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Building the Perfect Neohome


by ellenbug

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Also by doopingla

This article you’ve stumbled upon is all about building your Neohome. It will help you design a place that will be the envy of all of your friends. You may even win the Neohome Spotlight with your delightful new abode! Neighbors will be begging you to tell them your secret. Of course, this won’t happen until you make your Neohome, since no one will praise something that doesn’t exist. And before you make your Neohome, I suggest that you read this helpful guide. It will give you loads of good advice on decorating your Neohome, because everyone wants to live like a king or queen. Now you can, because this article will help you do it.

Make a Plan

When designing your award-winning Neohome, have a plan in mind. In fact, put it on paper, if at all possible. What kind of rooms do you want, how many, and how should they connect with each other? Ask yourself, will your Neopets share one room, or will they each have their own room to sleep in? Not sure? You can start out with a shared room, and then move them to their own individual rooms at a later time. Another option is for each to have a separate room, shared with a Petpet. I like the idea of my Neopets in one room, their Petpets in another, and a shared bathroom. Whatever you decide, think it through carefully. You can only build one room at a time, which takes about a day, and if you change your mind, you can’t fix problems easily. You’ll have to demolish the room (another day) and start the building process all over again. That’s why you need to know how many rooms you will have eventually, what they’ll be used for, and how they should be arranged. Where are your doors? Your windows? Without a plan, you might eventually end up doing your entire Neohome over again because of mistakes, or because you don’t really like it. And keep in mind, you don’t get a refund when you demolish a room. It might help to look at your own house. How is it arranged? You don’t want anyone walking through your bathroom to get to the kitchen. Neither will your Neopets. That could be so embarrassing!

Where to Start

This is really up to you. How many Neopoints do you have? You might want to build one room and decorate it before moving on to the next, or you may decide to build all of your rooms first and add furniture later. There’s no right or wrong. The choice is yours. Personally, I can’t wait to get to the decorating part, so I start with a room, add some cool stuff, and then move on to building the next room. I’ll continue to add furniture to my rooms over time, but I really like getting a good start on a room before I go on. The first room I built was a bedroom. I just wanted my Neopets to have a place to sleep right away. There’s no reason you can’t begin somewhere else. You could start in the middle and work outward, or start on one end. Remember to refer to your plan so you can get your doors and windows in all the right places. Your Neopets don’t want to be trapped in their new Neohome because you forgot to add a front door.

Themes

Okay, I’ll admit I started off without any kind of plan, buying one of every type of furniture I fancied. It was just all so cool! But I soon realized, by looking at other great Neohomes, that this hodge-podge kind of decorating, while exceedingly enjoyable, is not always the most attractive. If you want a spotlight-worthy Neohome, I recommend a theme approach. (Try looking at the winner of the Neohome Spotlight each week to get ideas.) You could have one theme for the entire home (too ho-hum for me), or you can have a unique theme for each room in the house. Examples of themes include a jelly room with jelly furniture, faerie furnishings in a cloud room, an ocean theme (great for the bathroom), spooky rooms, tropical with a bamboo room, etc. In this way, you can satisfy your urge to buy eclectic styles of furniture, while avoiding that tacky “garage sale” look. I strongly recommend touring other Neohomes to discover your likes and dislikes. Make notes of the furniture and decorations you’d want in your ideal house. There are petpages that can help you keep track of your wish list and see if anything new is coming out. Preview furniture and decorations to see what they will look like in your Neohome. This is so important! An item that looks awesome from the front may look like dung jelly from the top, which is how it will display in your Neohome! If you skip this step, you, like me, will end up selling furniture because it didn’t look as you expected. Learn from my mistakes!

A Neohome, or Something Else?

Some people prefer to build something other than your typical Neohome. Some decide they want their home to be a hotel. They may have a cleverly designed indoor pool (using the ice room) and different suites. In each room, there might be a special theme, such as a spooky room for ghost Neopets. The lobby is usually very pleasant and grand, and there are often many gardens. Instead of a Neohome, you could make a mall, with a variety of shops. Each shop could offer different things. Of course you really wouldn’t be “selling” anything, but it would still look cool. Your Neohome could be a retirement home, with rooms for your retired guests, or it could be a restaurant, if you wanted. Let your imagination wander and come up with the perfect, unique idea for your Neohome.

Neo Design Tips

Repetition. Repetition. Repetition. By this I mean buying four coordinating beds (instead of four mismatched), and arranging them symmetrically in the room. I have four pineapple beds placed diagonally in the center of my Neopets’ quarters. Repetition gives the room balance, as well as style. In the bathroom, I have found it hard to fill the large amount of space available. To solve this problem, try dividing the room into sections – four toilets (matching), four sinks... Decorative items like rugs and windows look great in threes. (That goes for any room in the house.) And some items are so small, they won’t have much impact unless you place them in groups.

Dream Home on a Budget

Do you really need the most expensive rooms available? Yes, the ice room is cool, and definitely worth the Neopoints, but the cheaper rooms will look great, too, once they’re decorated. Don’t spend all of your hard-earned Neopoints on one room. You still need to fill that room with furniture, you know, and the other ones can’t remain empty forever. Furniture can be really pricey, but you can look for substitutes. If it doesn’t bother you, rugs can look like tables, rocks can look like walls, and a chair can look like a Neopet. You get the idea, so be creative!

Make It Yours

You will most likely invest a lot of time (and neopoints) in your dream Neohome. Be patient. As they say, “Neopia wasn’t built in a day.” My Neohome is a work in progress. Yours will be, too. And the bottom line is, despite all this great advice, make your Neohome the way you like it... tacky “garage sale” look, or something fit for Neohomes & Gardens Magazine... whatever makes you, and your Neopets, happy.

Thank you for reading my article, and good luck building the Neohome of your dreams, one that your Neopets will love. Happy decorating!

 
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