When making a home, whether it be a beautiful luxury home, an average middle class home or an eyesore of home, make sure you have the proper funds. You can't buy a plasma screen for five simoleans. Also, keep in mind the design of the walls. Sometimes crude design leads to less money, and more problems when trying to use items.
Interior[edit]
When making a home, make it one you would live in – it adds more fun to the sims experience. Also pick some cool designs. When making a sim you get the option to pick a favorite color. If you pick green, for example, you can have a green bed, green carpet and green wallpaper in your bedroom. Stay true to your favorite color. Also keep in mind you want to complete rooms. You get -10 mood points when inside an incomplete room, so put up some wallpaper, and lay down some carpet unless you want a depressed sim.
Another thing to keep in mind is space. You don't want too much and you certainly don't want too little space. With too much space, you'll be paying extra money for flooring and wallpaper that you don't even need. But with too little space, you'll be paying less for a special price. With smaller amounts of space, you can put less objects in the home. And sometimes you will not be able to have some cool things like a computer for writing, an easel for painting, or an exercise machine for body points. You can't meet your house's potential with less space.
Exterior[edit]
When designing a home, keep in mind that the outside is important too. Gardens, pools, and ponds all help. Make a pond if you want to try fishing. You can just go outside and do your thing. Pools are great for parties, and are worth every simolean that you pay for them. Gardens are really nice too. In addition to making your outside look nicer, if you have a "Green Thumb" you can gain gardening points and earn more chances to make money from gardening. Also, making a garage will add to the experience. With a garage you also get the opportunities to buy a car or two. Cars get you places faster than walking or taking taxis.