Chasing that 5 star milestone in Animal Crossing: New Horizons was a major part of the game…until we all realised it actually held us back.
I started playing ACNH the day it was released and a lot of the chatter I heard was focused on terraforming, KK Slider and getting that coveted 5 star island. A month in and the chatter didn’t change. A few more months and I was scrolling ACNH Tumblr when it hit me. These accounts I was presented with each day showed off their beautiful, cluttered and full islands. That was my first exposure to the #cottagecore aesthetic and I loved it. However, as soon as I tried to recreate these looks on my own island, I was met with frustration when my stars fell from 4 to 3. As with a lot of things, frustration put a wedge into the relaxing aspect of the game and — along with a few other reasons — I decided I needed to put the game away for a while.
I came back to ACNH in November of 2020 with a renewed passion when I started scrolling through Tumblr and Instagram again, seeing cottagecore and forestcore themes start thriving even more. So, I jumped back on and restarted. It took hours to find the island I wanted; one of my favourite ACNH creators used this island and I had already imagined what I could do with it. Then I made the best decision I could have made for anyone wanting that cottagecore, forestcore, rural or abandoned looking island: get to 5 stars, get the lily of the valley flowers I wanted, then forget about going to Isabelle for tips altogether.
Since then, I have created my own ACNH Instagram account (that you can find here) and have continued to style and decorate my island to my heart’s content without a care for what Isabelle has to say. In addition to this, I’ve discovered a lot about styling to this aesthetic, from many of the creators on Instagram especially, and have been asked a few times for tips on decorating to the theme. So, here are my top five tips on decorating your island for a cottagecore or forestcore theme.
1. Mix Trees, Flora and Items
While using one of the trees and covering your island in them can look spectacular, using both the hardwood and cedar trees creates more depth and adds to the rural look. In addition though, utilise the potted plant and foliage items (like the different coloured leaf piles) in between the trees to thicken the forest and add colour, if that’s your thing.
Personally, I also love adding in mushroom items, flowers and weeds to spruce up the place a little further. The mushroom items can be recoloured too, giving you the option to keep the green or add other colours to your theme. Shrubs, fences, log items or stump ground patterns can also create the illusion of an area that was abandoned which I like when it comes to cottagecore especially, as I think the overgrown look really adds to the aesthetic.
In this case, you can see that I have used quite a few flowers but I also have the country fence, mush log and other items to create the look I wanted. It’s very experimental but that’s the best part because you can fine tune it to your own theme.
2. Mix Fences
Fences are a great addition to any island simply because they are so versatile. I may be partial to the barbed wire fence personally, however, it’s not the only one I use and it’s often used in conjunction with other fences and items. My favourite way to do this is to mix fences with log stakes. I know I said I was partial to the barbed wire fence but I’m most definitely biased to log stakes (it is my Instagram username, after all). The reason for this stylistic choice tends to be because I love the slightly weathered, broken look it gives the fencing. Have you ever seen a cottage in the middle of a small rural town and seen a perfect fence? No? Me neither. There just always seems to be part of the fence that one too many cats has found their way through, creating this rugged look that I love for this theme.
For my strawberry farm, I used this as a way to make it seem as if I’ve started the crop in an area that hadn’t been used in a while; as if I had reclaimed it without quite fixing any structural issues.
3. Combine Items & Ground Patterns
You can probably tell my now that using items together is a good idea but this time I’m focusing simply on combining items and ground patterns. You’ll find it hard to find an item on my island that isn’t accompanied by a pattern underneath it. This is due to the simple idea of creating a reason for the item to be there.
Take the mush lamp in the above screenshot. I often use this dirt pattern as it makes the mushroom items in particular look more natural. For items like lights and signs, I use this particular stone design. Giving an item a reason to be there grounds it to the area and adds to the scene. It will also stop cluttered areas looking like simple clutter and gives it a story.
In this case, make sure to think about what you’re putting down when decorating an area. Give the items a purpose, even if you can’t come up with a “good” one. Especially if their purpose is to be clutter, adding to this with patterns makes it look like you’ve put it there for a reason.
4. Layer Picnic Blankets/Rugs & Other Patterns
If you’ve been on ACNH Instagram, Tumblr, Twitter or another platform, you’ve definitely seen the increase in layering. And why not? A simple picnic blanket or rug is fine if it fits the area, but if you want to add more dimension and make a smaller picnic area look especially busy, layering the patterns is easy. ACNH creators often share codes of patterns they love so you have a world of patterns to explore for any theme, and with the extra slots we’ve been given, there’s no reason to not go ham on different colours and looks.
My island is in the Southern hemisphere so it’s Winter at the moment meaning I’ve actually changed some of my picnic blankets to a different colour. The previous one was a soft pink and I’ve put it away for now as it blended a little too well with the snow for my liking.
To achieve a look like the one above, place down the pattern as you normally would, save for one corner’s tassels or end piece. Then add another pattern as if it’s going beneath the first. When it’s finished, place an item over the initial join to aid the illusion. I like using smaller items like coffee cups for this as it still gives my character a place to sit and you can still see the actual pattern underneath.
5. Forget the Island Evals
Finally, island evals aren’t your best friend. There are definitely islands out there with a perfect rating that still look great, however, I can just about guarantee that most of the cottagecore, forestcore and similarly themed islands you see on your feed each day aren’t rated 5 stars. That is because you eventually just use too many trees, flowers or weeds and other items (although my reason has tended to stick to the first three). I checked today while writing this blog and I currently sit on 4 stars as I have too many trees.
Why do we covet this perfectly rated island though? When the game was first released, that’s what everyone wanted. However, as months passed players veered from the perfection path and chose to create what they actually wanted instead. Imagine if our islands were all 5 stars? We’d still have very different islands with the vast amount of themes possible, but the base islands would be very similar and simply put, quite plain.
For a cottagecore, forestcore or similarly themed island you’ll want more trees, plants, items and clutter; that’s just part of the look that makes it what we love. So, don’t do a Han and give up on a game you love just because you don’t feel like you’re doing it right. I actually made a game out of it, to be honest. I got my first six lily of the valley flowers (I wanted them for my rock garden) and then did whatever I wanted to the island until I went down in stars. I had collected a few more than six flowers by that point but I enjoyed seeing how long it’d take for Isabelle to kick it down.
After reading these tips, please remember that creating, terraforming, decorating and designing your island is very much all up to you. Whether you want your island to look like it’s inhabited by Link and Zelda or to look like the glorious city you would rather live in is all decided on by your imagination and the amount of hours you put into it. Take these tips and adjust to your liking. There’s no right or wrong, as long as you like what you’ve produced, that’s all that matters. So, go ahead and make your island yours.
If you’d like to see these tips in action, check out my ACNH Instagram here. I’d also love to see what you create using these tips! Tag Thursday Creatives or Log Stakes in your posts or DM me on either account so I can check them out.
