Angie’s List Brings 6 Iconic “Sims” Homes to Life
The Sims, a classic in the video game industry, is celebrating its 20th birthday this year. As a tribute to two decades of virtual builds, the home service finding site Angie’s List has used CGI technology to render real-life versions of the game series’ most well-known houses.
In case you’ve been on ice for the past twenty years, The Sims is a series of life simulation video games that enable players to create families, open and build businesses, and design their dream homes. All versions have been widely popular, making the series one of the best-selling in video game history. And while building houses is a big part of the game’s appeal, the pre-made stock homes they offer serve as even more examples of how it imitates real life. Yes, it seems like just about everybody knows someone who’s house looks like one of these:
5 Sim Lane
The Goth Family Home, as it is known to gamers, could be the Neo-Queen Anne-style house at the end of your block, with defining features like a stone facade, pitched roof, and large windows. Of course, you may or may not appreciate the three-tier stone water feature clearly visible out front, or the cemetery said to be just out of sight.
215 Sim Lane
The Pleasant Family Home similarly serves as an example of a typical Stockbroker Tudor-style house that could be erected in any neighborhood, with stand-out features like distinct exterior walls and dual brick chimneys protruding from both ends of the roof. Last but not least, the home’s classically Federal-style stone extension brings a nice contrast in materials and visual appeal.
Sultry Springside
If this “Caliente Household” appeals to you, why not recreate elements of the Mediterranean-style mansion in your actual home? After all, The Sims offers plenty of jobs whose skills could easily be put to use in real life to pull together the distinct terracotta tiled roof and stucco walls featured on this home, including cement mixer, bricklayer, foreman, head of construction company, architect, and draftsman.
Affluista Mansion
To replicate the modernist-style mansion fictionally known as The Landgraab Family Home, the Angie’s List team framed the palm-tree lined yard and tall fence as central landscape elements. Natural stone offers an earthy accent to a home that otherwise can’t help but stand out architecturally, reminiscent of the work from famed architect Frank Lloyd Wright.
101 Road To Nowhere
The Smith Family Home is a classic New England-style house, complete with traditional sash windows and weatherboard cladding and surrounded by a tidy white picket suburban fence.
150 Main Street
This studio is owned by Don Lothario in The Sims, and it really represents his bachelor lifestyle. Flat rooftops allow space for star-gazing and a hot tub. The addition of the piano is up to you, of course, but outdoor living is the name of the game in this design with deck access from both a lower staircase and the second-story bedroom. The square footage is just large enough for a single bedroom and small living space, which makes it perfect for any minimalists out there.
Whether you’ve invested time building your future inside The Sims or not, these renderings might be just the inspiration you need to define your style and design the perfect home for your own real-life adventures.
