“Kiss me once ’cause you know I had a long night (Oh)
Kiss me twice ’cause it’s gonna be alright (Uh)
Three times ’cause I waited my whole life (one, two, one, two, three, four), ah”
Taylor Swift – Paper Rings
Well, that didn’t take long. A couple of days ago, I was writing my first official post for The Arcade, sending Mackenzie back to school, and wondering what I was going to find when I started digging through everything else waiting for me from the September round. Today the answer was a bedroom, a bunch of plants, some mushrooms, and an excuse for the two of us to have a pillow fight. I’d say we’re off to a fantastic start.
I didn’t really have some grand plan when I started putting this one together. I had four gachas from Elm., Dahlia, ATTIC, and Secret Poses that I wanted to use, and they weren’t exactly sitting there screaming one obvious idea at me. That’s half the fun, though. Give me enough things that probably weren’t designed to go together, let me stare at them for a while, and eventually I’ll convince myself they absolutely belong in the same photo. At least the bedroom part was easy.
Elm.’s The Morning Suite gave me the obvious place to start, mostly because building a bedroom without a bed would have been a bold creative choice even for me. The collection has 19 pieces with PG and Adult versions of the bed as the two Rares, along with a dresser, nightstand, mirror, drapes, several different lamps, and enough smaller decor to build an entire room around it. I’m using the Adult Rare Bed, and that became the center of everything pretty quickly. I love the curved wooden headboard and all of that white bedding against the warmer wood. It’s simple without being boring, soft without disappearing into the background, and neutral enough that I didn’t feel like everything else I brought into the room had to perfectly match it. Which was good, because it definitely wasn’t going to.
I pulled quite a bit more from The Morning Suite while I was building everything out. The Nightstand went beside the bed with the white Dome Lamp, while the white Saucer Lamp, Book Stack, Vase Cluster, and Drape #1 [White] all found their way into the scene too. I actually used the Vase Cluster more than once because apparently one carefully arranged collection of flowers wasn’t enough for me. That’s generally how these things get out of hand. I start with a bed, and twenty minutes later I’m deciding which vase looks better six inches to the left.
The smaller pieces are a big reason I like this collection as much as I do. Obviously the bed is going to get most of the attention, especially once two people start throwing pillows around on top of it, but the little things are what make the rest of the space feel like somebody actually lives there. The books, lamps, flowers, and curtains aren’t demanding that you look at them. They’re just filling those little spaces that would feel strangely empty without them. They’re also exactly the kind of pieces I’m going to forget I own until six months from now, when I’m digging through my inventory looking for a lamp and suddenly rediscover The Morning Suite. My inventory is basically an archaeological dig anyway, so I’m sure we’ll meet again.
Once I had most of the bedroom built, I could have kept pulling from Elm., made everything perfectly coordinated, and called it good. Instead, I added mushrooms, because that seemed like a perfectly reasonable decision at the time.
Dahlia’s Golden Hour is full of these wonderfully cozy little pieces with yarn, baskets, pumpkins, flowers, books, cakes, mushrooms, and an adorable little house-shaped teapot. You could easily take the collection and build an entire autumn scene around it, but I didn’t really need all of that here. I did, however, apparently need mushrooms beside the bed, and the Mushroom Cloche in Red is now sitting proudly on the nightstand like that’s exactly where it has always belonged.
I love the damn thing. It’s just this tiny collection of mushrooms underneath glass, minding its own business while everything else is happening around it. Why do we have mushrooms under glass beside the bed? I have no idea. They looked cute there, and sometimes that’s all the decorating logic I need. It’s also exactly the kind of detail I like hiding in a scene. You’re probably not going to notice it before the giant bed, hanging plants, or the two people having a pillow fight, but eventually your eyes wander over there and find it. Those are the little discoveries that make a photo more interesting to me than simply putting the biggest pieces front and center.
The Sunflower Frame from Golden Hour ended up farther back on the wall, where that little bit of yellow gives me some color against all of the warm neutrals happening throughout the room. Between the frame and the Mushroom Cloche, I got just enough of Dahlia’s personality into the photo without turning the whole bedroom into an autumn scene. There are already candles glowing back there too, so I feel like we’re probably one pumpkin away from losing control of the situation anyway.
Then I started hanging plants from the ceiling, as one does.
ATTIC’s Wrought Garden Set is where the room started getting a completely different layer. The collection has these geometric wrought-metal planters in several shapes, including orbs, coils, nests, and prisms in black and gold, all mixed with vines and greenery. Those harder geometric shapes are completely different from everything I had already put into the room, and that’s exactly what I liked about them. The Wrought Prism Black near the bed brings in those dark geometric lines against all of the soft fabric, white curtains, and warm wood, while the vines keep it from feeling too harsh. It shouldn’t necessarily match everything around it, and I think the fact that it doesn’t is what makes it interesting.
Then there’s the Vinewrought Rare, which didn’t so much decorate the room as claim a significant portion of it for itself. It’s this huge hanging wrought-metal cage overflowing with vines, and it ended up dominating the right side of the scene in the best possible way. I moved it around, tried it in different places, questioned whether it was too much, and eventually found the spot where removing it suddenly made the entire side of the room feel empty. At that point, the giant hanging plant cage had won, so it stayed.
I love when a piece does that. You start out thinking you’re adding one more little thing to the scene and suddenly the entire composition depends on it being there. The Vinewrought Rare became part of the frame around everything happening in the middle, and all of that greenery helped connect the harder black metal back into the softer room around it. Somehow my bed, mushrooms, and giant cage of vines were starting to look like they had always belonged together. Don’t question it. I certainly wasn’t going to.
By this point, I had a surprisingly nice bedroom. The bed was made, the books were stacked, the flowers were arranged, the lamps were on, my mushrooms were safely contained beneath glass, plants were hanging peacefully from the ceiling, and there were candles glowing in the background. It was cozy, romantic, and peaceful, which obviously meant the only reasonable thing left to do was completely disregard all of that and start throwing pillows at each other.
Thankfully, Secret Poses came prepared.
Dreamy has eleven poses built around pillows, including two Rares, and there are plenty of perfectly reasonable things to do with them. You can hug your pillow, cuddle up with it, lounge around looking cute, or generally behave like two normal people enjoying the peaceful bedroom somebody just spent entirely too long decorating. We went with Dreamy 11 Rare, and the peaceful part lasted approximately as long as you’d expect around here.
Now Mackenzie is up above me with this huge smile on her face; I’m trying to keep up with her, pillows are flying, and there are feathers everywhere. I don’t know exactly how our quiet afternoon escalated to this point, but judging by the photo, she’s having considerably more fun than I am having success. For the record, I appear to be losing pretty badly, but at least I’m going down fighting. The best part is that Secret Poses includes the pillows with the poses, so everything you need to turn a quiet day into complete nonsense is already taken care of. That’s excellent customer service.
This is also where the whole photo finally clicked for me. I spend way too much time building these scenes. I’ll move a lamp a couple inches, stare at it, decide it was better where it started, put it back, and then probably touch it again ten minutes later. I’ll rotate something three degrees that nobody else on Earth will ever notice, or decide a tiny mushroom needs to move slightly to the left because apparently that’s the thing standing between me and photographic greatness. I genuinely enjoy all of that, but the best part is when we finally get into the scene, and it stops feeling like something I built just to photograph.
The perfectly made bed isn’t so perfect anymore. Pillows are everywhere, feathers are floating through the room, Mackenzie is laughing and having entirely too much fun up there, and I’m doing my best to return fire from a position that doesn’t appear particularly advantageous. All of the little things I spent forever arranging are still there, but now they feel like the background to something happening instead of the reason the room exists. I can make everything pretty, put every little detail exactly where I want it, and spend entirely too long getting the photo just right, but the best part is still getting to make a mess of it with her. Turns out I like the shiny things just fine, but I’d take this part every time.
That’s also what I like about the four gachas I ended up bringing together here. Elm. gave me the foundation and most of the bedroom, Dahlia brought in those quirky little details I always seem to find a place for, and ATTIC completely changed the shape of the room with black metal and all of that greenery. Then Secret Poses gave us something to actually do once I finally stopped moving everything around. Somewhere between the bed, plants, mushrooms, pillows, and Mackenzie’s smile, I stopped seeing four gacha keys and started seeing one photo.
I’m already having a lot of fun figuring out what I can do with The Arcade this way. I don’t need to use an entire collection exactly as it appears on the key, and the creators don’t have to be working from the same idea. I can grab the pieces that catch my attention, start playing with them, and see where the hell we end up. Sometimes it’s the little mushroom I absolutely needed beside the bed. Sometimes it’s the giant hanging plant cage I wasn’t sure about until I couldn’t imagine the room without it. Apparently that’s just how we’re decorating now.
A couple of days ago, that process gave me a classroom. This time it gave Mackenzie and me a beautiful bedroom full of warm wood, flowers, books, mushrooms, and enough hanging greenery to make me question some of our interior decorating choices. Then Secret Poses handed us a couple of pillows, and we promptly forgot we were supposed to be behaving for the photo. By the time the feathers started flying and I saw that smile on her face, all the pretty things we’d put together had become the background to the part worth keeping. I think we’re getting the hang of this whole The Arcade thing. Credits for everything can be found below, as always. Until next time, if I survive this pillow fight that is.
“I want to drive away with you
I want your complications too
I want your dreary Mondays
Wrap your arms around me, baby boy”
Taylor Swift – Paper Rings
Credits:
~Scene~
Bed: Elm. The Morning Suite//Bed [ADULT] RARE ~ Ella Aurelia ~ NEW GACHA @ The Arcade (Sept 1-Sept 30)
Lamp (Close): 9. Elm. The Morning Suite//Dome Lamp [White] ~ Ella Aurelia ~ NEW GACHA @ The Arcade (Sept 1-Sept 30)
Nightstand: 3. Elm. The Morning Suite//Nightstand ~ Ella Aurelia ~ NEW GACHA @ The Arcade (Sept 1-Sept 30)
Book Stack: 12. Elm. The Morning Suite//Book Stack ~ Ella Aurelia ~ NEW GACHA @ The Arcade (Sept 1-Sept 30)
Vase: 13. Elm. The Morning Suite//Vase Cluster ~ Ella Aurelia ~ NEW GACHA @ The Arcade (Sept 1-Sept 30)
Lamp (Far): 7. Elm. The Morning Suite//Saucer Lamp [White] ~ Ella Aurelia ~ NEW GACHA @ The Arcade (Sept 1-Sept 30)
Drape 14. Elm. The Morning Suite//Drape #1 [White] ~ Ella Aurelia ~ NEW GACHA @ The Arcade (Sept 1-Sept 30)
Cloche: Dahlia – Golden Hour – Mushroom Cloche – Red 3 ~ June Fallon ~ NEW GACHA @ The Arcade (Sept 1-Sept 30)
Frame: Dahlia – Golden Hour – Sunflower Frame 10 ~ June Fallon ~ NEW GACHA @ The Arcade (Sept 1-Sept 30)
Planter 1: ATTIC Wrought Prism Black ~ Citta Wiskee ~ NEW GACHA @ The Arcade (Sept 1-Sept 30)
Planter 2: ATTIC Vinewrought RARE ~ Citta Wiskee ~ NEW GACHA @ The Arcade (Sept 1-Sept 30)
Pose: SP – Dreamy 11 RARE ~ SweetDaniellee Resident ~ NEW GACHA @ The Arcade (Sept 1-Sept 30)
Painting: DEERFIELD Honeybee – Original Artwork ~ Solar Witch
Backdrop: MINIMAL – Tuscan Room Set – Room ~ MINIMALgroup Resident
~Her~
Head: LeLutka EvoX AVALON 4.0 ~ Jaden Nova
Hair: DOUX – Wasabi Hairstyle ~ Dam1710 Resident
Body: [LEGACY] [BODY] (f) Perky Edition (1.7.1) ~ MeshBody Resident
Arm Tattoos: HORL – Arm Orn 4 Tattoo [FADED 50] ~ Bree Coy
Hand Tattoos: ALBA – Lore Tattoos Bundle (5 &7) ~ Kaiasalvat Resident
Hand Tattoos: ALBA – Luck Tattoos Bundle (8) ~ Kaiasalvat Resident
Top: Elune. Nova Top ~ Nina Cutie
Shorts: Elune. Nova Shorts ~ Nina Cutie
Belly Button Piercing: ~~ YsoraL ~~ .:Belly Piercing Snake:. ~ Fenixdragon Rau
~Him~
Head: LeLUTKA.Head.NOA.4.0 ~ Jaden Nova
Head Applier: Stray Dog HERVE EVOX TAN (V) NO BROWS ~ Gac Akina
Hair: [MFCNT] THOR Bun – Grooming Hair – LeBarbier Alpha
Hairbase: LeLUTKA.EvoX.Hairbase.044 (BOM) ~ Jaden Nova (Comes with the LeLUTKA NOA Head)
Eyes: [ContraptioN] Depthglass Eye ~ Walton Wainwright
Eyebase: Avi-Glam. Prism Eyes – Pack 2 ~ Eye Daddy
Ears: ^^Swallow^^ Gauged S Ears ~ Luciayes Magic
Ear Tattoo: RichB. Ears Tattoo #08 ~ Salvy Hexem
Beard: [MFCNT] Ducky Skunk Beard & Stache – LeBarbier Alpha
Beard Layer: PHYSIQUE X – Logan Facial Hair (v1) Tintable ~ PhysiqueX Resident
Body: [LEGACY] Athletic Edition (1.7.1) ~ MeshBody Resident
Skin: VELOUR: PICASSO HOMME Skin for Legacy (FIT/TAN) Picasso Neck ~ Kiria Mama
Nails: Pare.Cure Mesh Nails Both Hands [Short] – Legacy ~ Flazedo Resident
Torso Tattoo: Boscato Vigor Upper Body Tattoo MEDIUM ~ Boston Blaisdale
Leg Tattoo: CIN// 333.B.INK [FRESH] ~ Cin Lust
Boxers: THIRST – Back to Basics Boxers ~ AlexanderPowell83
Watch: [Deadwool] “Petite tuile” watch ~ Masa Plympton
Rings/Bracelets: *RE* Atreides Bracelet & Rings ~ Crashnoww Resident
Earrings: = DAE = SXD1 ~ Naomi Darkheart
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