What theme is your island? Do you mix multiple themes in different areas around your island? Go straight into our popular themes 5-star island tour and take a look at 10 popular ACNH island themes that you can design your island around. Cottagecore, forestcore, trashcore, kidcore, citycore & more themed islands ideas in Animal Crossing New Horizons.
Most Popular ACNH Island Themes 2021 - 10Island Theme Ideas In Animal Crossing
Some of the main aspects of Animal Crossing New Horizons are customizing ACNH furniture, terraforming land and designing layouts and even interior and exterior designing. Now whether you focus on the inside of your house or the landscape of your island. Many players choose to develop their island around 1 or 2 specific themes. We’ve seen many creative islands over the last year including cottagecore islands, fairytale-themed landscapes and even tropical paradises. For this year 2021, more popular ideas for ACNH themed islands are spilling out. Here we break down 10 different island themes in Animal Crossing New Horizons which may help inspire you. With discussing what aspects each theme focuses on, and cover some tips and tricks on how to create similar islands.
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1. Cottage Core Island Design
Cottagecore can also be referred to as farm core or country core and it is centered on ideas around very simple life and harmony with nature. Some of the key colors include green, brown, yellow, as well as cream or off-white. There are also a lot of different colors used and they're just color-coordinated. So with a purple roof of the villager, you'd also use purple flowers in front of their house, some of the Animal Crossing New Horizons items most often used in cottage core or also farm core and country core are centered around the key color. So especially the entire log furniture set is very often used. The wooden furniture is used quite a bit and with those, you can play around with the customization and make them fit everything around it. You can even customize them with custom design codes and therefore incorporate some more beautiful designs and other colors as well. Because oftentimes there are quite a few farms such as pumpkin, patches or just mushroom farms and so on. A lot of the farming items are used and because everything is pretty much centered around nature, there are lots of trees and flowers as well as shrubs villagers that most often fit the cottage core, aesthetic are pretty much also centered around those key colors. So you're more likely to find animals in a way that they would be in the real world as well.
2. Urban Island Design
An urban theme is often the term used for heavy populated towns or cities or even smaller inner city markets. This is definitely more generic. But typically urban islands create residential areas alongside streets, outdoor cafes and museums. These are all usually linked by huge pathways roads and bridges. It's also not uncommon to see many fenced off areas such as parks and gardens to help give you a sense that you're in an actual town where people live work and go about their daily lives. This island in particular is a bit more unique and reminds people of Venice in that is built around rivers and had lots of houses shops and stores close by, which is really awesome.
3. Forestcore Island Design
This one is also very closely related to cottagecore, so a lot of the key items and also key villagers are pretty much the same. But for this theme, everything will be a lot more nature-related than it was for cottage core. So these islands really have lots of trees, oftentimes you will find very dense forest lots and lots of plants and flowers and nothing that seems to be artificial with forest core. There can also be somewhat of an overgrown vibe to it, so lots of weeds and mossy things and the key colors and items are pretty much the same. So you'll also find log furniture as it does seem pretty natural to find. You'll probably also find rocks and those kinds of things.
4. Trashcore Island Design
Trashcore islands are sometimes described as industrial or slum islands, are essentially islands steamed around extremely cluttered and built-up communities. One way the trashcore theme is used is by using forced perspective to create amazing-looking cityscapes. The industrial aspect of trashcore islands completely removes the deserted island atmosphere and converts it into a loud busy and crowded place made up of mostly metal structures, along with corrugated steelworks and steam. Typically, these kind of islands will incorporate work areas or research labs too, which is super cool. But trashcore islands or industrial-themed areas always seem to look best in the middle of the night.
5. Horror Island Design
Horror is a simple yet very effective iron theme and can often be used alongside goth core or scary and Halloween-based islands on horror-themed islands. It's not unusual to see the spooky set used to create very creepy walkways that are basically warning you to turn around and head in the other direction. This aesthetic will often be built around graveyards and burial grounds which typically include gothic statues amongst other things. Some of the best aspects of a horror-themed island are the tiny details like custom blood patterns, pumpkin patches, and black roses. All of which help to create a scary atmosphere. Basically, this island theme takes anything slightly creepy in the game and somehow makes it even creepier and this island is a great example of that.
6. Citycore Island Design
Try to distance yourself from all the natural looking islands, everything is a lot more symmetrical and try to pass of that city vibe and maybe even create an illusion of skyscrapers and city like buildings. Key colors for this theme involve a lot of gray because you are most likely to use a lot of stone items to pass up that feeling and also incorporate lots of design codes to do street as well as crosswalks and all those things. A lot of Nook Mile items that you get in the Resident Services are also playing a big role, so for example, the vending machines, street lamps, all kinds of utility poles are quite frequently used in these city-like islands for villagers, a lot of people are focusing on much more how the buildings look because for this one, the tree branch, houses or the log cabins don’t really work but there are a few villagers that might be considered for city-like islands.
7. Natural Island Design
A natural theme is very popular right now and is somewhat linked to the overgrown or forest themes. Essentially, it's letting the deserted island take its natural course over time and building around the natural landscape of the island. Natural themed islands will often feature more trees than other islands but also focus around dirt paths which lead to several outdoor areas. It's not unusual to see lots of little ponds and farming areas too. With lots of fallen leaves and furniture items or market stores made of wood, this is quite subjective. But natural islands feature more randomly placed flowers and weeds too to give it more of an unmaintained look despite being completely maintained and planned.
8. Zen Island Design
The Zen theme is another fairly broad term but often associated with Japanese-themed furniture items and beautifully carved natural landscapes. It's not uncommon to see plenty of bamboo trees with complex pathways and wooden bridges leading to very relaxing gardens and shrines. Zen-themed islands typically create a peaceful atmosphere but also incorporate outdoor markets and communities alongside these areas, using lots of rivers, stones and statues quickly, help create a natural but zen-like island!
9. Kidcore Island Design
Kidcore is focused on very bright colors, a nostalgia for the 90s as well as all kinds of kid themes and everything kind of kid related. Some of the key colors are just bright colors in general, but for kidcore, there really is no limit, you can use the entire rainbow neon colors, pastel colors, everything that you feel fits a very happy and like young feeling island. Key items for a Kidcore island are centered all around toys. Now especially with the toy day update that we had in the game, there were lots of different toys incorporated and introduced into the game. There is the toy boxes, there is the clacker card, there is the throwback containers that look like small trains that you can work with. And this theme really doesn't have very many limits either. There's so many directions you can go in with this one and Kidcore can also be applied to either natural looking islands, more city-like islands, just everything that you want to have fun with villagers.
10. Junglecore Island Design
Now jungle core is a very underrated island theme as it takes a combination of the natural and overgrown themes, and mixes them with the tropical theme to create dense jungles filled with waterfalls, wildflowers and plenty of critters. The key to jungle court is incorporating a variety of trees but also utilizing natural pathways to access hidden areas such as ancient ruins and statues. This island in particular makes great use of custom patterns to fill every tile whether it's stone paths, weeds or flowers, and that helps create this undisturbed jungle feel. Jungle core typically focuses on the natural aspects of the island rather than the furniture but using things like tents, benches and lamps reinforces.
More Ideas For ACNH Themed Island Designs
Fairycore Island
Tropicalcore Island
Movies & Shows Island
What do you think about these ACNC island themes? Do you like the junglecore idea or do you prefer sticking with a natural island?
