Go Chinese on a Budget
by Kassadee_Marie, HSM team writer
Ni hao! China is one of the oldest civilized societies in the world, with a known history of approximately 4,000 years, and there is much to be admired about this country. The Chinese are the inventors of paper-making, printing, gunpowder and the compass. They have a culture seeped in traditions, philosophies and appreciation of beauty. It’s a lot of fun to go out — or stay in — with the Chinese style on Home; here are some ideas on how.
There are two Chinese estates in Home now: the The Plum Tree Pavilion and the Mahjong Apartment. At a reasonable cost of $4.99, either of these estates would be a good place to start your Chinese motif. The “Plum Tree” is the larger of these estates, and offers a reward item for you and your guests, but the “Mahjong” offers a built-in game that can be played alone or with a guest. I recommend you tour them both before making a choice.
The Plum Tree has a large two-room building and an outside area with a beautiful garden with a small creek running through it. In one spot, there is an arched bridge over the creek which leads to an intimate setting near a small waterfall that is a perfect place for two friends to spend time. This space may remind you of several other estates, such as Creek Falls, because of the vibrant colors of the falling leaves, or the Japanese Apartment, because of the serenity of the setting. It may even remind you of the Weekend Luxury Lake House because of the creek running through a beautiful garden. However, it has some features that are uniquely its own, such as two koi ponds, small statues of Buddha and a pagoda, a huge red-leafed plum tree and an interior pavilion. There are two furniture spawning spots and eleven places for picture frames or other wall items.
The Mahjong Apartment also looks similar to the Japanese Apartment, because of its walled-in courtyard. One arrives at this estate in the small pagoda in the center of the exquisite and serene garden, which has flowering plum trees in several spots; a tiny stream that has flows into a koi pond and has a small stone bridge over it; and step-stone paths leading here and there. The garden is flanked by two nearly identical buildings. They are designed in traditional Chinese style, with swooping eaves, paper lanterns, and carved details in red and gold on the exteriors. These structures are open, with circular doorways that lead to a wide central hall in each, situated between two rooms. These halls and three of these four rooms can be decorated; the fourth room holds the mahjong game. There are five places for frames or other wall items, but there is only one furniture spawning spot.
Though the Plum Tree has a matching five-piece furniture package of a beautiful wall divider, an active item bed, a bench-style sofa, a medium sized plant, and a table for $2.99, there are other furniture items available in the stores in Home that will suit this style as well. The best furniture pack for either estate may be the nine-item $3.99 Oriental Decor Bundle from Codeglue. This pack is a great value, with two wall items, two tables, a bench, a carved wood room divider, a large floor lamp, a potted plant and a large white vase with a simple spray of cherry blossoms. The wall items are an Oriental Triptych with a bamboo design and round Oriental bookshelves, which are a decoration only. These items would look great in either space. Another bundle with great value is the banquet set from Granzella. (Yes, this is a Japanese company, but these are Chinese items.) This set includes nine items for $2.99, consisting of a round, red table, a chair and seven food items, such as Peking duck, roast piglet, Chinese dumplings and Yangzhou fried rice. These pieces would look great set out in the pavilion in Plum Tree or as the setting for a dining room in Mahjong.
There is a beautiful item in Lockwood’s gift machine called the China Vase for 128 tokens, and a golden dragon statue for 256 tokens. Either of them would look great with this theme. If you collect S-tropical points from Southern Island Hideaway, there is a lovely flower and pot that you’ll want to pick up for your estate, called the Chinese Ixora. One single must-have item is the Chinese lion statue from the Kane and Lynch furniture store — this is actually a mythological guardian known as a Foo Dog. Any fountains you may have already would look great in either of these spaces, by the way.
For the ladies, there are several suitable items to be found for clothing choices. Kane & Lynch costumes offers a Chinese dress in blue for $1.99, and Lockwood also offers a dress in this style, in raspberry-red colored silk for $1.49. This dress is also available in a pack called “Silk Blossom” for $2.99, with matching shoes, earrings and a fan. Recently nDreams has come out with a Sci-punk line of clothing, and one of these items is a leather Cheongsam dress that combines a very modern look with a traditional Chinese style and it’s fantastic, especially at a cost of only $.99. Granzella offers several hairstyles for $.99 each in single and double bun styles, which they call the “Chignon Hair”. Don’t forget to carry a fan to complete the look. In addition to the one sold by Lockwood, fans can be found at Hudson Gate for free, and for $.99 in a bundle in Threads, under the Assassin’s Creed tab.
Dressing in this style for the guys will be harder, and it’s a shame no developer sells long Chinese robes for them. Sony does offer a free blue and silver Mandarin jacket in the Originals store and Lockwood has a black Chinese jacket for $1.49. These can be paired with plain black pants and sandals for a good and simple Chinese style. Choose a simple, traditional hairstyle in black or dark brown to complete the look.
For a companion, you’ll want to pick up Xiong Mao, the baby panda bear for $1.99 from Lockwood. You’ll love the appearance and the antics of this little fellow, and I don’t see how there could be a better or more realistic companion choice for this theme, since he is so uniquely Chinese. If you have the Chinese dragon reward from the New Year’s quest, this would also suit the style, in a fantastical way. Speaking of the fantastical, if you would prefer a locomotion to a companion, nDreams offers three ride-on dragons that they call Sky Serpents in purple, red or green for $3.99 each, and these items combine a companion and a locomotion.
It would be very easy to “go Japanese” on a budget on Home, because of all the spaces and items sold by Granzella and for long-time Homers, the many free items from Irem, including a plain white yukata top and bottom. It’s a bit more of a challenge to “go Chinese” on Home with more limited choices, but it can be done. I hope I’ve given you some ideas on how to do so, that you’ll enjoy. Zaijian!
February 3rd, 2013 by Kassadee Marie | 5 comments
Home is endlessly entertaining to this California girl. Kassadee has been in Home for about four years, and loves almost everything about it (with a few notable exceptions). She spends way too much money there, and perhaps too much time... Someday she will travel the world and write about the people she meets and the places she sees.
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I discovered after submitting this article that Sony -- without notice -- added two more spawning spots in the Mahjong Apartment, one in either of the two buildings, making it easier than ever to furnish there. Also, if you love fans, check out the ones that Lockwood sells, too.
I’m surprised that you didn’t mentioned Granzella’s extremely gorgeous QiPao Dresses, which are also $1.99.
And it’s a shame the only Changpao top exist on Home for the Male is the one found in Lockwood. It’s a great item to wear.
I love the Chinese culture and its brilliance on their philosophies, art, and history. The Mahjong Apartment is next on my list to grab.
Thanks, Jin! Thank you twice. I don’t claim to know every item in every store, but it’s rather funny that I missed something that I actually own!
Readers: The dresses are called Mandarin dresses and are located in the “sexy” section of the GZ store. There are three of them, by the way. Two are done in red or black with gold flower and butterfly designs and the blue one is done with silver designs. They are long and luscious and worth the price, imo. Oh, and matching shoes! Two pairs (flats and heels) are just $.99 each set.
Heheh! xD Not a problem. :3
Nice article as always Kass. You have a real knack for finding things to create themed spaces and clothing. I am glad to hear they added those spawning spots as the Mahjong space was very hard to work with, now if only Lockwood would do the same with the Blaster apartment to help us get things through the areas there it would be great!