Adventures in Design Home

Reimagining life as an interior decorator to while away the hours!

Emma Vincent asks: How do you handle boredom?

I rarely get bored — just because there are not nearly as many hours as I might wish for my work in addition to writing and reading on Medium!

But, one can only do so much with words in any given day without going a little batshit crazy. So when that feeling strikes, I head to my one and only game on my iPad: Design Home. That is, when I haven’t played for a while.

I only discovered this game at the beginning of 2018 — probably a year after it started. At that time, I was still working on my book, The Routledge Guidebook to Paine’s Rights of Man. Let me tell you, Design Home was initially addicting — and I played steadfastly for nine months, sometimes for at least two hours a day! (It’s almost a wonder I managed to complete the book by early December.)

For those unfamiliar with the game, this is what the home page looks like:

The object of the game is to get a 5.0 out of 5.0 on your design for a room — although a 4.0 will still earn you a prize. There are certain requirements you will have accept for a challenge, for instance, using various pieces of furniture by specified designers and colors.

Here’s an example:

You will notice that the requirement calls for a bronze modern natural sideboard. If you click the add filter, you will find a selection of pieces that are suitable.

Not for the anally retentive only! (Deep pockets help)

Usually, the best designs are the most color coordinated. I only realized sometime later that you have to be pretty anal to do well: for instance, the wood in a tabletop usually has to match the wood in the framing of the room as well as that in the accent table, sofa and chair legs. Furniture colors should be matched too, i.e., the hues of your blues should be exactly the same. Don’t you dare mix a cobalt blue with a navy blue or aquamarine! Furniture size should be proportionate too: for instance, do not put a small cocktail table in a large space. And make sure the lamps are just the right size for the accent tables.

Notice the prices btw: these are real life prices, but…you use play money by using real money to buy “diamonds” which can be converted to cash. By now, you will also have noticed the irony of using real money to buy play money to buy cyberfurniture, cyberart (in a literal sense), and floor decor (plants, pillows, etc.). If you are absolutely intent on getting the exact hues of colors for your room, this usually means you will shell out money to buy matching pieces. And this is where things can get a bit dangerous as you fork out an occasional $9.99, $15.99, etc. up to $199.00 to purchase more cybergoods. The highest amount I ever spent at one time for these diamonds was probably around $20.99.

But the problem is that buying piecemeal diamonds can add up very quickly — and that’s apart from the mini-packages of combined furniture, wall art, and floor decor that are featured every two or three weeks and cost around $2.99–3.99. I once found that I had spent over a $150 in one month so decided to quit for a while. As long as I collect my daily dose of 500 diamonds (free!), I can begin to rack up a sufficient sum to play another round six or so months down the line. That’s why I only tend to play for about 2–3 months before my diamonds and cash shrink. I also tend to stick to challenges where I don’t have to buy too many pieces — unless there is something truly compelling (i.e., furniture I want to try). Some better endowed will spend hundreds of dollars a month on this game: yes, you read correctly!

Scoring

Now, look at the top column in that photo with the bubbles where you see three numbers. The first is my overall score: 4.83/5.00 — this is my highest average so far! The second is the amount of “cash” I have and the third “diamonds.” When I run out of cash, diamonds can be used as a replacement.

A score is accomplished through round of voting for a design. You pick one or the other featured in a pair — and when your design has gone through enough rounds of voting, it gets assigned a score.

As I mentioned earlier, a score over a 4 gets a prize. Anything under does not. (In this respect, it’s not unlike those AP exams where you only get college credit for scores over a 4.) During my first two weeks, I earned lots of low 4’s and high 3’s. After some 9 months of playing and learning some tricks of the trade from relative pros like other interior decorators and jewelry designers, my average went up to around 4.4- 4.5.

Many players ultimately aspire to appear on the Leaderboard — la creme de la creme: but you have to have at least a 4.92 average — which 55 players are fortunate enough to get out of over 1,000,000 players! So at 4.83, I still have a ways to go.

But like most scores and rankings — or boosted pieces on Medium, there is an element of unpredictability. I’ve seen some very lousy designs get over a 4.0 and some great ones under a 4. Granted, this doesn’t happen very often, but just enough for one to notice. When some friends in a DH Facebook group discussed this, we decided to see if we would all get the same score for the same design: using the same furniture, floor decor, etc. for a given challenge. Our scores ranged between 4.2 and 5.0! Nonetheless, it is striking that no one got under a 4.

So here, I want to show some of my 5 designs — and some which I really liked even though they did not get a 5.

Here are the 5's:

As you see here, I stuck to a very basic pattern of white and gold, except for the candles on the side table. I used a blue to pick up the bluish background.

I liked the olive greens here — again, almost perfectly coordinated.

I was somewhat surprised at the score because the towel and plant did not have the exact same orange as those in the picture and the towel/blanket beside the chair.

Yeah, this was totally coordinated with the browns being almost the same shade. Even the plants fit in perfectly.

I loved the rich reds and browns in this Mediterranean look. (Notice the kitty!)

I love tufted sofas — and the overall decor of aquamarine and white. The white kitties with the coordinating coverlet make it all the better! In case you’re curious, here are my real life Charlie and (recently passed) Georgie:

This is just a sprinkling of my more recent 5’s. Now, here are a few which were not 5’s but I liked at least as much:

I really like the color combo of brown, teal, and hints of peach.

I gotta admit these ivories and taupes would be truly impractical for a slob like me. But this is one of my favorites; I like to think it’s quite elegant! I can definitely imagine Charlie and Georgie here.

I couldn’t find a proper brown floor decor to create symmetry on the right; so I used the white potted plant. That probably shaved off a few points.

The following is another one of my all-time favorites. Yes, it’s over the top glam (prolly too much for me in real life, lol)!

Do any of you play this game? What are your strategies?