Design This - An Interior Design Contest

Qualifications to Judge
- Participated in Heaven’s Storyteller Contests (Original through round 3, Hero Edition through all 5 rounds)
- Participated in all 5 rounds of Qbuilderz’ Building Blocks Foundation Contest
- Judged for lipglosschaos’ Miss World 2011 Contest

Concept:
5 rounds. 5 rooms. For each round I will be giving you a single room floor plan on a 10 x 10 lot and the ask you to design the room for me under the specific requirements for the round.

On top of that each room will come with a preset little challenge of my choosing. It might be preset wall coverings, a necessary base game item of my choosing, or whatever else I can come up with. Make it pretty, make it work, and keep it all under budget.

Rules:
- TS3 only: I do not have TS2 and therefore cannot recreate the rooms for any TS2 contestants. I really am sorry.
- No CC or store content allowed: Every round will have a budget, and to be honest it would be very easy to cheat even accidentally. I also need to be able to double check your budget if a judge thinks there’s something off with your screenshot. I’m hoping to never actually have to do that, but the ability needs to be there and I don’t have every single piece of store CC in order to allow it.
- CC patterns are allowed since they don’t actually effect the cost of your lot. Please abide by the MTS standard of no pay CC and credit to the pattern creator.
- All EPs and SPs are allowed.
- No photo edits. Resizing only.
- No altering room structure
- No post editing. Spelling and grammar won’t be scored since this is a decorating contest, but there will be absolutely no substituting or changing of photos once you’ve pressed that first submit button. If you’ve made a mistake uploading the photos or imbedding them into your post I’ll allow you to edit and fix them but only after you’ve notified me. This is so judges can begin the judging process early if its more convenient to them.
- All in game cheats (such as moveobjects on) are allowed.
- I don’t see this being an issue, but the number of contestants will be capped at 20, first come first serve with no reserved spots. Even if I really really love you.

Requirements:
You’ll benefit from prior experience in decorating and a good understanding of CAST, but I really hope to have a few beginners enter as well. Before joining Qbuilderz’ foundations contest I felt embarrassed by building, but I learned so much thanks to him and his judges that I can now call myself a creator. I hope to be able to give the same confidence to new designers as well. No one is born knowing exactly what kind of plant will accent that couch and what colour the vase should be CASTed, that takes practice and here you’ve got five whole rounds of practice.

Timeline:
Each round will take place over 10 days, with the application round (Round 1) lasting two weeks (14 days) in order to achieve the minimum of ten contestants. Extensions will only be awarded under extreme prejudice and a stern look. I understand accidents and emergencies happen, but please think about how much time you’ll need for this contest before committing.

Judges:
If you wish to judge, please state so below. Please keep in mind I expect judging and comments to be finished within three days of the round ending so contestants can use the judges comments to improve. Again, exceptions can be made under dire circumstances (Hey, I’m a student too and I know what a pain in the ass finals can be) but please consider how long it will take to judge between 10 - 20 individual rooms every ten days before committing.

Your Judges:
- lauratje86
- Elexis
- malibibic

Your emergency Judges:
- ReyaD

Scoring Expectations:
- Layout - 10 points. Does the room layout make sense both realistically and regarding sims? Would it be playable?
- Requirements - 10 points. Easy points! If you have every item on the required list than you get all 10 points. However for each missing item thats a whole point off. If the list includes 5 deco items and you have zero, thats 5 points out of 10 possible. If you’re missing more than ten items you’ll get zero for this section.
- Rules - 10 points. Have you obeyed the posted budget? Do you have all required photos? Have the walls been moved?
- Colour Scheme - 10 points. How do the colours look? How do they feel? Do they complement each other well or clash horribly? And don’t forget the walls! If the furniture doesn’t work with the walls you won’t be scored well.
- Use of “The Fun Part” - 10 points. Basically whatever my mind can come up with.

For a perfect score of 50. Each round score will be the average of the three judges individual scores.

Contestants:

Contestant	Round 1	Score	Round 2	Score	Round 3	Score	Round 4	Score	Round 5	Score	Final Score
jones7659	Entry	44.33	Entry	40.67	Entry	43.67	Entry	43.33	Entry	46.33	218.33
SeeMyu	Entry	40.00	Entry	41.67	Entry	41.33	Entry	45.00	No Entry	0.00	168.00
sionelle	Entry	45.00	Entry	45.33	Entry	47.67	Entry	45.00	Entry	42.33	225.33
charmedqueen	Entry	39.00	Entry	40.67	Entry	39.33	Entry	38.00	No Entry	0.00	168.00
Laserai	Entry	40.33	Entry	38.67	Entry	40.67	Entry	43.00	Entry	40.67	203.34
King_Deadly	Entry	42.33	Entry	37.67	No Entry	0.00	No Entry	0.00	No Entry	0.00	80.00
Zoeycuddly183	Entry	45.00	Entry	40.67	Entry	39.67	Entry	43.00	Entry	39.67	208.01
Jaguwar	Entry	44.33	Entry	46.67	Entry	41.33	No Entry	0.00	No Entry	0.00	132.33
Amalgam81	Entry	44.00	Entry	38.67	Entry	39.33	Entry	39.67	Entry	40.33	202.00
Volvenom	Entry	43.33	Entry	44.00	Entry	41.33	Entry	45.33	Entry	44.33	218.33
Tamlyn	Entry	45.00	Entry	42.67	Entry	42.33	Entry	45.00	Entry	43.33	218.33
Daluved1	Entry	44.33	Entry	47.33	Entry	46.33	Entry	44.67	Entry	44.00	226.66
sharill63	Entry	41.33	Entry	41.33	Entry	42.67	Entry	42.33	Entry	43.67	211.33
Buckley	Entry	46.00	Entry	44.33	Entry	47.67	Entry	47.33	Entry	47.33	232.66
leriety	Entry	38.33	Entry	41.33	No Entry	0.00	No Entry	0.00	No Entry	0.00	79.66
Myshia	Entry	40.00	Entry	42.00	No Entry	0.00	No Entry	0.00	No Entry	0.00	82.00
Menaceman44	Entry	43.67	Entry	43.00	Entry	41.33	Entry	42.33	Entry	41.33	211.66
obviously394	Entry	43.33	Entry	40.00	Entry	42.00	Entry	43.00	Entry	44.67	213.00
StardustX	Entry	39.33	Entry	41.33	Entry	43.67	Entry	43.33	Entry	41.00	208.66
Solventpost	Entry	44.00	Entry	40.33	Entry	39.67	Entry	44.67	Entry	42.67	211.34

Rounds:


Round 1 Scores now up! Click here.

Like it or not, the living room is a very important place. This is where you relax with your family, entertain your guests, and the hardest room to clean following those wild teen parties.

For round 1, I want you to give me the ideal living room for under 10,000 simoleons. The current room price is 1,770 which gives you a budget of 8,230 simoleons.

Your list of required items for the round include:
- Seating for four
- A Coffee Table
- A piece of Entertainment (TV, computer, etc.)
- 5 pieces of deco (curtains and rugs don’t count)
- A rug

The Fun Part:
You are NOT allowed to cast or change the wall paint on that small section, and you must use the obelisk somewhere inside your room.

Entry Format:
Budget: Photo Required. If you have windows, you can use the “print screen” button to take a screenshot. For Macs you press Command-Shift-3.
Required Photos:
- 1 overhead
- Minimum 3, Maximum 5 in game photos. (Does not include the budget and overhead photos.)



Round 2 Scores now up! Click here.

Round 2 ends on Saturday, November 3rd at one second to midnight, Ontario Time. Click this for the timer

If the living room is where you spend your free time entertaining, the kitchen is where all the hard work happens before that entertainment begins. I personally have some great memories of baking with my grandmother and putting out the kitchen fires by little sisters seem to spark just by walking into the room.

For round 2, I want you to make me a full kitchen and dining room for under 10,000 simoleons. The current room price is 1,800 which gives you a budget of 8,200 simoleons.

Your list of required items for the round include:
- A stove
- A fridge
- A sink
- At least one uncluttered counter
- Dining table with seating for 4 (or more)
- 8 pieces of deco (Room partition from “The Fun Part” counts as one)

The Fun Part:
You’ll notice when you download the file that I’ve given you a door! A very ugly, basic door. Don’t freak out, you are allowed to CAST it, but you are NOT allowed to move it. The partition can be CAST, moved, flipped around, whatever you want as long as its still in the room by the end.

Entry Format:
Budget: Photo required. If you have windows, you can use the “print screen” button to take a screenshot. For macs you press Command-Shift-3.

Required Photos:
- 1 overhead (gridlines allowed if you want to merge this one with the budget photo. I don’t mind)
- Minimum 3, Maximum 6 in game photos. (So no grid lines. Does not include the budget and overhead photos)

A FEW FINAL NOTES:
After much deliberation I’ve decided to allow the use of OMSP for decorating. OMSP is used as an extra slot to put deco items in places they won’t normally fit, and as the OMSP doesn’t add to the room and can’t even be seen in game I really can’t see a reason to exclude it anymore. One More Slot Please can be downloaded here.

Windows can be added and casted if you want. GOOD LUCK!




Round 3 Scores now up! Click here

Round 3 ends on Monday, November 12 at one second to midnight, Toronto time. Click this for timer.

As a legacy player, the nursery is one room I tend to remake every generation, sometimes multiple times a generations. It’s quickly become one of my favourite rooms in any sims home and since I know most “normal” people hate the nursery and hate sims 3 toddlers I just had to make this a round! Just as a side note this room was originally 7 tiles smaller but then I play tested it again a few nights ago and realized there was no possible way to make everything fit and increased its size.

Budget for round 3 - Nursery is 8000 simoleons.

Your list of required items for the round include:
- Two cribs (Already included)
- Seating for one (Rocking chairs from the Supernatural EP count)
- 5 pieces of deco
- A toybox
- A potty
- Xylophone
- Peg toybox
- Building Blocks Table (with at least -3- accessible sides)
- Highchair

The Fun part:
For this round I have dropped down two un-casted cribs as well as a white picket fence. You CAN Cast the cribs, in fact you can even exchange the cribs for the more expensive base game one, but you MUST have two cribs in the room you submit.

The picket fence cannot be moved, casted or exchanged. You’re stuck with it where it is so good luck with that.

Entry Format
- Budget: Photo required. If you have windows, you can use the “print screen” button to take a screenshot. For macs you press Command-Shift-3.
- Overhead view. (Gridlines allowed if you want to merge this one with the budget photo. I don’t mind. But just recall if you go into the build tab -> Terrain paint you can take a budget + overhead photo without any gridlines!)
- Minimum 4, Maximum 6 in game photos. So no grid lines for these ones. Does not include the budget and overhead photos.

A FEW FINAL NOTES:
If for this round you forgot I said I’d change the minimum number of photos and you still only post 3 in game pics you’re getting points off. Even if all twenty of you do that.

OMSP and tipsy OMSP ARE allowed for decoration purposes. Neither add to the room and can’t even be seen in game so I really can’t see a reason to exclude it anymore. Windows and Rooms can be added, curtains would be considered would be considered -one- piece of deco total no matter how many separate curtains are used.


Round 4 ends on Friday, November 23rd at 1 second to midnight, Toronto time. Click this for the timer.

Round 4 Scores now up! Click here.

One room that often gets overlooked is the study, a staple in a working family home but often overlooked when creating homes. Heck, I myself am guilty of downloading a lot, smiling at the study and then deleting everything to make room for another bedroom or washroom. Unfortunately for you, not only does this den have quite a few specifics for its “fun part”, its also on a nasty diagonal slant. : ) Good luck, ladies and gents.

Your budget for round 4 is 9000 simoleons. This includes the current cost of the room so your final amount must be 900 simoleons or less

Your list of required items for this round include:
- Seating for Three
- Computer
- Two separate skilling objects (Computer does not count as one)
- 10 deco pieces. (3 are already included in the fun part)

The Fun Part:

The accent wall... also this:



You see all those items up there? Yeah you need to keep every single one of those items and incorporate them into the room. You may cast them if you wish, but they must be recognizable to the judges.

List of the items so you can double check: A plant, a yellow flower in a vase, the ugly bookshelf, the globe, and a full length mirror. None of these items can be traded for another in the same category. You’re stuck with ‘em.

As for the accent wall that CAN be changed, casted, done whatever you want with as long as the section of the wall that is currently covered is covered with something that is different than the rest of the room.

Entry Format:
- Budget: Photo required. If you have windows, you can use the “print screen” button to take a screenshot. For macs you press Command-Shift-3.
- Overhead view. (Gridlines allowed if you want to merge this one with the budget photo. I don’t mind. But just recall if you go into the build tab -> Terrain paint you can take a budget + overhead photo without any gridlines!)
- Minimum 4, Maximum 5 in game photos. So no grid lines for these ones. Does not include the budget and overhead photos.

A FEW FINAL NOTES:

Lol. It’s diagonal. If you don’t already know this, you can shift items off the grid if you hold down the alt key. Using the moveobjects off cheat will also be beneficial this round.

OMSP and tipsy OMSP ARE allowed for decoration purposes. Neither add to the room and can’t even be seen in game so I really can’t see a reason to exclude it anymore. Windows and Rooms can be added, curtains would be considered would be considered -one- piece of deco total no matter how many separate curtains are used.



Round 5 Scores now up! Click here!

Round 5 ends on Friday Dec 7th and one second to midnight, Toronto time. Click this for the timer.

You all knew this was coming (or at least had a sneaking suspicion. The Master Bedroom, the love nest, the home inside your home. The master bedroom should be your safe and sound sanctuary (or if you live at home, your parents’ sanctuary). It’s a place that you can make your own and the design choices are to fit what you love, and not a way to impress your friends by putting up art work you can’t understand.

The alternate title for this round is the Haxagonal Hell. : )

Budget for Round 4 - Master Bedroom is 15000 simoleons. Why so high? Because when I tested this round a month ago I kept going over 10k and i was just being dull, not trying to make it look good.

Your list of required items for this round include:
- A double bed
- Two side tables
- A dresser (wardrobe from Supernaturals counts)
- At least 2 windows. (Windows inside the “fun part” bathroom do not count for this requirement)
- 10 pieces of deco (bedroom and bathroom combined)
- Seating for two
- Fireplace OR television (Just cause)

The Fun Part:

An ensuite bathroom. You may use the wall tool to create a separate room for the bathroom INSIDE the hexagon. I cannot express enough the fact that the bathroom must be INSIDE the hexagon room I made for you. You should also probably include a door from the bathroom to the bedroom. Just saying.

Your list of required items for the bathroom include:
- A toilet
- A shower
- A tub (Yes the tub/shower combo can be used to count as both)
- A sink
- A mirror

Entry Format:
- Budget: Photo required. If you have windows, you can use the “print screen” button to take a screenshot. For macs you press Command-Shift-3.
- Overhead view. (Gridlines allowed if you want to merge this one with the budget photo. I don’t mind. But just recall if you go into the build tab -> Terrain paint you can take a budget + overhead photo without any gridlines!)
- Minimum 5, Maximum 8 in game photos. So no grid lines for these ones. Does not include the budget and overhead photos. (This is so you can include photos of the bathroom as well as the bedroom)

A FEW FINAL NOTES:

You can shift items off the grid if you hold down the alt key. Using the moveobjects off cheat will also be beneficial this round.

OMSP and tipsy OMSP ARE allowed for decoration purposes. Neither add to the room and can’t even be seen in game so I really can’t see a reason to exclude it anymore. Windows and Doors can be added, curtains would be considered would be considered -one- piece of deco total no matter how many separate curtains are used.

Contest Approved

• Do not post replies and/or contest applications before the contest host has checked in on this thread, or your post will be deleted.
• DO NOT WRITE USELESS POSTS like "Hey cool contest, I think I might join." Reserve type posts and useless posts about coming back with an application will be deleted.

Checking in!

First post has been updated with round 1, and the round 1 room has been posted as an attachment. Let the games begin, and I wish you all the best of luck. Let's have some fun!

Application/Round 1 ends Oct 25, 2012 and one second to midnight, Toronto Time. Click this for timer

Just wondering, there's no door...which design wise is nice, but not realistic. Would make it more difficult if we had to work around a door. Not complaining really, just curious if you had considered this. Also, I'm assuming a stereo would count for the entertainment? And do plants count towards the deco?

Yes I have thought about doors and windows but I decided to leave them out (this round) in order to make things easier since this is only the first round. I wanted to give people as much room for creativity as I could in order to attract both new and veteran creators.

Not mentioning the stereo was a conscious choice since using a radio instead of a cheap TV really helps in regards to the budget, but yes, a radio does count as entertainment.

Plants definitely count as decoration. Sorry for the confusion and thank you very much for the questions.

Are cheats like MOO (MoveObjects One) and such allowed?

Moveobjects On, ConstrainFloorElevation (Although how you'd use this one is beyond my understanding seeing as this is a design contest, not a build contest), alt key and any other in game cheats are allowed as I view them to to just be another skill you need to master to be a good designer.

I'll go edit that into the rules. Thanks, Jag!

So it's a maximum of 5 pics, one of them being over head and one being lot value? So 3 extras? Just want to make sure I got it right

I'd be happy to judge, if you're still in need of one :-)

Shoot, I'll fix that once I get back home. The minimum/maximum numbers are only in regards to the in-game pics that show off your room. The overhead and lot value can technically be counted as one photo, but even if you use two they will NOT count towards the minimum/maximum numbers I have listed for each round.



Thanks for offering and yes I do need judges! I'll send you a PM tonight once I get home with some details about the scoring and to see if you have any questions. Thank you so much.

Ok, thanks Reya! (That's kind of what I thought you meant, but I wanted to make sure before I took too many)


I hope it's ok, but I did just a bit more than resize the top view, I cut the lot info and pasted it closer to the room so I didn't have to have so much grass I figured that was kind of like resizing...didn't edit the actual pic really.

Anywho...being stuck with a black wall and the oblisk, the only sensible choice to me was to go gothic victorian

I am just a bit confused on the "Fun" part. So, we are not able to change that one section of wall paint at all, right? Just leave it as is and try to find a wallpaper that will fit with it?

Glad to see I'm not the only crazy one, SeeMyu! I'm hosting a contest right now too. I just couldn't resist. I'm pretty sure that's what Reya meant. That's what I did at least

LOL jones7659, I just had to! I love interior decorating.. and I couldn't just turn down this opportunity! Also, thanks for clarifying!

Alrighty, to the entry:

I did what jones did and pasted the lot values onto the overhead view of the house so I could avoid having the ugly UI in the way of everything. Now, I feel like I should give it a name.. and it shall be called "Coral Seascape" because the colors remind me of the ocean and its serenity, and how it's more of an artist's corner for creativity! And I nearly passed the budget limit! *phew* Goodthing I could get all the items I wanted in there under $10,000!

I'm willing to judge if you still need one.

Wow your entries look great, thank you both for having them up so quickly. Adding you into the list now.

Sorry I couldn't answer your question, SeeMyu, but jones answered it correctly. But just for the benefit of others:

In this round you cannot recolour or remove the black wall covering, and you must use the obelisk but you can recolour or redecorate every other aspect of the room such as the walls, the floors, the ceiling, and anything else in between.

ETA:



Yes! Thank you very much! I'll add you to the judge list.

I embraced the black wall and went for a modern/contemporary style, which unfortunately made that awful obelisk kind of hard to utilize. You can see it as decor for your pet fish, behind the aquarium. The aquarium is still useable -- I just had to tug it out from the wall slightly. In addition to watching fish swim around, Sims can watch TV, play video games or read books. I followed the trend, and copy/pasted the budget info onto the overhead shot. Total cost furnished is 9,799

Can I just point out how we have three different rooms in three different styles? You guys are great!

Sionelle, you've been added to the list. Thanks for joining!

Decided to try my hand at a contest... And see if I can get any better at decorating.

My idea for this was old lady type theme. And it looks a little too close to what my grandma's old living room looked like. Just missing the china cabinet. xD

Looks great Charmed, but you're missing the budget/overhead photo. I think that might be the in-line image that says "Image is not available, or does not exist." Can you see if the site you're using to host the picture accidentally deleted it? I give you permission to edit your post if that's the case.

Alternatively if other people can see the image and its just my computer thats acting up please say so.

I edited so the picture was in the bottom screenshots as well as in my post. It shows fine on my computer,

Thanks so much, charmed. It might just be the server I'm using or something. But I can see it in your attached photos so that'll make things perfect just in case a judge has the same computer issue I'm having. Thanks and you've been added to the list.

With permission from my brother, we have decided to enter into this contest and see how good are decoration skills are. Many have complimented my skills offline already so I am interested to see what the MTS community thinks of my handiwork.



For the living room I decided to go with a semi classical feel. Not quite Victorian but passible with certain elements borrowed from it. Due to the black accent wall, I went with a soft gold and dark brown wooden accent throughout the room even on the radio.

Well, I hope this looks as good as I thought it did. :lovestruc

Thanks for entering, Laserai! Looks great, and I'm adding you to the list now.

Hi! okay so i come to you with a Elegant yet cheap living room :D