by Burbie52, HSM team writer

In the avalanche of new product being poured into Home in recent times, there may be one which has been overlooked because it isn’t new. It is an upgrade to an already existing personal space: nDreams’ Blueprint:Home, one that was asked for by all of us who own it.

I have been really enjoying my Blueprint personal space since nDreams added the ability to save our furniture layouts. I hadn’t been to the space for a long time because I didn’t want to delete the maze I had there and start over with the one save option we had prior to now because of the data transfer changeover to the cloud servers. I love the creativity of the space, but that maze was hard to construct — and losing the ability to save different layouts with a flash drive frankly kind of killed my enthusiasm. It is so cool that nDreams listened to us and gave us this new option.

Mazes take a long time to set up

Now that I have returned to playing with it I have seen some things I would like to have happen with the space. These are things I am sure are not too far out of reach for nDreams to create either, as they are already in line with what they have.

The first thing I would like is a base to build on that looks like grass. I don’t know about you, but most of the homes I have had in life had lawns outside, not concrete slabs. It would add to the realism of the space and since the floors are already a given in any construct there it wouldn’t be an issue at all. It would give us the possibility of building garden areas within the homes and central courtyards, something I truly like to do.

Another one is I would love to see a forest setting added with trees close in to the housing area. This combined with the grass would give us the ability to build a meadow even with small structures in it or without. I created a Blueprint with out any building whatsoever the other day. I was inspired by the new garden items that Lockwood gave us combined with Blueprints hedges and Juggernauts spring line of flower beds. It was a fun thing to do and a way of using the Blueprint I hadn’t tried before. A grassy building pad with a forested exterior would be a big hit I think.

The lighting in Blueprint leaves a lot to be desired. It is too bright no matter which sky you use and inside the constructs there is no reason to ever have lamps, unless they are for show, because if you turn them on they don’t do a thing. A truly dark exterior with low lighting would be very cool. I would love for my house to be dark inside so that I could use lamps and lighting the way I wanted, even leaving some rooms dark at times while others were lit like a real home would be.

One thing I have heard many people ask is, “Why doesn’t it have a roof?” Good question. The only style that seems to have some sort of roof like structure is the Asian one. Not sure why most of them are flat; there might be a reason for this, as I know the ceiling is pretty low in the space. Perhaps that is the issue. Another wallpaper pack with a roofed building would be a welcome addition. I like the wallpaper pack we have now, but some of the prints are a bit too bold or bright for me. I would like to see more pastels like we have in our real homes.

No windows, still light?

One other thing I wish was possible is for the windows to be a part of the exterior and stay that way even if you choose a different interior. For example, I built an Asian space, but when I wanted to use anything other than the Asian interiors, it made the windows change to a different style. I wish this could be changed so that all the windows in my home match no matter what interior style I use.

I know that the ability to hang paintings within the structure isn’t possible; it makes sense, because you are quite literally making the space from scratch when you create it. But how about a features pack with some ready-made art in frames to use? There are already built-in shelves and the like, and a variety of pictures and frames would be a great new addition to featured items. I noticed that some of these featured things already can be stacked on existing structures, like the “bloom” in the Asian pack you can add for sun coming through the windows. Why not classic and avant-garde or modern art to hang on the wall wherever you might like?

Same exterior, different windows.

Another great feature pack would be one that gives us the ability to create rooms within rooms. Walls that reach from ceiling to floor in a variety of lengths would be a huge hit. They could be made in simple white or pastel colors to match any wallpaper already in stock. This would give us the ability to make walk-in closets and smaller baths within the bedrooms, to name a few. Instead of creating just new exteriors and interiors as packs, feature packs could be sold as stand alone items.

I am really glad that nDreams has seen fit to bring us this new upgrade to one of the most innovative personal spaces ever created for Home. It is always good to see a company willing to back its products long after they have launched and this new free update has renewed many peoples’ interest in a space that had perhaps grown stale; it certainly has my attention, and I look forward to what might be in the picture for the future of Blueprint.

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