Okay, thanks to the help and advice that I received here from some of you, I have done a mod for my master bedroom. It isn't perfect, but this is the first mod I have ever done.

Please tell me what you think... Stuff like how it might be improved, what can go, what might be added, etc.



The faint pattern on the walls, the bedspread, the little bench cushion, and the lampshades (and I think also on the light part of the bed sheet underneath the pillows) came from a photo of a rose that I took somewhere in the gated community that I live in. I scaled it down and made it seamless so that I could then "pour" it into the elements of the room that I used it in.

Thanks so much!

I love everything about it. Love the pattern you used!

Wow! Very pretty! I did notice a line on the edge of the footboard on the bed and on the left side of the bench. You could either paint over it or erase it. That's the only thing I see, and I had to go through my bedroom and do the same thing. Great job!!!

Okay, how is this?



I added a trim that was originally supposed to look like wood to the bottom of the wall, and I still need to do the bed upgrade, though.

It looks like something a long-time mod creator could have done. Fabulous!

Wonderful job! I really like the rose theme. You did great.

Beautiful bedroom mod, lam! I can tell there's going to be many great things coming from you

One little trick I like to do is add a darkened border around the wallpaper and floor edges to give it a shiny softer look, it's worth giving a shot sometime! It's similar to adding shades to the side of the bed sheets

I'll have to try that trick before I totally finish with the room. That's probably what the narrow trim around the bottom of the wall needs, but I couldn't figure out what that was.

I'm working on the bed upgrade now, and it's giving me a few problems, but I'll figure it out.

Well...

I'm still not finished with the bed upgrade, but I wanted to see how the bedroom looks in the default house. So I put it into a copy of the default map to see how it looks. If it looked great in the house, I decided, I'd go ahead and share it with everyone once the bed upgrade is complete.

I used Lyssaria's suggestion of shading certain areas of the walls to give them a more realistic look, and I added some highlighting to that little trim that I added at the bottom of the wall to give it sort of a 3-D look, and I was feeling really proud of myself.

But...

It doesn't fit properly in the room. The shading I have in the corner to make it look like an actual corner isn't aligned with the real corner of the room, but in order to align it, as it is now, I have to move it around in the room and then the floor isn't aligned with the edges of the floor in the default map, and/or the walls stick out slightly in one place and in too far in another place.

Too bad I accidentally didn't keep all the layers. I think I'll have to start all over again.

But that's okay, because it'll give me some more practice, right?

I don't think you will find one person on here that hasn't started over way more then once! You will learn to save your layers because you will get tired of breaking down your room! But you have the right attitude because every time you do it you learn something else!! You are doing a really great job!

Totally true, I have had more than one room end up in the trash. You are doing an excellent job, as are all the new modders. This is hard because of the small scale and perspectives that you have to work with. Only suggestions I have are to always start with the original maps, because you know they fit, and save your layers. It is easier to just delete a layer than to start all over. Not that I am an expert, just what I have learned.

Thanks, everyone, for the encouragement and helpful suggestions.

I think I just didn't copy the room carefully enough the first time, though.

So this time, I decided to place guides!

I have a vertical guide marking the difficult corner, and I have horizontal guides marking the two visible floor corners, and a couple of other guides to mark edges of things that it's hard to see the edges of when I'm zoomed in. I turned on the snap to guide option, and so far it's working for me, though I still have to delete an occasional layer in this new room whenever I forgot to move to the right layer to do something on that layer.

But when I have enough finished to show it, I'll show everyone what it looks like, and if you like it I'll happily share it.

Oh my goodness, I love the rose pattern in the bedding. (It's beautiful in everything, but especially the bedspread) It's gorgeous!!

Oh, I've had a few rooms end up getting dumped into the trash!!! But, even though it's irritating when you have to, I've found the second round... or third in some of mine... is better than the trashed room. I have a folder for each room I work on. I save each room twice, with different names, in the folder. If I am happy with the changes I've made, I save it as each name, so if I mess up one and accidentally save it, which I've done, I still have the other copy to work with. I'm really looking forward to seeing your final room.

I'm going to have to try this! Thanks for the idea!

You're welcome. I started doing it after having to trash a couple of rooms... hehe. I also save the original one with all of the layers as a separate file with nothing done to it, so if I want to do something different, the I have my layers all set up already. I've gone through 5 or 6 different ideas for my kids' room, but none of them stuck. With the layers already done it was easy enough to start over.

I'm going to have to do that, too! Just this morning I was wondering what I'd do if I suddenly got a different idea for the same room...

Iam, your master bedroom is absolutely BEAUTIFUL! Are you sure you haven't modded before?

I'm sure! I'm just a perfectionist...

I'm glad you like it!

Here's what my master bedroom looks like so far since I began redoing it. This is my third attempt, and I just can't get it just exactly like the first one.




I can't remember exactly the colors in the first one, and for this one, I tried changing the perspective of the image I used for the wall pattern and for the carpet, before I poured them in. The perspective tool in GIMP can be a little difficult to work with...

I don't think this master bedroom is as good as the first one, though, mostly because I can't get the colors exactly the same. And I will lighten the wall pattern, because I like it faded as it was before. One thing I do like is that changing the perspective of the image I used for the wall pattern gave it a shaded appearance so that I didn't need to shade one wall slightly lighter as I did for the first one.

And I'm planning to add a dark border around the walls just above the floor, too.

What do you think? Any suggestions on how to improve it are greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

The biggest difference I noticed was the bed was a lot more red instead of a pale pink. The walls were also a lot darker. There's a white line on the bottom right edge of the bedspread. Other than the colors being darker instead of paler, it's very good. Maybe shrink the carpet pattern some more. Looks great Lam. Can't wait to see the final version!!

I think it looks great Sweetie. The only thing I'd change would be to tone down the color a bit.

The perspective tool is mean!! It is really hard to figure out. I love the rose pattern. I agree that the paler version was really good. So just adjust the color and it will be really beautiful.

Thanks so much, everyone!

Okay, how's this?



I toned down the color of the walls and the bedspread and footstool cushion, scaled down the carpet a bit more, and blurred the line between the floor and the carpet a bit.

I used the same color for the fitted sheet (I used a gradient for that), but still could not get it exactly the same as it was last time, though I used the same gradient. I guess not being exactly the same isn't always bad, though. I like this fitted sheet better than the first one.


I forgot something...

For the lamps, I would like to do something totally different from the lamps as they are in the game. Maybe draw something to use as a lamp instead of having a traditional lamp, or using an image of something else as a lamp.

And for the headboard, instead of having either the game headboard (I can't stand those books on the top) or a normal headboard (though they're very nice), I think I want something like curtains on the wall behind the bed instead, and let that serve as a headboard.

Has anyone done anything like either of those things before? And if so, was it really hard to do?

Very pretty! I know what you mean about the headboard. I haven't seen any mods that use only a curtain behind the bed but you should take a look at this. In this example, the fabric on the wall is part of the bedroom upgrade. Bayoublonde also has different lights (no lamps).

I looked up wall lamps and found some really pretty ones. You just get to use the nasty perspective tool again though to do it. I also hate the lamps and headboard. It took me about 3 days to get a new headboard into my room and then it looked horrible. I love the curtains on the wall idea! I thought of doing that and have it around a cool picture or something like that! I can't wait to see what you decide to do!

Oooh, I like Bayoublonde's lights in that bedroom! I like the curtains, too, but I really like the lights.

I was thinking of using a globe or some other shape as each lamp, but I haven't decided whether to have them standing on top of a stand on each nightstand, on the wall above each nightstand, or just sitting right on the nightstand. I just didn't say that before because I thought it might sound a little strange...

But I'll also look for wall lamps online. The perspective tool is difficult, but I figure that the more I use it, the better I'll get at using it.

I might try both to see which I like best, though.

Oh, the color is so much better! I love the pattern! It's coming along so well! I hope you try the curtain thing behind the bed. I think it's a great idea. The perspective tool is a huge pain! lol I can't ever get it right, so I just try to draw in what I want. The lights are easy enough to draw if you choose a simple design, the one thing I had to remember to do was to make it look like the light was on. If you don't it looks funny at night. I figured that one out the hard way!

I love how it looks!

Just BEAUTIFUL Lam! The color made a lot of difference.

Thanks!

Now I'm having another little problem. I made a little squashed-globe shape and used the perspectives tool to rotate it, and no matter what image format I save it in, I can't paste it into my bedroom so that I can see whether the perspective is correct. Every time I copy it, then go to the bedroom file and select Edit/Paste, something else that I copied a few hours ago gets pasted in.

Has this sort of thing ever happened to you?

Never mind... Solved the problem by deleting the image that kept getting pasted in when I tried to paste in something else.

By jennac145 at 2009-09-05

Okay guys!! What does it need? Besides the shading and cleaning up?

Oh, I like this one too! Maybe add some texture to the rug and floor. I like the way the bench pattern lines up with the bed pattern. It looks really good Jenna!

Like a super fuzzy rug? I have added texture to the floor but I guess not enough! It is so hard to tell with the black. That picture made me start this one. I loved it when I saw it. But now there is just something bugging me and I can't put my finger on it!!

Well, with the black, yeah, I guess it would be hard to get texture to show up. Whatever on the rug. I haven't used a super fuzzy anything, but the white is almost what draws your eye the most. I would find a texture to tone it down a little. For the picture, have you tried to put a frame around it? Maybe that would help. And remember, you can save each room more than once with different names so if you do something and don't like how it turns out you can go back to another file and change things.

Lys' found me a tut for the picture frame but I don't know!! lol I might try to find some other pics that will go with it and just switch them with the paintings. I changed the rug to a light fuzzy blue and that helped alot!!! I have this room saved about 8 times!! I have such a hard time making up my mind! Thank you for your input! It helps me a lot!

You're welcome! You are doing a great job! My daughter loves the room! She thinks the blue is perfect!

I love the headboard and the bed frame. I also really like how the pattern on the footstool lines up with the pattern on the bed.

Maybe lighten or darken the color of the lamps a bit so that they can show up against the walls.

Maybe lighten the floor slightly so that you can see the texture that you used there.

It's a very pretty room.

By jennac145 at 2009-09-06

Okay guys better or worse? The lamps are just hidden waiting for Lewanda to make me some of her perfect lamp shades!! I think I am just making it worse the more that I play with it!! HELP!!! Which part needs color tweaking? Thanks you guys!!!

The picture isn't showing Sweetie. I'll get to your lamps today. My little dog's illness has taken up more of my time than I realized it would.

Big hugs!

By jennac145 at 2009-09-06

By jennac145 at 2009-09-06

By jennac145 at 2009-09-06

By jennac145 at 2009-09-06

Kissy I don't know your daughter's name but since she likes the blue tell her she gets to pick two of these to go with the one in the bedroom! I decided that I am going to just swap out the paintings instead of the nightmare of making a frame.

Oops! I will try that again! lol Thanks Lewanda It showed in my preview screen. Strange.

By jennac145 at 2009-09-06

I know Jennifer! I can post a picture from my computer and see it on the forum page too, but no one else can see it. So I have to upload everything I post to my website.

Aww!!! Galen, my 12 year old daughter (today! ) likes the blue rose the best. Then her second pick is the bottom one, the one that looks like moonlight on the flowers. You should have seen her try to decide! LOL That is really sweet Jenna. Thank you.

I love that she likes doing this!! She can help me finish it!! I think it is too cute!

She's the one who helped me do my living room. She's got good taste. She doesn't like messing with the programs yet, so she did the talking and I did the work, but it was all pretty much her design. I promised her I would get your bedroom when it's finished. Blue is her favorite color.

She will be so excited to have her choice of pictures in HER room!!! I doubt that I will post it but I will send it directly to her. What else would be fun for her to pick out?

I love what you're doing with the bedroom Jenna, it also really helps to inspire other people to pick up some image editing software and give mods a try

As I've said many times before, I've been doing this for years but I improve each time I try something new! The same can be said for you, as well as Lam & Kissy! I look forward to everything you share with us.

If you don't believe me about my progress, compare my first master bedroom mod (my first mod ever here) to my unreleased one:





Kind of fun seeing that old mod, the girl making the bed was named after me Generation 1!

By jennac145 at 2009-09-07 See if Hayden likes this room. I was just playing around with patterns and tried this one. If not let me know between the other two.

Lyssaria! The curtains behind the bed in your second picture are almost exactly what I imagined for my bedroom (which I'm not yet finished with due to my work/commuting schedule and other circumstances)! Of course, I imagined colors that would match my rose theme, like burgundy and rose...

This is exactly the kind of thing I was referring to when I said earlier that my imagination exceeds my skills. I have no idea of how to do it, but I want to do it so badly that I refuse to call the room finished without it...

You have great taste Lam! I always wanted a bed like that but my imagination seemed to exceed my own skills.. that bed is an ooold project that pretty much faded away. I guess I was finally able to imagine making it and going through all the steps in my head. You should keep trying it out and experimenting!

Jenna, I love what you did with the room, it looks really good! Can't wait to see Lewanda's lamps Gosh you really have improved in such a little amount of time.

Okay, Jenna pointed me to a video tutorial online (so much easier for me to follow than text!), and after viewing it and trying out what I saw, this is what I came up with for a curtain. It isn't perfect, but this is pretty much a first real attempt. Or the first attempt that I'm willing to let everyone see, anyway.



After I did the original image for this one, I copied it and pasted it a few times as additional layers, and rotated a couple of the layers, to give it a full look.

I expect to have to tone down the color, maybe, so for this one, please tell me how the shading looks, and whether the folds and shading looks curtain-like.

Thanks!

Lam you did great!!! I can't believe one little video and a couple of hours and you already did this!! KUDOS!! The shading looks really good and it does look like a curtain. I am sure that you will get the color where you want but keep it up you are doing awesome!!

Thanks!

I'm having trouble getting the perspective just right now, though. I'm sure I'll get it eventually.

And here's the bedroom with my wall lamps added, and a lighting effect applied to make it look more lamp-like.



How is it?

I still need to do the nightstands (still trying to decide what I want for that) and of course the headboard (need to draw the curtain that I'll actually put in and get the perspective right).

Or maybe I'll save the curtain for the bedUpgrade, since that's where I plan to do an additional thing to the room that I have in mind...

After that, I'll be ready to share it!

I love those lamps! and the curtain you did in the earlier post looks very realistic, I think you did very well

It's sad how things such as perspective can limit our imagination, but as long as you keep trying you'll get that beautiful curtain up there and finish up that wonderful bedroom.

I'm really looking forward to it

Thanks! I'm glad you like it!

What if I add a layer, display the original bedroom image (but make sure to be working on the new layer), and draw in the curtain using the headboard as a guide? Do you think that would work?

Galen loves this one Jennifer! She just said, "Beautiful!"

Thanks Lys for the encouragement!! And thank you all for your help! It is nice that we can all try to figure this out together!!