Decorating items with extravagant designs is one of the biggest appeals to the Animal Crossing franchise, unfortunately some of the fancier items can run at high prices that indebted players can’t always match. Bells can be difficult to come by when players are constantly shelling out hard-earned funds to Animal Crossing’s local loan shark, Tom Nook. Thankfully, Animal Crossing: New Horizons offers many opportunities to obtain items and decorations for players to spruce up their homes in cheap, efficient ways.
Nearly all Animal Crossing players likely want to make their islands look picture perfect, but one of the most challenging settings to decorate can be their own home. A lack of funds can lead to limited wallpaper, flooring, and space to decorate, leaving residents in the earlier stages of the game struggling to craft a satisfactory setup. Whether players have a single story house with two rooms, or three floors with giant ballroom spaces, there are many options to create beautiful scenes and designs throughout any ACNH home.
One of the simplest (and cheapest) designs that players can use in their Animal Crossing homes is a log cabin aesthetic for their living room. Using resources gathered from trees, rocks, and other natural resources that are completely free to access, players can collect all the raw materials needed to produce plenty of themed items to decorate their rooms. Items such as barrels, benches, rocking chairs, and campfires can combine to form a scenic camping scene. When matched with the Cabin Wall wallpaper (also craftable with fifteen hardwood pieces), players can create a camping, cabin design without spending any bells at Nook’s establishments. These quaint designs can be the perfect stand-in for players saving their Bells to pay off debt.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ Islands Offer Countless Decorations
One of Animal Crossing: New Horizons‘ latest updates introduced Pascal the Otter, who would reward players that found scallops during their dives with Mermaid DIY recipes. Pascal will only visit players once a day, meaning that collecting these recipes will take some time. Thankfully, ACNH’s Mermaid designs can be crafted quickly with seashells collected on island beaches and pearls harvested from the ocean surrounding the coast. Players will be able to decorate their rooms in a mystical, underwater design complete with a matching wardrobe. The Mermaid bed, dresser, closet, table, and couch can be paired with the Mermaid flooring and wallpaper to create a magical room of sea themed decorations and furniture.
Some players may have missed the recycling bin hidden away in the corner of Town Hall, but it can often hold hidden treasures to use while decorating. Each day there is a 45% chance for items to appear, so long as there is less than ten items currently in the recycling bin. Of the items that can spawn in recycling, Animal Crossing players are able to obtain three Clay, three Iron Nuggets, a small furniture item, an item of clothing, a flower bag, a Sapling or Cedar Sapling, or wallpaper. While these items are unable to fully decorate a room, they can be paired with gifts from neighbors to create a trophy room.
The small furniture that can be collected from the recycling bin accentuates the corners and entryway of the room, while gifts from Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ villagers (like clothing) can be displayed in color coordination with whatever wallpaper players are able to scavenge. Customization kits that are purchasable from Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ Nook’s Cranny shop can also work to better match color schemes for the display room.
For players looking to save their Bells and escape the pressure of Tom Nook in the most efficient way, these cheap ideas are perfect to liven up homes of any size. Crafting natural decorations and trading unwanted items to other Animal Crossing villagers (while also gathering items from the recycling bin) are just a few methods that Animal Crossing: New Horizons fans can use to start turning their blank rooms into beautiful, quaint arrangements. While development of has slowed, Nintendo has promised more ACNH content is on the way, which will likely be accompanied by new items and decorations for players of all virtual financial stages.
