User blog comment:Soosieloo/Community decorating Tips, Advice, and Commiserations/@comment-5039776-20130214085428

For decorating, I tend to use lots of pathways - both sand and rock. Also consider a checkerboard effect using the newer floor tiles. These all are great dividers and really set themes apart from one another.

I have tried in my village to have a huge production area (which is totally ugly, I admit) with a lovely garden, and the wonders of the world in their own separate area and nice decorations around the magic rock (making it a feature).

I use plenty of trees - I use the Garden Trees a lot (they are pricey at 15,000 each but good return on investment and look great IMO). However, if that's outside your price range, regular palms might do the trick.

Break things up is the next tip. Don't have hundreds of starflowers next to each other - that might be easy to pick up but it looks boring. Same for windmills or Giant gems. Mixing and matching tastefully is what you're looking for.

Finally, don't cram! You don't have to keep everything. All those little challenges you did every week for 5 crystals don't have to be displayed in your village. Many might not fit with your grand vision and others might not look good to you. Decide what might fit with a theme and inventory the rest (e.g. the Easter theme went from my village a few weeks later, except for Chocky Regina). The more spacious things are, the better they will look.

To kick things off, make a space as Soosie says and inventory all decorations that you don't think will be used. Map out in Excel or on a piece of paper where you want stores, pathways, housing estates, various decorations etc and get to work. For a big 70 x 70 village, if you've been playing a while, you'll have loads of stuff. Plan and, as Soosie says, allow yourself the best part of a day!

Oioiaussie Retired from Tiny Social. Please do not send me gifts. Thanks in advance.