned out amazingly and are the perfect builds for our resident flower girl!
Cottagecore flower market in Animal Crossing
Would I make another cottagecore island?
I adored putting this island together! I didn’t need more than two seconds to know a cottagecore island was the right theme for me! But going with a cottagecore theme on its own was not enough for me. I needed a twist on it, so adding in a flower festival concept worked out spectacularly! I would do another cottagecore island, but there’s still plenty of styles and designs I want to try before I get to another cottagecore island again.
What themes have you tried which have made you super excited? What do you think of the idea of having a twist on an island to keep you engaged with it? Let me know in the comments below, and I’ll see you in the next one!
ACNH island map with dream address. DA-9794-8986-9420
