Using The Sims to Design My Real Kitchen 

As someone with white cabinets: go with green! Everything shows up on white and they constantly look dirty. The green is gorgeous. Go with it!

Just don't choose tiles that have a texture. My home growing up had textured tiles and dirt got in the crevices that wouldn't come out no matter how much scrubbing you did.

“Trying to make my kitchen in the sims using CC” would be a cool video so you can maybe get more accurate colors of what you want!

On your stand mixer "clashing" with the green cabinets... most greens go well together especially if they're in the same tonal family (e.g. warm / cool / neutral). So go ahead & mix different shades of green, I think it'll look good. You could always get a few hand towels, art pieces, or other accessories that tie in the different shades of green. Looking up color palettes that mix different shades of green (or any other colors) can also be helpful for deciding how to mix & match them.

I am aware that Kayla's name is Sims, but seeing it say: Sims - Kitchen on the plan is great for this video

it’s all fun and game until Kayak realizes she can’t landscape her real house using debug 😳😲

hi kayla - love the vid and congrats in the new home!! as a licensed interior designer, let me give you a word of advice: choose the things that you are in LOVE with. don’tworry about the voice (or people) that say “but what if you get sick of it” because guess what - the people who choose to do it safe are the ones that get sick of it, and the people who choose the things they love never do. don’t be afraid to take some “risks” and choosing to use colour and texture for big things in your home, because those are the things that make spaces incredible and reflective of you. make your home yours, and don’t worry about what future you might feel like in ten years time.

Maybe a cc collab where you design all the items like “Kayla’s Kitchen Kit”? Could be fun 👀

Go green!we did our kitchen in a "wine botle" kinda green with white counters and white ultra glossy tiles and it has been the best choice ever made

You know you’re an adult when you get totally hyped for Kayla’s SPICE RACK

The spice cabinet right next to the oven isn't great for the spices themselves due to heat causing the volatile oils to degrade. Ideally spices should be stored away from the heat emitting cooking devices.

"We don't need that much storage" she says... Kitchens take on a life of their own, I promise you. XD

This is why the sims is so helpful you can design what your house looks like before you do anything

To everyone who's also dreaming of a kitchen aid kit : there's already a CC version by sixam which can also be used as a default replacement of the cupcake maker 😍

Just a tip - put some light above the kitchen counters. We have kitchen with similar layout and especially at evening, when it's dark and you turn the lights on, doing something on the counter/stove you throw shadows and can see very badly at whatever you're doing 😅

I’ve seen cabinets that have a shelf that lifts up and out where people have their mixers. That way you don’t have to worry about it clashing but you don’t have to lift it up onto the counter

Yessss I cannot wait to see more of this with her new house!

SHE'S DONE IT. SHE'S ACTUALLY DONE IT.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed but your ideal design has elements seen in both typical American and British homes it’s like a cute mix of u and Dan 💕

My mother's dedicated spice rack is in front of the range hood. Looks like another cupboard, is just really thin and fits spices. Oil bottles would normally already be too large. In my old kitchen (the one we're currently replacing) there was a cabinet beneath the countertop that held a bread cutting machine (I'm German, we love our breads.) that you could swivel (?) out and up to counter height. We'll use this mechanism for our kitchen aid. This way it won't block work space and it won't just sit somewhere waiting to be used because it's too heavy to be brought out for small shit you can just whip up by hand. Figure out which appliances will stay on the counter, give them each their own outlet in addition to free outlets. Add at least one more than you think you'll need. Don't forget the island.

Kayla, standing in her real life house: So the floorplan was a reeeeal struggle with this one, it took me ages to figure out

I think we've all renovated our irl house in the sims 😂

As a person living without a walk-in pantry, it works totally fine. We just have a floor to ceiling cabinet working as one and it’s very convenient!

As someone who has grown up in a "starter home" (aka smaller square footage, yet a good amount of storage and space), was involved in the renovations to put it on the market, and now being involved in designing my family's "forever home," here are some things that I think were/are amazing details/design choices we have made: 1. I agree with the decision to remove the walk-in closet in the kitchen. That smaller pantry will serve you well to start, and you can always add shelving in your garage if you ever need to expand your food storage. 2. Adding the corner cabinet up top is an amazing idea! We had a similar space in my childhood home and it was incredibly useful. 3. If you have the budget for it, get soft-close drawer slides/hinges. It makes a big difference. 4. Since you no longer have the wall separating the living room from the kitchen, an idea that was implemented in my old house was having the ceiling fan in the living room and recessed lighting in the kitchen. Overhead lighting in the family space makes all the difference, and using recessed lighting in the kitchen really makes the space feel more open. IDK if this is even feasible for you, but again, just an idea. 5. As for the cabinet color, go with something that you will love and enjoy for at least five years. Also, if having natural wood cabinets is even a glimmer in your mind, go for it at the start. It's a lot easier to paint the cabinets later than it is to try to sand and stain them later. 6. As for the flooring, either go for a vinal plank life LifeProof, or use a real hardwood. LifeProof flooring does have the benefit of being waterproof though, which might be something beneficial in a house in general, especially if you plan on having kids in the future. 7. Finally, use a hard flooring like wood, tile, vinal, laminate, etc, across the entire house, even in the bedrooms. It is much easier to keep clean than wall to wall carpet, and rugs are more easily cleaned and replaced as needed.

Looks great! Quick word of warning: you might want to reconsider having your spice cabinet so close to your oven as that kind of exposure to heat can damage and weaken the spices.

My tip for tile in the kitchen: DO NOT GET BEVELED TILE!!!! The idiot who built the house I live in put beveled tile on the wall where the stove is, and let me tell you, it’s a pain to clean. All the vapor and grease from the stuff you cook and fry get impregnated on the grooves of the tile. Save yourself the pain and time of cleaning this nonsense and get nice and flat tiles!

For me it's fits more the light green colour...I think maybe with the darker one you will get tired quite soon....

Those beside-the-stove spice racks seem like a great idea, until all your spices/oils start going off from the heat of the stove...

Go for green and if in a few years you're sick of it, you can paint over it!

I’m *pretty* sure you can get those exact subway tiles from Home Depot. I fell in love with them in an architects house a few years ago and went on the hunt! We just built our home, moved in last month so this type of thing is totally my jam. Keep in mind too, cabinets are paintable. If you grow out of the sage green in 10 years, you’re literally a few cans of paint away from a brand new kitchen.

I absolutely loveeeee the idea of recreating your vision of what you want in your home in the sims. It might not perfectly match but even so it looks so fun! I would love to see more videos like this 😖

I just love that the architectural drawings say "SIMS - KITCHEN" because it's actually your name 😄

Not gonna lie, when you were talking about the color of the cabinets I was thinking green too. But more of a jewel-toned green that would go with black hardware. But with a sage green I'd say maybe a brass or copper tone if not white to match the counters and pop!

As an interior designer I say you’re kitchen vision is refined and simple and easily adaptable later, it’s always tough to not to go trendy when it’s everywhere but classic white tiles go with everything. Green is in right now but colors don’t go out of style despite what the fads are, how you style it is what matters!

So my parents' home burned a couple years ago. My dad has his own style, but my mom and I are pretty similar in what we like, but quite different from dad. They decided to rebuild a smaller house on the same land. My mom wasn't able to go pick out stuff for the new house with him because she's disabled and didn't feel up to it. So for a few months, my dad and I were all over the place trying to pick out literally everything from the ground up. And I too used the Sims to help plan it all out. I think it turned out beautiful, and they're very proud of it.

The Sorry Girls did their office kitchen with tile like that, and did a kinda more “organic” tile like you were saying you want. It’s in their Loft Vibes Season 4 playlist. They showed some of their decision process, so maybe it’ll be helpful?

Green cabinets, natural wood counter tops, vertical stacked white tiles. With the white and the natural wood your other green thing you were talking about won’t look as weird

Wow it’s such a full circle moment- simsie decorating houses in the sims and making money from it so she can design her dream kitchen in real life, while also using the game for inspiration. I love that for you lol

Good choice to put the range hood instead of the microwave. Have you ever seen the Scott brothers tv show?? from there I 've pick up some good ideas ;)

Don’t know if anyone else has said this yet but the numbers in front of the cabinets drawn in the plan are how wide it will be! So the tray and spice cabinets are both 9” wide :)

So you'll probably never see this comment, but firstly congrats on buying a house! Secondly, I highly recommend having the bottom corner cabinet have a lazy-susan built into it. That is what we have in my house and it is super useful. I promise you will appreciate being able to spin the shelves around to easily reach your items. :)

I think this would have been a good opportunity to go CC shopping first to find the things you actually want

Very here for this series! I bought a fixer in the summer and ended up gutting most of it. Have been steadily working away at it for the last six months and I love seeing other people go through the process too. My flooring looks very similar to the kind you want! I went with LVP because I couldn't afford wood haha. As for the kitchen, I think it's definitely trendy but to be honest so are all-white kitchens. Either way in 20 years time I'm sure people will consider it super dated so I say go with what you love right now!

My input: Take your countertop, and use that as the backsplash. No grout lines/easier to clean. Use the vertical tile in the bathrooms. But love the look of it! Check out bamboo and cork flooring, too!

Hear me out for the backsplash: geometric white tile, like a hex or honeycomb. What you're describing for your colour scheme is very clean, especially if you're not into the idea of a flashy hardware for your cabinet pulls/sink. A geometric tile would add some intrigue/"texture" to your kitchen, especially if you're not doing open shelves like your designer suggested in that corner (i'd imagine they'd be wood) to "break" up the space. I'm very much into the idea of the dark green cabinets too! Would look killer with light wood floors/accents (chairs, cutting boards, etc).

Go with your gut and get the green cabinets and stacked tiles, I think they will look beautiful. It's your home, make it something you'll love! I love this lil home planning series, would definitely watch more of this type of videos. Happy New Year!

I’ve been watching a lot of good bones so I feel like an expert right now. The green cabinets are *chefs kiss* and obviously wood floors are superior. I think silver would look best for hardware or even white hardware to match all the other white. For the tile if you don’t want to go with the vertical but want something different you could do fishbone or like chevron tile. In conclusion I’m excited for you and I would love to see more of this process.

I would love to see more. The idea of a simmer (who remodles sims builds all the time) remodeling her own home, love it. Your already so excited doing this.

There's an interior design rule about the layout of the fridge, sink and stove that it has to be in a triangle in the drawing, I'd angle the sink 45 degrees on out left on the Island to achieve that golden triangle. It makes workflow in the kitchen easier, since the fridge and stove need access. Also a slight note, but spices don't last as long when heated. My parents made this mistake by putting the heating panel under the spice cabinet. It irked me since I was the one that cooked the majority of the meals, but it also meant the spices went bad and weren't as punchy for as long. It'll cost you money by keeping it near the stove instead of a primary prep area. Pull out trashcan and tray bin is good, though. I'd also think about the backsplash and making it easy to clean. I've seen solid glass backsplashes, which you can get in different colors, including clear, etc. Backsplashes aren't really in the Sims, but I think essential for a functional kitchen. My parents didn't have one, even when they remodeled the kitchen and it irked me. (Also the pink paint that my mother chose irked me.) ^^;; I tended to design things. Personally, I'm averse to white countertops because they can stain easily... but then that's me and I'm Korean, so we worry about things like kimchi-stained countertops being there for 10+ years. (Things you don't have to worry about in the Sims.) Sage green is good. It's said to be calming according to a psychologist to have green in ones kitchen. It's not particularly trendy since it's been a trend since the 1970's-ish. I watched excessive interior decorating shows in my time and also laid things out with Sketchup, which can help you be more precise, though it has a learning curve. (Also almost a design degree) Other recs I've seen are deep pots and pan drawers. Because then you can pull out the drawer and reach for it, rather than sit down and sift for it, which might not be feasible when you're older. Unlike in the Sims, in real life layout is everything. Light, heat, relationship of tinier things you don't have to think about in the SIMS matters in real life interior design.

you could look into having an "appliance garage" put in the corner of the kitchen where you were considering a cabinet- would be perfect to store a kitchenaid but keeps the mess tucked away

The corner cabinet above the kitchen aid would be perfect for open shelf instead!

For the dining nook I see a bench along that wall of windows with a nice oval shaped table rather than four chairs. The bench could then double as an extra storage space for larger and seldom used kitchen appliances for instance.

YESSSS DO A GREEN KITCHEN!!! My dream kitchen is a sage cabinetry with either white countertops or butcher block 🥰🥰🥰

This was the content I was hoping for when Kayla said she was renovating her house. 😄

I LOVE this!! 😍 It's nice seeing your vision and just really hits home seeing it in Sim version 😂 The green cabinets are sooo pretty too 💚

The sage green cabinets? Love them! As for the vertical tile, i like that one too, though I'm more partial to the matte shower tiles than the more shiny/textured kitchen ones that were in the AirB&B

Rather than textured tiles, what about reclaimed tiles? They'll have a softer, worn-in look and it's better for the environment! Love the idea of laying them vertically, and you should DEFFO do green cabinets

I can not wait for all the house content!

Also: I think if you want your tile laid out this way you should go for more uniform looking bricks OR pick a 'rustic' tile but lay it out horizontally if you use colorful cabinets. Textures look better with neutrals like that wooden kitchen to make them more interesting. Colorful cabinets are already 'interesting' and I feel like green kitchen + 'rustic' white tiles laid vertically are going to date the kitchen and make it look very 2000s.

Just an FYI about the spice cabinet by the stove. Depending on the heat ur stove throws off it can ruin your spices if they're that close. So just beware

The contractor's sketch looks great. Make sure they're putting in solid wood cabinets (or the face frames and doors at the very least) and then repainting them at a later date is quite simple. Also consider just a painted island and a more neutral/muted tone for the rest. It will still give you that colour pop but a lot less to change later if you want to. Will help the Kitchenaid problem too as the green wouldn't be as overwhelming.

this is so exciting to me. Watching you grow from a HS student, to renovating your beautiful home with a great husband is amazing

Re: cabinets in the kitchen - I just moved into a house with white cabinets and white quartz counters that has travertine tile flooring. We changed the island to a sage green (Benjamin Moore Louis berg green) with a dark grey counter top. Definitely worth a shot, but I would say that painting / spraying later on is actually quite expensive, so make a choice you love! I'd say get large samples and see what looks good in your space - we face west so the light is very warm and changes the tone of the kitchen. Good luck! Love this series. :)

I've seen other people do this idea, but you guys should leave a little time capsule box in the renovation, like between drywall or in the floor.

I love the vertical tiles for the backsplash, and the green kitchen!! The whole design looks gorgeous.

I grew up in a house with mostly a green (a really weird shade of green too, it had blue undertones I think?) kitchen with basic wood tone drawers and wood tone counters in the mix, it was great to have some color in there while my current white kitchen is boring. Go for the green kitchen!! If you ever want to change it, painting the cabinets is a fairly easy renovation to make.

Our family redid our kitchen around 2020 and a lot of ideas that Kayla has were things that we actually implemented! Like the pullout garbage and spice rack; maybe they're becoming common things in the renovation sphere? We also moved our stove from underneath our microwave and added a range hood, which I feel makes a lot more sense than the former? In Canada we also have a lot of houses, especially duplexes, that put the microwave above the stove. Another thing that we added is a pantry that is a couple of steps outside the kitchen, but I feel we use it more like a closet since we have two pantry-like cabinets on either side of our fridge that hold baking stuff and rice.

The closet you're converting to a pantry is a linen closet, I think. I also agree with the comments that pantries will get crowded pretty quick especially if you bake or add appliances.

We had a large kitchen, where the walls were painted a dark green and everyone was always loving it for about 10 years. About 4 years ago we had it painted a lighter green with a withe rimm and it doesn't look that nice anymore. So if you go for green, it can really work out nicely if you pick a nice and warm green, that fits in with your wood tones

As soon as you posted the tour of the house I was like “She’s definitely gonna make a “making my house in the sims 4” video” CALLED IT???

Vertical tile in a kitchen - amazing ! My husband and I just redid our kitchen last year and we did vertical white tiles. It makes your ceilings feel higher and just really makes the room feel more open Your kitchen will be beautiful! 🧡

Kayla about the Kitchen counters- just remember depending on the material you can always repaint and refinish. Get what you love and remember in years time you can still refresh the kitchen to continue to be what you love. Green only seems trendy because we’ve experienced the white counters for so long. It can still be timeless 💛 Edit: As for that tile… It’s beautiful! I can already imagine it with the sage counters.

Just build the entire house like James and Deli did recently, that was so fun to watch! You don't have to do the outside, if you don't feel comfortable with that, just the floorplan and the decor on the inside.

I'm more of the thinking "Do what you want with your decor as long as you will be happy with it 5 years down the road". But if you talk to realtors the would say to stay with the classic look in order to retain the sale value. Now if you are considering that this will be your forever home. Then do what you want but if you are thinking that you are going to sell this house to upgrade to a bigger home then I would say stay with the classic look that doesn't go out of style like subway tile. In the long run it is your home and only you would know what you envision for your future while living there. Congratulations in your new home, and I say yes it is nice to give updates on your new home as long as you are comfortable with it.

I am genuinely super excited to follow this series through!! How exciting for you to be able to renovate your own home. It's a ton of work and planning, but it's super fun to see it come to life!! ❤

I'm an interior designer and watching you get so excited about the spice/cookie sheet/trash pullouts is so cute haha. Excited to see more renovation videos! I hope you go with the green kitchen! I love a dark green kitchen! I love the idea of the stacked tile, it is more modern and updated. I did a kitchen with stack glass tiles but horizontal and it looked amazing.

I do this! All the time! My contractor sends me his plans and I send him sims designs, lol! Keep’em coming, I love renovation content,especially when it’s real!

I love love love the trash can in the cabinet! I have one and love how small children and pets can’t get into it, but be prepared EVERYONE forever on will ask you where the trash is 🤦‍♀️ Even after you have told them 100 times.

I work as a kitchen designer myself and i would ABSOLUTELY say go with your gut and what you love for the cabinet colours- the green/sage and white/oak combination works great! Even though it IS trendy right now, I would not pay this any mind, from what I’ve noticed people do stay in love with these unique and bold takes on kitchens, and usually people with the more tame designs end up wanting to change it sooner. Good luck!

I'm excited about the renovation video and all (I mean how perfect is it that Kayla got herself a real fixer-upper) but I'm more excited that she knows cats don't like their water and food being next to each other. What a great cat-mom.

Yes please on this series! I'd love to see your ideas laid out in game and then get to see them brought to life to compare with your original vision!

I did the same thing with my appartment! The Sims is a great tool for planning this kind of stuff. Underated.

Hi I’m an interior designer snd thought I’d give you some of my advice! The plan that your millworker has laid out is great, it will provide you with a lot of storage and cooking surfaces. For the kitchen cabinet colour, we always recommend going with a finish that is more timeless - I’m unsure if you’re using plam or painted wood but it can sometimes be hard to refinish millwork in the future. The green colour that you are going for would definitely fit into the “timeless” style but I would recommend trying to keep it more on an earth tone (a slightly more muted green tone), as these colours are less fad. For the flooring the colour you are picturing is beautiful, and will allow you to have wood accents in furniture that doesn’t necessarily need to be the same wood finish and it will still match. For the backsplash, a textured vertical tile would be beautiful, i recommend taking a look at some of the ceramic tiles by centura tile. One thing important to consider is the possibility of using a darker grout colour, white can get very dirty very easily, so even going for an off-white colour could benefit you in the long run. Congratulations and looking forward to seeing it come together!

I know this sounds off, but trust me! Put a layer of acrylic paint over the tiles! It will give the tiles a beautiful texture. Plus, you can make it look as uniform or texturized as you want. We did this 5 years ago in our kitchen and we constantly get compliments on our backsplash.

You should consider two-toned cabinets! I think it would look amazing! Maybe green on the bottom and white/something else on top

I've wanted to send lilsimsie a build of my house with all of my furniture and have Kayla rearrange it better. Like a shell challenge plus plus

I love recreating real life houses and things in the sims. Usually frustrating because nothing is exact or sometimes even remotely accurate but! It’s fun nonetheless. And I’d LOVE to see your house process via sims.

Tiling advice! The vertical subway tiles are gorgeous. I love love love them! The only issue I see you coming across depends how tall your ceiling is. If it's a tall room, and your cabinets are hung high enough, definitely go for the vertical tiles. They'll draw the eye upwards. If you have shorter ceilings, or you're planning to hang the cabinets lower, I'd caution against vertical tiles. Like i mentioned, they draw the eye upwards. If your eyes come to a hard stop at the bottom of a cabinet too soon, it could make the room feel too tight and claustrophobic.

Literally the best kitchen she’s ever made in the sims! Hopefully this real life experience will help her out in her sims build

i did this exact thing when my parents were considering renovating on our house!

Our house flooded on Christmas day, 2020 and I did in fact design our whole downstairs in the Sims and showed it to our contractor - came out just like it! ;D

I love the idea of vertical stacked tile 😍 the sorry girls did that for their office kitchen and I love it! it also has that organic/handmade feel you mentioned

I’m an designer in real life: bring that corner cabinet down to the counter, make it a “toaster garage” where you put the small electronics you use most often: accessible but out of sight. Loving this series

yeah i think we’re gonna need a house tour when this is all finished twist: the house tour is done in the sims

I love green for kitchens. though I am more of a fern or asparagus kind of gal. also in our kitchen we have rotating shelves in the corners of the kitchen. both for the counter part (for pots and pans!) and the cabinet one (for bowls and cups/mugs) It is honestly so useful and it gives so much more storage space. Like the door of the corner counter has 2 pieces connected with a hinge so it can also fold onto itself. (we store stuff like toasters etc in the top cabinets. we don't use them everyday)

I really like the green cabinets! My grandma reno-ed the kitchen in her old house a couple of years ago and did a dusty navy blue that I LOVED. Colorful cabinets just add so much intrest to your kitchen and its not as harsh as a dark wood yk?

The kitchen looks sooo good in the sims so imagine how good it will look in real life!💚🤩

Yay it's my favourite time of day! Watching kayla play the sims with a hot chocolate

I lovvveee green kitchens like the one you showed! Especially with he white marble counters and silver or black hardware. Absolutely stunning!

If you're worried about picking cabinet colors, you can always do white cabinets on the wall, then the island be the green color you like! It can be a statement piece in you're kitchen! I also really love the idea of the vertical tiles; it's different than the usual. I'd recommend choosing options that would make you want to spend time in the space.