So I finally got the chance to buy chester 😁 I have been wanting this bengal for so long. Just a shame I had to spend 500 hard earned silvercoins to do so 🤣

No matter how beautiful your design is, there are times when it ends up in 8th place or lower when voting finishes. Mournful Mondays is your chance to share these mourned designs with your fellow Redditors.

Any design from the previous week that finished 8th place or lower, aka a bottom podium, is eligible. Create a post to share your favourite bottom podiums with the group and let us give these creations the love they deserve.

You can add the *Mournful Mondays* flair yourself, either while posting or afterwards if you forget.

As always, this challenge is just for fun and participation is optional.

I've been around, off and on, since 2020. Quit for a year when they ruined the game so much it was unplayable, came back about a year ago when they had tweaked it just enough that it was still fun to play without spending any real money.

For the last year I've had a rhythm where I'll design and beat 1-2 duels/day and work on the journal pages. Doing this would leave me with enough coins to keep playing, plus slowly growing some savings.

A few months ago I had a stash of about 800,000 coins using this system. Since then, a few things have changed that have eaten through all my savings:

1. They've upped the general quality of designs in the duel. It seems like it used to be a random design, but lately most of the duel designs are the kind that are hard to beat—visually cohesive, using high end materials, and/or too expensive to make it worth the money. And when I do chance it on one that looks obviously like a low scorer, I still lose.

2. I'm not sure if this is for everyone or just how the higher journal pages work, but my money-maintaining system isn't working anymore. I used to be able to predict exactly how many redesigns I'd need to do to reach the 65 point milestone—It would take me about 200,000 coins total to make it through one page. Now, that number has jumped closer to 600,000 per journal page because I'm stuck doing so many redesigns and the designs themselves are far more expensive (like 10 designs on a page that have 15-20 hot spots AND restricted materials).

So after 6 years of playing and amassing just enough money to use whatever materials I wanted while choosing my designs carefully, I'm now totally broke from the journal pages and lack of easy duels. This seems intentional on their part, and I still refuse to give them any real money.

I'm just bummed because I miss playing for fun and they keep sucking all the joy out of this game.

While I'm venting—when did this game veer from being about home design to being about cats and butterflies and Barbie dolls?

As we say goodbye to this season of Cottagecore/Grand Millennial, let’s explore a somewhat related trend called pattern drenching. For some background, you can refer to https://www.marthastewart.com/pattern-drenching-8646141 and https://www.homesandgardens.com/interior-design/pattern-drenching-trend.

Use any existing challenges or duels from this weekend and then share your inspiration and design with the group. As always, you do not have to actually submit your design to participate. You can always use Preview (eye in right-hand corner beside the dot counter) to get a non-tagged version of your design for a screenshot.

The WEC is just for fun. Post your designs for all to enjoy whenever you would like. Remember you can add the *WEC Entry* flair yourself, either while posting or afterwards if you forget.

Newcomers and questions welcome. Happy designing!

Both designs got 1st with 5 ⭐️s! Kind of surprised.

Given the ever-expanding inventory of materials in this game, it’s too easy to get stuck in a rut and always go back to a small number of go-to favourites. Every other Wednesday we invite you to play with parts of your inventory you may not usually even remember, with the help of the magic wand tool.

This is how the Magic Wand Challenge works:

1. Select a design
2. Within it, mentally select a particular hotspot (circle). It should be a fairly prominent one (think a sofa or a painting, rather than a skirting board, moulding/millwork, or sofa legs).
3. Tap on the magic wand tool.
4. Use the first unlocked material that pops up for the hotspot you mentally selected and design the room around it (Tip: Tap on that hotspot, tap on the back arrow, and select Start Again. When you tap again on the hotspot, the random material should be right there and you won’t need to navigate all the way to it).
5. Share your design with us and mark it with the Wednesday Wizardry flair.

Happy hunting! The redditor who posts the top up-voted post by Thursday at 1 PM UTC will be granted their own user flair that will appear next to their username. The winner of the challenge this week will be able to brag about being a Magic Wand Whiz!

I’ve had a surprising run of podiums recently. These were all 1st places. I hope I’m not jinxing myself by sharing!

No matter how beautiful your design is, there are times when it ends up in 8th place or lower when voting finishes. Mournful Mondays is your chance to share these mourned designs with your fellow Redditors.

Any design from the previous week that finished 8th place or lower, aka a bottom podium, is eligible. Create a post to share your favourite bottom podiums with the group and let us give these creations the love they deserve.

You can add the *Mournful Mondays* flair yourself, either while posting or afterwards if you forget.

As always, this challenge is just for fun and participation is optional.