Diary - January, 18th, 2025

Hello everyone 🤗

First of all, thank you so much for your comments and feedback on my last diary post! 🥰 It’s always such a joy to read your thoughts. 😊 Many of you mentioned that you’d love to see a new shabby chic collection, and guess what? That happens to be one of my absolute favourite styles! 😱😍 However, I’ve always been hesitant to dive into it...

Why, you ask? Well, shabby chic is a style that demands an incredible level of detail—both in texture and design—which makes it a challenge for 3D content creation for a video game. It takes much more time to produce, which means fewer items available for download in a given month. Plus, creating furniture in this style while keeping the meshes low or even mid-poly is... tricky, to say the least. But here we are—I couldn’t resist exploring the possibility!

MGDéco

I have to admit, I’ve been surrounded by shabby chic inspiration lately. I often visit a charming local boutique, MGDéco just for the pleasure of it. It’s run by Marc, who has been passionately dedicated to this style for over 20 years.

He carries some of my favourite brands, like Mathilde M, Blanc Mariclo, and Clayre & Eef. Honestly, everything there is a dream! 😍😍😍 Unfortunately, shabby chic doesn’t quite come with an Ikea price tag 😅 Hopefully, in The Sims 4, "motherlode" exists 😂

 Mathilde M

 Blanc Mariclo

 Clayre & Eef

This week, I started putting together a mini mood board for a potential shabby chic collection. I’ve found so much inspiration in dollhouse miniatures, and one of my biggest influences has been the creations of "Petit Huset," as you can see in the photo below.

Petit Huset

Aren’t they stunning? Their work perfectly captures the romantic, vintage charm that makes this style so enchanting 🥰

DIYVintageArt

I’ve spent hours researching and preparing resources for this potential project. From finding the perfect Annie Sloan-inspired paint colours to experimenting with Substance Painter to create new textures, I’ve been diving deep. I even looked into purchasing licences for materials to ensure this set feels as authentic and detailed as possible.

 On top of that, I’ve been practising in Shapr3D this week to practice curves and rounded edges— trying not to explode the polycount 😬 This has been a fascinating learning process, and I feel like I’m getting closer to creating the kind of furniture that could become a new collection 🤞

 Montaelis10

Of course, I’m still very far from being able to offer you furniture with intricate carvings, as that level of detail alone can easily represent 20k polys (on top of a long learning process)!

What do you think? Would you be as excited as I am for this collection? Let me know your thoughts—it’s always wonderful to hear from you ❤❤❤

With love ❤
Mélissa a.k.a Sims4Luxury