I've built all three houses with all the wings other than the storage area with a few different iterations of furnishings in each one.

Just wondering if you built your own furniture what, if any, did you omit?

For me, I'm not a huge fan of the random sacks, and I especially dislike barrels on their sides. So I opted out of the barrels in the kitchen area of the main hall and the group of barrels in the kitchen wing (the ones in the corners were OK but not the group with that unusable crate next to one set of table and chairs).

I didn't add the worktable and grindstone to the armory or outside, and I didn't put the anvil in the main hall since I do all my smithing in the cellar.

I saw a pic of how someone didn't add the tables under the stairs, and now I wish I would have done that too.

What do you wish you could add?

Of course I'd like more weapon racks or single weapon plaques along the lines of Vlindrel and Honeyside. 1 more large display case would have been nice, even if it replaced the small case in the cellar or the one in the trophy room. And as I've seen a few people mention, a bookshelf cabinet like the ones in the Arcanium would have been awesome.

I let my steward furnish my entryway, because the scripting for a nice bench and rug was left out. I wanted that so it is fully furnished. A bit crowded for my taste, but not bad. I think too many large cupboards/cabinets (with accompanying barrels and sacks) were placed too close together, so I left a couple of large ones unbuilt in the upper main hall, particularly the large shelf that would face the north tower door. It felt way too cramped, and had too much crap on the shelves to be of any real use.

I also left out some cupboards with display case on top on the upper and lower floors. What good are display case you can't see inside of? You can't leave them open, some things will come out of them on their own. I haven't built the armor mannequin on the upper main hall, I'm still thinking about it, nor the one in the cellar. In the cellar I also left out the low table in the shrine room, looks much better when you build the mead barrels to have that open.

In the dining hall I built the one square table under the west stairs, with the small mead barrel, but not the other, too much junk with it. I left out some other stuff around the house, can't really remember what all. I just know if you build every single thing you have a crowded mess, in my opinion. Kitchen I left out the same barrel grouping you did tacoman, as well as the small low table that has a big kettle on it. No desk in the main hall back room either. I left that room a bit sparse, but better that than all the junk.

I also removed all stupid buckets and brooms.....

I will try to post some pics tomorrow, if I can.

I found if I fully furnished a house it was much too cluttered for me. I eventually settled on minimal containers and anything that put chairs in for the NPCs to sit on. I omitted chairs from bedrooms though, since I am still scarred from Lydia sitting in my Breezehome bedroom. You can get both chairs in the kitchen without having to get both tables, and the house feels more open and practical if I don't put in any furniture that juts into any movement space. I cleaned out all the clutter as well, and I have no weapon racks, dummies or plaques. I have to remember to enter the house at least once every 10 days so that the infuriating clutter won't respawn.

I found the design of the house to be frustratingly impractical though. I would have preferred one crafting space with all the crafting furniture and a lot of neat containers, instead of everything spread all over the place. The safes in the basemant are awesome, but I wouldn't put the unhealthy smeltering and forging stuff down there, especially when I sleep in my coffin, so the safes are not where I'd use them for storage.

If I had my ideal layout I'd have a luxurious, secret 'bedroom' with my coffin in the second room in the basemant, and keep the altars and add safes for artifacts in the first room of the basemant where the ladder is. Then I'd have one large crafting room upstairs with a kitchen and a library with the kind of storage that the CoW library has. I like organising my books into containers that have no limit to how much you put into them, rather than the limited way you can organise them on shelves.

I furnished most of the houses a bit different, usually one would get all the smithing stuff downstairs and two would have it left out or just the forge in there for other uses. If I did not have it as a smithing area I tried to leave all the shelves down there empty and still get the two normal chests, but did not always succeed at that. The shrine and mead area I liked, but usually left the shrines out, just built the shrine base.


I took a dislike to barrels and sacks and apart from the small house/entryway and cellar, often left them out of all rooms if it was an option, left the tables out under some of the stairs, left the enchanting table out of the enchanting tower, left the main hall backroom safe and anvil out of most houses. Left most of the chests and the safe out of the storage room, could not get rid of the two barrels on the table in there though. Never put the smithing junk in any of the armory wings I built. The library, greenhouse and trophy area wings I always furnished fully. If I build any more houses I might consider leaving some furniture out of the main hall bedroom area, the double bed area had too many wardrobes.

Both my characters got stuck with the cellar workbench at Windstad Manor, I would love to be able to get rid of it. I would love to be able to add a couple of single weapon racks to the small house, and some torch holders/brackets to the cellar. And of course a way to get rid of all the junk would really make me happy.

Like aussie, I didn't put the safe and anvil in any backroom, nor an alchemy table in the tower (have it in the main hall). I left out barrels (junk) wherever possible, hate those things. I left the shelves in the smithing area of the cellar empty except for the awesome safes.

Current character, Maren Hawk'sdotter will not be building at Lakeview, but will more than likely build only the small house at Winstad, with fishery.

Not the best pics, I have to use phone camera, but will give the idea:

http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/y418/kestrelhawk/Skyrim%20pics/kitchen1.jpg

http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/y418/kestrelhawk/Skyrim%20pics/mms_picture2.jpg

http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/y418/kestrelhawk/Skyrim%20pics/mainhall.jpg

http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/y418/kestrelhawk/Skyrim%20pics/uppermainhallbed.jpg

http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/y418/kestrelhawk/Skyrim%20pics/cellar.jpg

http://i1273.photobucket.com/albums/y418/kestrelhawk/Skyrim%20pics/mms_picture1.jpg

I didn't overfurnish any of my rooms. I have the bedroom wing, alchemy tower, and kitchen obviously.

I did that too. The broom & bucket on the low table in the entryway makes absolutely no sense to me.

No square table under the stairs on the armory/kitchen/library side looks so much cleaner. I wish I would have omitted that on one of my houses.

I'm a terrible hoarder. The last time I moved houses, I took ~7K lbs with me, 10K the time before that. So I tend to build all the shelves for display purposes. I clear them all off and fill them back up, but I come back to the house so often, respawns generally aren't an issue. Of course all the non-interactable clutter drives me crazy. My characters would never put a deer skull in their trophy room, or a hook on the main hall back room table or, worst of all, that satchel on the bedroom bottom shelf (although a 3-prong candlestick does fill up that space nicely).

Does anyone have or has anyone seen a good decorating video, preferably in a HF house? I don't know why I enjoy decorating so much, but I think I spend as much if not more time setting up my houses as I do questing.

Definitely need more unglitched bookshelves. I can't put anything more on mine, despite it showing I can put 24 more! I lost a couple the last time I put books in, but not the good skill books.

The bookshelves with glass doors (that are really containers) look so much tidier and could provide virtually unlimited storage. I think you are supposed to get 300 or so books in the library, but I exceeded that count a long time ago. Plus I like to sort books into categories and it's easier to do with a set of containers. I ended up using all of the cupboards in the main hall double bedroom to house my main book collection, with the notes sorted into the smaller containers.

Your pics are really good quality for a phone. And they reminded me that I have never put in any taxidermy in any house (oddly enough the world is so violent, but I still find it gross) and I covered the dead rabbit in the kitchen with a cauldron. We are Vampires and don't like to be reminded that normal folk eat dead things.

Book cases Bethesda, hear us?! Proper, good, roomy, book cases!

Thanks, it's a pretty good camera, but a great television! I like taking the pics.

Y'know, now that I think about it, it would be kind of cool if there were a few different furnishing options available for vampires besides the coffin alcove in the cellar.And vampires that don't like the 'dead' things in the house should NOT have the steward furnish for them.

Edit: I haven't tried to role play a vampire yet, not sure I will because I don't know that I can...will take some thinking.

In the second house I left out most of the barrels. And I only built the smithing items in the cellar. I'm not a fan of the random sacks either.

Some normal bookcases would be great. There's only one in the house (at least in mine) unless you build the library. And some display / storage options for other items that aren't as frustrating to use.

I'd like to see us get the ability to remove some of the items you put in (like you do with the workbenches).

Mine was designed by Habitat......................

I don't think the houses needs all the furniture or all containers to feel furnished. I am going to avoid some things the next time around. In the Storage Rooms, the Square Table just gets in the way and looks like a mess. The barrels on their sides looks kind of messy too. Same with adding barrels and other misc things to the Library and Enchanting and Alchemy Rooms (which can really be storage rooms by themselves)

It would be nice if someone had a simulation somewhere so we could see the results of the furniture placement before we choose it.

I did lots and lots of saves, I learned from my first go-round. I am pretty happy with what I have now.

Edit: I should have said, lots of saves and reloads! lol

I almost forgot too, some pieces don't look like what you see at the workbench, so always check. For example, what is listed as an end table in the cellar, is a long low table and it gets stuffed into one of the built in shelves in the forge room, and adds a buttload of junk (sacks & stuff) with it!

That long chest that goes on one of the shelves in the cellar smithing area was a hard one to not build. It displays in the preview as a normal chest, and the list will be randomly generated, so you can never tell which of the three chests it is. I had to save each time before building a chest and reload each time the thing got built, I only wanted the two normal chests. i built no side tables in the cellar to get more space, although that side table near the table and chairs still appeared.

Yes, that chest too! I only needed the one regular chest in the forge room, and kept the built in shelves empty for displays. (I will manage those darn flop-jawed troll skulls sooner or later) No side tables here either.

I put troll skulls in all my houses.Even before HF.I usually put them on top of the storage chest in the bedrooms.Don't know why.