How to Become a Decorator in Tibia?
INTRO
House decorations in Tibia, as a manifestation of players’ imagination and creativity have been part of the game for years. Although there weren’t many decorative items available in the game at first, players got by as best they could by matching the colors of the armor and equipment they displayed or using the few quest items.
Today, the choice of items is much wider. The Tibia Store appeared in the game, which has a great deal of furniture and decorative items for the house. The selection of quest items has also multiplied. Does this mean that now decorating houses has become easy? Nothing could be further from the truth! So many options can quickly become overwhelming, and beginners may feel lost and not know where to start. That’s why more and more players are wondering how to become a decorator in Tibia. If you are curious what experienced decorators have to say on this matter, and what advice they will share with you, we kindly invite you to read on!
How did your house decoration adventure start?
One of Norelli’s first houses.
Norelli: At that very moment, I started playing Tibia, my house was very important to me. The truth is that there were much fewer possibilities back then so when you look at them now, they seem quite regular. The very important breakthrough in my decoration adventure was meeting my friend Myth Mine, who showed me a very new way of decorating with the use of leaves, pushable objects, or quest items. I was impressed that she could decorate a full house in a very short time that looks great even after a few years. Ever since then, I have been constantly trying to search for new solutions and I also get inspired by others.
One of Norelli’s first houses.
Monzcarro Murcatto: I started playing Tibia because I love RPG games and after playing for a while a friend suggested that I rent a house, and I was amazed because I hadn’t really realized that was an option even though I had seen other player houses. My first house was a small hut in Port Hope which I loved, but sadly I do not have any pictures of it. My second house was a bigger one in Port Hope, and at the time I was doing the pirate quest to get the outfit (looting all the items myself, which took ages). I filled my house with pirate things and took inspiration from NPC houses in Port Hope, especially The Adventurer’s Guild. I tried making a realistic house that you could move around in, so I had very few things displayed (and also I was poor xD). What I did have though, were 3 dead bodies which I used for storage. They were called Iron Man (tools storage) Fatman (food storage) and Santa Claus (things I didn’t need myself that my friends could take if they wanted to). I found this immensely funny and I guess this is where my love for stories first appeared in my decorations.
Divine’Angel’s garden.
Divine’Angel: My decoration adventure began back in 2013 when house decoration wasn’t even a thing yet. I remember that so many people would consider me weird or would laugh me off for spending so much time decorating my house instead of getting experience and actually playing the game! I wanted my house to stand out, to represent me as a person and a player, and also to drag the attention of the passers-by. I would use the leaves and pushable objects already back then and I remember I would get several questions a day about where I got them because back then, nobody knew them and that made my house look so special. Receiving continuous compliments contributed a lot to house decoration becoming my passion. I’ve never been a great player, difficult monsters and PVP would always stress me out so it felt good I was considered good at something in Tibia.
Mikolaj: Actually, I started to enjoy decorating when I got my first house and I was sentimental about The Sims game!
One of Mikolaj’s first houses.
Makadamia: Usually so it happens that one event is influenced by a number of other events, and this was also the case with me. On one hand, I needed some changes in my house, which for several years looked almost the same and was decorated in “old school” style – with blood herbs, and talons, you know! 😉 On the other hand, working on the “HOUSE DECORATIONS” section, on TibiaFanart.com obliged me to know the subject. In order to create content of the best quality, I had to personally deal with decorating, get to know this “world” and see for myself how it all works. While still developing the gallery of house decorations on TibiaFanart.com, I had the pleasure to see a lot of very refined and inventive arrangements. I think that’s why I also got inspired a bit by the works of each of the authors of these decorations and their passion.
This way I started having fun decorating my own houses, which was received very positively by players from my server and I received many compliments. Over time, I got some decoration requests from my friends and from… strangers! It motivated me a lot!
Makadamia’s Wallside Residence, Rathleton, 2018
Makadamia’s Wallside Residence, Rathleton, 2021
One of Milny’s first houses.
Milny: My decorating adventure began thanks to my friend named Ke’ly, she has always been my inspiration, she influenced my pink-themed decorations and also my outfit colors, even before Tibia. We used to play an OT server where we had huge mansions, larger than 3000 SQM and we would fill every single SQM with blood herbs and dolls. We made enormous hearts inside the houses with frozen hearts and many more items. Then I entered Tibia and I tried the same decorating style with blood herbs and voodoo lily pollen, but in my opinion that was obsolete now. After some time I met Amy meow and her decorations and at that moment I decided to use that decorating style with gold ingot and pink gems but to make it a little different from hers I add blood herbs to my actual decoration style.
Tynusiiaa: At the same time, I started playing Tibia, I was also playing Stardoll. It is a dress-up game for girls where you have your home and wardrobe. With a passion for fashion and interiors, both in real life and in games, I just tried to make the place where I live look nice. It took me a long time to buy my first house. I used to play without a premium account for years – actually I got it as a birthday present when I was playing Antica. Before that, I had houses registered on my friends, because we all paid for them and I let my imagination run wild there. If it comes to learning how to stack items and a more aesthetic approach to a new style, it was Norelli who taught me how to do it.
Vigorouz: When I started playing back in Tibia 7.4 I was only playing one server and when times got hard I turned to OT servers to escape the hard times of grinding and dying, I ended up making some friends along the way that ended up making me a GM of a server and with that, I had access to spawn every item possible. I’ve always had an eye for the small details growing up so when I started decorating it came easy to me, I learned techniques with items at different heights and started stacking and layering items from biggest on the bottom to smallest on top until things made sense and looked good. I really enjoyed it and the attention that came with it, something I’ve always done when decorating is picking a theme and two colours per room which keeps it simple and clean.
Amy Meow: My decorating adventure began when I saw the houses of the other Tibians decorated very beautifully, so I decided to get the items eventually that I like the most to start decorating my spaces with a style that I liked. From that moment I don’t like to have empty houses and I always try to decorate them in pink tones, in my style.♡
⇦ You can see one of Amy’s first decorations on the left.
What made house decoration your passion?
Decoration Shana: It’s been like that ever since I started playing, almost since 2004, I’m an Interior & Graphic Designer so it’s kinda what I do, hehe 🙂 Always liked to be expressive with colors and different tones, also I’ve taken advantage of the new additions in items and balloons they’ve added recently!
Tynusiiaa: Well … when you reach a high level in the game, have a lot of bestiary entries completed, and you’re fed up with 10-hour-long boss runs, you start looking for alternatives and that’s it! Haha, no, I‘m just kidding! 😉 Everyone has a different idea for this game and that’s nice. I have always liked playing, collecting money, and experience in order to be able to have a nice house and fulfill at least some of my pixel wishy wishes. I’ve come to the point where I’ve partially made my dreams come true, but if I reach a certain price level for my in-game items, I’m sure I’ll sell them and do something crazy in real life! Besides, I also like decorating for others. Most often I do not want anything from my friends and I make their decorations for a surprise but I also get paid sometimes! 🙂
Tynusiiaa’s birthday decoration.
Dracek: The houses have always played an important role in my Tibia adventure. Despite many years spent in the game in terms of PvP, I tried to decorate the house nicely so that I could feel good inside of it. I would often encounter a situation when friends or passers-by would compliment my house, which motivated me to improve my decorating skills. But, to be honest, decorating houses has fully become my passion from the moment I met Tynusiiaa- it is thanks to her that I decorate today at such a high level. I have also found out that decorating together can be a nice and creative way to spend time.
Dracek’s house decoration.
Ryocrits: I used to decorate with an old brother-in-law, who introduced me to forming stacks that look good and pattern-like decoration and I realized I could spend hours forming a decoration, which helped me with my anxiety back when it was terribly bad so it was kinda therapeutic for me. And also, probably the fact that you can use any item to make it look good, for example, I started using broken piggy banks and picking up torn pieces of papers from Issavi and incorporating them in decorations and now I see them often being used by others, and in the same measure I’ve taken so many other stuff from other decorations and incorporate them to my own so at this point, the range is quite infinite within Tibia’s universe.
Kriiz: Well… I love houses since the old Tibia but I stopped playing for many years. When I came back everything was DIFFERENT! I fell in love with some Tibia Store items, the blue, pink & purple ones & I wanted to have a beautiful place where you can spend some time in the game besides the hunts, bosses, etc. For me, it is something essential. Sometimes I just log in to stay at home for hours! 😀 It has to be a nice place!
An old house decoration made by Kriiz.
What would be your advice for someone who wants to start decorating?
Mikolaj: I think it would be: “Let your imagination run wild!”. Don’t be scared to get inspired by someone else and try new things. And one more piece of advice – whenever someone asks me how I like their house decoration my response is always – “But you know that it’s you who’s supposed to like it, right?”.
Makadamia: Even though it may come off cliche:
- A very helpful way to get moving with decorations is to have a fairly large number of decorative items. Having them all makes it easier for us to imagine the effects. When creating some decoration myself, I scatter all these small objects on the floor, and only by trying out how each of them looks on a given stack do I choose the best effect. If I had to start with a brilliant idea and then create a list of things needed, I would probably never get around to creating any decorations!
- If you can see that some quest item is cool – take your time with continuing the mission! You can very often multiply their number after the 20h cooldown, or after talking to the NPC again, but after completing the mission it will be too late!
- Don’t underestimate the free items in the depo! 😀 Players often throw away a lot of nice and, from the point of view of the game, useless items that can turn out to be priceless in decorations! That’s the way I got e.g. Sun Mosaic. 😉
- Keep the depo in order and sort the items in a way that is convenient for you. That makes it so much easier to collect decorative items and it also reduces the time spent on possible new decorations.
items that do not stack, or that I have a lot of
items sorted by theme (art, valentine, Christmas, Halloween, and party)
random stackable items
Ryocrits’ floral decoration.
Monzcarro Murcatto: Do what you like and trust your own head and heart. Use other people’s decorations as inspiration and copy things as an exercise to see how they are done, but don’t pass off other people’s ideas as your own. Talk with other decorators and be generous with sharing ideas and items. Ask questions. Do not limit yourself to following trends but try different things and see what you find interesting. Keep a tidy decoration backpack.
Ryocrits: Don’t fixate on meeting standards from what you see from other decorators. Do whatever you’re comfortable with and feel happy with, decoration has an infinite range of features you can enjoy, and all you can do with it will be enjoyed by others, so yeah, just enjoy!
Amy Meow: My advice would be first to have the items well organized in containers, for example, use backpacks for each type of item: for pedestals, for plushies (you can even sub-organize by category: teddys or bears plushies, plushies of Orcsoberfest, animal plushies…), backpacks for gems, food, etc.. even organizing things by color is a good idea too, so it will be easier for you to find the things you are going to decorate with, if you have a lot of store items put them in an exclusive depot box for those items and also organize them in the same way in backpacks, each type of carpet, furniture, plants, etc. The store items visually appear as boxes in the store inbox so it will be very frustrating not to find things in the store inbox, so if you do this, when you have your decoration in mind, you only go to the depo for the store items you need and that way you will know where they are and you will save a lot of time, believe me!
Also, decorate with the style which you feel most identified with, do not try to impress anyone. I think it is better and you enjoy it more when you decorate to your style and to your liking. You don’t need high-value items to obtain beautiful results!
Finally, remember that there are players that play with and without the lighting effects, so don’t forget to add items that give light SQMs and stuff that makes the items more noticeable due to shines to give it that cool touch!
One of the latest decorations created by Amy Meow.
Pyzaa: I think that the best option would be to let your imagination run wild, create something that you like very much, or get inspired by other decorations of famous decorators if someone is less creative. The most important decorative aspect is having a lot of creature products, quest items, and valuables – this gives you a wide variety of possibilities. Remember – you don’t have to spend a fortune to make perfect decorations!
Do you have any habits or tricks that help you create a decoration?
Monzcarro Murcatto: I always start with an empty room. When I decorate for other people I ask them lots of questions about them as a person and their tastes in art or films or pop culture and what they would like their Tibia house to look like. If I am out of ideas (which happens often) I start with making a carpet in a colour I feel fits the house and the owner. Sometimes I just place basic furniture in the rooms to get a feel of the flow of the house. I try to imagine myself actually being in the rooms. When I do picture decorations I sketch out a rough outline of the motive I am going to make to see how it fits the space. The important thing is to start doing something because that gets my imagination going.
Monzi’s submission for the “Halloween Decoration” Contest 2020 by TibiaRoyal.com & TibiaHome.com
Mikolaj: I don’t really have any habits but I usually enjoy having objects like Areca Palms and the leaves from Venore to feel good with the final effect.
One of the latest decorations created by Mikolaj.
Tynusiiaa: It is much easier to decorate for me when I have pushable items around. Not everyone has enough money to be able to buy everything for Tibia Coins, so it is much easier to fill the space when you use the objects. Of course, I also have my favorite ideas for stacks that I often duplicate and some favorite themes – it is much easier for me to do something nature or pirate-related than, for example, some horror decorations.
Tynusiiaa’s house in Yalahar – “Luminous Arc 2”.
Flor Belina: Not really. I always try to do different things and try to innovate, since I participate a lot in fansite contests related to house decorations, which is one of the things I like the most about the game. If I have to choose something that is repeated when I decorate, I always use light effects according to what I want to do and then, choose the range of colors to use. I also like to place many details in the decoration, something that I always try to do.
Flor Belina’s guildhall decoration.
Kriiz: Talking about tricks… I must confess that sometimes I left some SQMs without carpets, haha! I don’t want to spend more Tibia Coins, but no one can notice so works for me. My habits when I decorate are: always try to respect the spaces because I don’t like to fulfill rooms or create decorations in front of the doors, I try to have balance in colors, heights and I think the most important one… Put some stuff on the floor like Book Pages. Mad Froth, Bones, feathers, or something to make my decorations look a little bit messy 🙂 Hey! But not too much :P!
What aspects should we pay attention to while choosing a perfect house?
Divine’Angel: The way I would choose my house has been changing throughout the years. My first serious house was Lucky Lane 1 in Venore and I lived there for many years. I loved that house because you could see all of it from the outside. However, within the time when I started getting more expensive items, it became too small to display all of them. Nowadays, as I don’t play anymore and I only do decorations that are my Instagram or TibiaGoals.com content, I want my house to fit the Instagram size, lol. However stupid that sounds, I pick a house that will serve me for content creation. That is why I got the Wood Avenue 11 in Edron – it was perfectly square-shaped and big enough to fit all my items so I could screenshot all of my main floor and post it straight on my Instagram. However, the walls in Edron and Thais are a real pain in the a*s for a decorator so I finally switched to the Marble Lane 1 in Liberty Bay as it is both big, looks good on Instagram and I love the elegant look of its white walls and floors. I also used to have the Lonely Seaside Hostel in Carlin for a while because it was huge and I really wanted to be able to have Areca palms and leaves but I realized that this kind of decoration is far behind me now and almost 10 years of decorating with pushable objects may finally become boring. I think decorating without them is also much more challenging, as it should be for a decorator this much experience.
Divine’Angel’s house in Edron – “Wood Avenue 11”.
Norelli: I am the owner of two houses and one guild house. When selecting each of them, I relied on different criteria. I chose my first house because of its location, size, and layout of rooms, including a large balcony, and bright colors on the walls and floors. I wanted a large house in a good location to display my collected items and prizes. My second house is the least visited by me because of its location – it is located on the Lion Bastion. Nevertheless, it charmed me with its appearance, so I hope that in the future I will show you the decorations made in it. And the last one, not a house, but a guild house – Snake Tower in Thais. I chose it because I needed a place to implement decorating ideas for myself and my friends, and it has 616 SQM. I was captivated by the layout of rooms of various sizes, in which we can easily spread carpets anywhere, as well as a huge and amazing roof that will accommodate any decoration. To sum up, I think that when choosing a house, we must consider what we care about the most (location, size, appearance, layout of rooms, balconies, gardens, etc.). Knowing the most important features that our house should have, it will be easier for us to choose the top 5-10 houses that will best meet our requirements.
Norelli’s house in Yalahar – “Luminous Arc 1”.
Vigorouz: Personally, I choose houses with the most viewing foot traffic to make the best out of my dedicated decorations, It’s always great when people map click and run by your house just to come back and walk around the house to look at it. But depending on how you plan to decorate your house, the layout of the house should work with your idea. When going into choosing and decorating a house you need to have a plan depending on a theme or style you might have in mind and to find a house that works best for that.
Vigurouz’s house in Edron – “Central Circle 1 & 2”
Decoration Shana: What kind of shape you’re creating or what distribution you’re going to use especially if you’re going for a fun shape or a more house-looking layout :), and most important of all is that you’re having fun and enjoying, do not let anyone dictate you on what you should decorate your house like, or take the advice of something that you wouldn’t like! You’d be lying to your true self and probably wouldn’t like it in the end!
One of the most recent decorations made by Decoration Shana – Cormaya, “Castle of the White Dragon”.
One of the latest decorations created by Dracek.
Dracek: When choosing a house, we should pay attention to its location and shape. Personally, I have always tried to choose a house that does not depend on a neighbor. A very important thing that we should pay attention to is the availability of pushable items – items/furniture that can be obtained in individual cities. Thanks to them, we are able to fill our house without a major financial contribution.
Milny: In my opinion, houses should be white because to me the color white resembles an empty piece of paper that you can color however you like. Also, white can be combined with absolutely anything. That’s why I am always at Yalahar or Liberty Bay. When I’m going to buy a house I first think of all the decoration possibilities that could go in that space, and if I’m convinced by it I buy the house.
Milny’s house in Yalahar – “Radiant Plaza 1”.
Pyzaa: My first perfect home was in Edron (Wood Avenue 7). I owned it for a very long time. In those days, I was guided by the location, which was perfect! Everyone, who went to the Magic Academy would stop in front of my house and admire the colorful decorations that attracted attention, my house also had to have a large garden. Unfortunately, over the years this house has become too small for me. I need much more space for my decorations! Currently, I don’t own any house, but I really liked the guild house “Ivy Cottage”, where I often decorate on the occasion of different deco-related contests, and I stay there most often because Liberty Bay is the city that I like the most. Therefore, when choosing the perfect house, follow your heart!
Pyzaa’s house in Edron – “Wood Avenue 7”.
Which city is your favorite and why?
Norelli: My favorite city is Yalahar because of its splendor and golden-white architecture. I’m also in fond of Carlin because I had my first houses there. The great advantage of living on the FACC land is access to furniture and items that can only be “pushed”. That allows you to create slightly different decorations than the others with just a little effort.
One of the most famous Divine’Angel’s floral decoration.
Divine’Angel: If it comes to a favorite city, you should perhaps consider the style of the houses in it. In my case, it would be Venore – even despite being dark, it still has very elegant walls and floors. Another city that I like just as much is Liberty Bay. I like neat and bright spaces that don’t define your decorations. The white walls there, are as elegant as those in Venore, just brighter. It’s quite interesting that I like Liberty Bay for the look of its houses but at the same time I am not really fond of Yalahar. Yalahar houses also have white walls that I like so much but they also have very bizarre shapes and I think that, unfortunately, no one goes to Yalahar so much these days. So yeah, I would say Venore for the nature-based decorations with leaves and areca palms because their dark green color goes great with stony, greyish walls, and Liberty Bay for the square house shapes and elegant white walls that make your house look neat and fancy!
Makadamia: My favorite city for as long as I can remember is Rathleton. It was introduced shortly after I started my adventure with Tibia and I immediately liked the steampunk atmosphere and the dark blue walls. In addition, the surfaces of the houses give a lot of room for creativity. The city also offers a wide (though incomplete, as in the case of the mainland) selection of pushable objects that can be used to enhance your decoration, such as Areca Palm – one of my favorite decorative items! If I had only one house, it would be there!
Makadamia’s house in Rathleton – “Wallside Lane 1”
Flor Belina: To live, Yalahar. I like very much the architecture and the pushable ítems that are there to decorate. Edron and Thais are also my favorite cities. I love the pushable items that I consider essential to have for good decoration.
Kriiz: Unfortunately, in Rathleton there are no leaves. I love them, but Areca Palms works too! I love those grey walls and the dark and deep ambient light from that city. It’s funny because I like some purple/pink items, however, I don’t like something too girly, full of white walls and bright light… So Rathleton fits perfectly for me. It’s a great balance between cute & dark, yet not too cute and not too dark, haha!
Kriiz’s house in Rathleton – “Old Heritage Estate”.
SPECIAL THANKS
We would like to thank from the bottom of our hearts all the decorators who took the time to answer our questions and for their willingness to share their experience with beginners to make this adventure easier for them!
Amy Meow, Decoration Shana, Dracek, Flor Belina, Kriiz, Milny, Mikolaj, Monzcarro Murcatto, Norelli, Pyzaa, Ryocrits, Tynusiiaa, Vigorouz
The decoration used to make the header was made by Norelli & Mikolaj.
prepared by:
Divine’Angel
Makadamia