Animal Crossing: New Horizons provides players with the tools to design islands and homes unique to them. The cozy island living simulator has plenty of things to do on a daily basis, but for many fans, the main draw is the decorating aspect of the title. ACNH has many decorations, furniture, and other elements for creators to play around with, and even has a terraforming feature for reshaping the entire island.

But sometimes, this kind of freedom can be paralyzing and make it hard to know where to start. With an entire island as a creative playground, it's easy to end up unsure of what to do with all the available space. Instead of starting from scratch, one great option is to turn to real-world locations for inspiration.

10 The Japanese Countryside Gives Off A Ghibli Vibe

The Perfect Intersection Between The City And Nature

The best contenders for an ACNH remake have a distinct style or look and work within the confines of the game's decoration and terraforming features. There's definitely a charm and distinct look to the Japanese countryside that feels right at home in the game. From the sprawling natural landscape of winding rivers, hills, and rice paddies, to the quaint rural houses, there are plenty of elements to draw on for ACNH island design.

Leaning into the countryside elements to craft a Ghibli-style island, like the island shown off in Peppy Crossing on YouTube, is one approach with endless potential. Another option is to create a cozy rural town lined with telephone poles, vending machines, and cute small shopfronts like the city street created by -deja-vu- on Reddit.

9 Paris, Is Full Of Charm

Creative Players Can Recreate The City's Many Landmarks

Paris is widely known as the city of love thanks to its charming streets, historic architecture, and distinct iconic landmarks. Its instantly recognizable style makes it an excellent contender for being remade in ACNH. Players can bring a touch of Parisian charm to their islands by recreating a cozy outdoor café setting with ACNH's many bakery decor items.

Inspiration can also come from the city's many famous landmarks, like the Palace of Versailles, which Reddit hiraversailles recreated in intricate detail, or the Notre Dame, remade by Elraishem. Of course, it just wouldn't be Paris without the world-famous Eiffel Tower, which mewseille expertly recreates on Instagram with a well-made standee that blends right into the skyline.

8 NYC Is Industrial Chic

The Iconic Skyline Is Perfect For A City-Core Vibe

For many players, the appeal of Animal Crossing games is the chance to leave the confines of their everyday lives. And for many, this means leaving the city in favor of nature and cozy vibes. That doesn't mean ACNH doesn't have its share of city decor, and city-core is a popular alternative to the game's inherent cottage-core vibes. In fact, it's possible to recreate one of the most iconic skylines in the world, New York City.

Making a NYC-inspired island in AC is really a no-brainer, as there's already one essential component to the build: The Statue of Liberty. This key part of NYC can be acquired from Gulliver after finding his five communicator parts. The rest of the city takes some more lateral thinking and can be built using custom designs for roads, industrial decor, and more. YouTuber HappyIslandBlog has some creative ideas for how to recreate the city's skyline using servers, neon signs, custom design cube lights, and other items that build up to resemble the high-rise buildings of the city.

7 IKEA And Other Big Box Stores

The Perfect Way To Display Furniture And Decor

Part of the fun of playing Animal Crossing: New Horizons is collecting the many decor items and furniture. It's just a shame that players only have one house to decorate, the rooms of which can feel small compared to the nearly 2,000 items of furniture that the game has in its catalog. Those who wish they could display more than several roomfuls of items at one time might want to consider recreating an IKEA or other big-box store on their islands.

Redditor island into one massive IKEA, complete with a winding path through the different displays. Various locations around the island could act as showrooms for different types of rooms, like the kitchen and living room, while another area could be dedicated to the store's famous cafeteria. Turning the island into an IKEA is a creative way to show off all the furniture and decor players have collected.

6 National Parks Lean Into Nature

Terraforming Inspiration From The Real World

Animal Crossing: New Horizons gives players the power to move literal mountains, reshaping the land and waterways to suit their needs. This is incredibly freeing since it opens up many creative design options, but it can also be intimidating. Luckily, anyone feeling uninspired or unsure about where to start with terraforming has plenty of real-world spots of nature they can use to spark their creativity.

If natural locations are too wild and untamed, national parks around the world make a convenient, more structured blueprint to follow. Reddit remmy5 recreated several real parks, like the Everglades and Sequoia parks in the US, Zhangjiajie National Forest in China, and a few others. One park can make for a sufficient focus, or several parks could be recreated in different areas around the island for a more varied look.

5 Holland Has Idyllic Landscapes

Recreate The Fields Of Tulips And Windmills

A field of flowers can really brighten up an Animal Crossing: New Horizons island, and planting more flowers is a good way to increase the island rating. Recreating a garden is a good way to display flowers, but an even more interesting idea is to take a trip to the Netherlands.

For instance, Reddit tiara_king remade the famous tulip fields of the country. The colorful and fun result shows why making a Netherlands-inspired island is a fantastic way to show off flowers, especially tulips. Tokki Plays on YouTube took it a step further and made an Amsterdam island, with city streets, waterways with boats, tulip fields with makeshift windmills, and more showing the huge amount of variety present for players to make use of in their designs.

4 The Great Barrier Reef Brings The Water To Land

A Way To Show Off Some Coral Decor

The Animal Crossing: New Horizons island is, by the very nature of its name, surrounded by water, and seashells and other goodies often wash up on its sandy beaches. These seashells can be used to craft shell-themed furniture meant to be used inside the house, but there's no reason why these items have to stay indoors. The seashell and coral designs lean heavily into their inspiration, so they resemble large shells more than the furniture they're supposed to represent.

These shell designs can bring the ocean onto land for recreations of Great Barrier Reef or other coral reefs like Reddit ch3rrysora's work. Creative placement on different levels of land through terraforming can give the illusion of depth. A more realistic portrayal of a live coral reef can also be achieved by following the example of Redditor AuriVega. This designer had the creative idea of using the colorful ice trees as coral structures and placing fish sculptures for the illusion of life. Since coral reefs are more random by nature, they can provide inspiration without requiring a rigid structure.

3 Miami, Florida Is An Iconic Beachfront City

Recreate The Feel Of The Famous Beach Hotspot

Waterfront cities have a certain feel to them, from boardwalks selling saltwater taffy to palm-tree-lined streets. Miami, Florida is the quintessential beach city, with its perpetually sunny orange glow with plenty of bright colors and a touch of historic art deco-style architecture. All these elements make Miami a fun look to recreate in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

A great example can be seen in Pigment_b from Reddit, whose vintage Miami island gets the feel of the city just right. This build, which has plenty of the city's iconic pinks, blues, and citrus designs, lots of greenery and palm trees, surf shops, and more, is the perfect source of Miami inspiration. It's a great options for those who like more urban builds but don't want to make a typical cityscape.

2 Egypt Is A Sensational Sandy Spots

Replace The Grassy Island With A Sandy Desert

Animal Crossing: New Horizons island designs often lean either into natural or urban designs, but they rarely depart too far from the island's original biome. This means they typically rely on trees and bushes, mountains and rivers, and other natural elements to frame their designs. For a very different-feeling island, Egypt and the surrounding countries provide incredible alternative sources of inspiration.

YouTuber KristaTheeIntern recreates Egypt, Morrocco, and beyond in a stunning desert paradise. Egyptian design would make heavy use of textiles, lanterns, stone pathways, and custom designs to change the lush green ACNH island into a sandy landscape. Of course, the pyramids are a must for any Egyptian design, and luckily, New Horizons has some pre-made pyramids perfect for this, which players can obtain from the well-traveled Gulliver.

1 711, In-N-Out, & Other Convenience Stores Make Unique Pit Stops

Provide Fast Food Spots For ACNH Villagers

The villagers in the Animal Crossing series might not actually need to eat, but that doesn't mean they won't enjoy browsing the aisles of a well-stocked grocery store. Convenience stores are a fun addition to any island, and it can be especially fun to try and recreate the distinct look and style of a specific chain like 711, the way Lucy_bao does on Reddit. New Leaf and Happy Home Designer even have official 711 items in the game, though the items were only available through a special limited-time event in Japan.

Other convenience store franchises that are fun to recreate include In-n-Out, the way apeycakez from Reddit does, or the Japanese store franchise Family Mart, as remade by trainerbeibei. Chain stores look especially good in urban islands, but they can be fun to remake near the town hall. Including a store like this on the island can bring a touch of realism to an Animal Crossing: New Horizons design inspired by the real world.

Source: Peppy Crossing/YouTube, -deja-vu-/Reddit, hiraversailles/Reddit, Elraishem/Reddit, mewseille/Reddit, HappyIslandBlog/YouTube, skidmore101/Reddit, remmy5/Reddit, tiara_king/Reddit, Tokki Plays/YouTube, ch3rrysora/Reddit, AuriVega/Reddit, Pigment_b/Reddit, KristaTheeIntern/YouTube, Lucy_bao/Reddit, apeycakez/Reddit, trainerbeibei/Reddit