Terraforming is one of the many new features in Animal Crossing: New Horizons that has been allowing players to transform their islands into amazing works of art. There are endless possibilities to what players can do with their island once they unlock the Island Designer application on the Nook phone after achieving a three-star island.
With the combination of furniture and building placements, some players have created truly spectacular islands. Others have done wild things with the feature to test out the limits of it. Here are some amazing terraforming makeovers that may inspire new ideas for one's own island.
Updated February 6, 2022, by Stephen LaGioia: Animal Crossing New Horizons continues to churn out new content, rotating events, and updates, strengthening the already stout legs of this evergreen title. The 2.0 Update brought a slew of fun new DIY items, collectibles, and new villagers, setting the stage for new possibilities. While terraforming add-ons have been somewhat scarce, the influx of items does open new avenues for creative ideas related to this feature.
With this in mind—and so many neat ideas for terraforming and themed areas in Animal Crossing from fans, it seemed fitting to revisit and refurnish this list.
20 Park On The Lake
There are plenty of creative ways to work with land and water in conjunction, as this Reddit user illustrates nicely with this scenic park. This lavish lake-bound hangout serves as an appealing centerpiece to one's island, with colorful visuals and a serene, relaxing vibe, punctuated by the central fountain.
The ability to terraform with the flexibility the game allows sets the stage for all sorts of unique water-and-land formations like this.
19 Hedge Maze
While New Horizons, like most AC offerings, thrives on its low-key nature and free-roaming gameplay, Nintendo surprised gamers with a more linear puzzle-based trial (and a fairly tough one at that). This took the form of a hedge maze featuring a few tools and resources to pass it, added as part of the limited-time May Day event.
While this cryptic puzzle got the brains of fans working, it also spurred the imagination of many others with regard to other grassy formations and hedge maze designs.
Some gamers, like this Reddit user, took this concept to the tenth degree—crafting dense, elaborate maze gardens full of twists and turns, and decorated with cobblestone paths. This design is effective, as it's not only pleasing to look at, but also fun to navigate.
18 Garden/Orchard
The ability to grow colorful flowers and various fruits is one of the stand-out appeals of New Horizons. This can really be exploited here, as the limits in planting all sorts of varieties are virtually endless.
Players can allocate a field to plant countless trees and other growth, which end up being "fruitful" in more ways than one while looking pretty in the process. Reddit user Birdcliffe showcases a particularly nice example.
The only downside to going wild with a forest is that villagers will sometimes complain about getting lost within the crowded trees. For most though, the scenic wilderness and bounties of fruit are more than worth it.
17 Beach/Camping Vacation Spot
Given the prominence of beaches in New Horizons, it makes sense that this locale should be optimally decorated—yet it often seems neglected by players. YouTuber and New Horizons player JammerProHD demonstrates one example of a cool, decked-out beach area.
This beach is given a vacation treatment, as it's spruced up with tropical themes, fishing equipment, and camping gear. Elements like a coconut tree, lawn chair, and bonfire go a long way in adding to that beachside party vibe.
16 Clean Neighborhood Of Brick
This island, posted on Pinterest is spotless and has a very beautiful layout that's super clean and aesthetically pleasing. It's simple, but the brick path combined with the brick fencing works perfectly. The houses are also spaced out nicely and not too close to each other.
The occupying residents definitely want their personal space and this player seems to have taken that into consideration.
15 Symphony Hall
Terraforming is especially powerful when creating special Instagram-worthy moments for villagers. This Symphony Hall designed by Jess, for instance, is the perfect date spot, and incorporates pretty much every aspect of terraforming into it, along with gorgeous statues and musical instruments.
By creating small islands that have one visually-appealing item placed on them, the view becomes a bit more diverse and interesting. It helps to really break the monotone look of the game, and lets players place items in ways that better complement the scenery. There's no shortage of musical-themed objects in New Horizons, and they can be utilized in many creative ways to construct an elegant music hall.
14 Staggered Waterfalls
A uniform green and white theme for an island can look surprisingly good, but what really makes or breaks such a specific color theme is how terraforming is used to vary things up. Lex decided to use terraforming as a way to ensure the island would have a much more natural appearance.
In particular, the fountains she's created here are slightly staggered, which seem much more realistic and comparable to real life. It really gives this view that mystical forest look that fits an island striving for a natural theme.
13 Moon Lake
Another great part of terraforming is the ability to create lakes of various different shapes and sizes. While it might be tempting to just go for something easy, like a round or square-shaped pond, sometimes going for those fantastical designs can be the one thing that pulls the look of the island together for good.
Reddit user yellowhiteflash wanted to bring in a witchy, mythical theme with butterflies, mushrooms, and tiny flowers. What better way to complete the magical forest theme than with a crescent moon-shaped pond?
12 Natural Path
Not everything has to be whimsical, as there's definitely beauty in symmetry as well. Paths like this designed by Reddit user Suitcasemanz have a powerful effect on islands, as they help to lead players and visitors alike to various locations. It's a fantastic entrance to a museum or resident services for instance.
The trick here is to line the sides of the path with small ponds, narrow waterfalls, and cliffs. It creates an almost valley-like appearance to the path and opens up the terrain in the middle in a majestic way.
11 Sculpture Garden
It's no easy task making things look natural. In fact, it's almost impossible. However, Reddit user Bibbiero achieved just that by creating this magnificent and mysterious sculpture garden using their leftover art pieces from the mysterious Redd's trawler.
Terraforming doesn't always have to follow rules of symmetry. In fact, having elaborate gardens and forests like this one can really make a difference, although in order to avoid clutter they should be decorated lavishly with thought, as shown above with custom flower designs, narrow waterfalls, and shrubs.
10 Cherry Blossom Wonderland
This amazing island was featured in a Japanese ad for Animal Crossing: New Horizons and showcases a beautiful cherry blossom wonderland featuring some of the cool items that one can get in the game. Things like the monster, lighthouse, and rocket ship are shown around the character in Island Designer mode.
The car beds on the left corner are extremely cool too, as well as the whimsical teacup ride. Some of these are items that can be obtained using Nook Miles while others are crafted with rare, highly sought-after DIY recipes.
9 Hyrule
Reddit user VaynMaanen made an extremely cool recreation of Hyrule from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. This detailed, distinct map is super close to the original, and it's awesome to see someone spend so much time and put so much creative power into terraforming their island to pay homage to an amazing game.
Terraforming isn't an easy task; one must have to spend a lot of time doing things block by block. It should be interesting to see how this island evolves in the future!
8 Japanese Themed Island
This beautiful Japanese-themed island is shown in a video by TagBackTV on an island created by a player named Chai. It has such a perfect landscape that mixes the brick and dirt tiles with bamboo trees and furniture. Everything blends well, and it utilizes the right mix of colors to make the area visually pleasing.
The vending machines add a really nice touch to a chill hangout area. The bamboo lanterns have been very underused as most players are currently using cherry blossom furniture so it's nice to see those being used here as well.
7 Waterfall Pathway
This terraforming makeover has a plethora of waterfalls with a path leading up to the player's house. It was one of the first terraforming makeovers to go viral and really showed the potential of the feature. It also gave good inspiration for players looking for ideas for where to put their homes.
It's quite hard to make that many waterfalls as players have to spend ample time planning the right amount of space and getting everything lined up on each side.
6 Waterfall Entrance
What better to walk up to when entering an island than a beautiful waterfall entrance? Created by SailorKelsey and posted on Reddit, this makeover is similar to the waterfall pathway but is toned down a bit to create a beautiful entrance for players traveling to this island.
The bunny day balloons, as well as the fountain in the center of everything, adds a really nice touch as well. It's amazing how even working with minimum decorations can still give a really visually pleasing look to any island.
5 Relaxing Hangout
One's residents always need a place to hang out after a long day of fishing, catching bugs, or shopping. Reddit user Ninjavsfawn created a relaxing secret place for their residents.
The waterfalls are lined up perfectly and the yellow and white flowers are extremely aesthetically pleasing. It's a really cool idea that could even be a good spot to fish with friends.
4 Flooded Island
What would happen if one decided to flood the entire island to only one block of land? PDWinnall, a YouTube creator, decided to test this theory out. It seems that even when terraforming an island to be almost completely covered in water, it somehow doesn't beckon more fish to appear around this tiny island refuge.
It would have been interesting if flooding an island had something unique; perhaps a fun Easter egg. But nonetheless, it's an amusing task—and a time-consuming one that may not be worth it. One could argue that there may at least be some bizarre bragging rights in trying something truly unique and funny (and likely rarely achieved). Props to the PDWinnal for testing the theory out!
3 Desert Island
This one is quite unique and really cool for anyone going for an authentically quaint, deserted-looking island! Reddit user AngelofMischief covered almost the entirety of their island in sand except for the buildings and corners that players sadly can't completely put paths on.
It's a great idea for even a small section of an island that players may want to renovate into a desert. For someone to take the time to cover the entire island is both off-kilter and awesome. Players can even make a private beach oasis somewhere in the middle of their island as a cool hangout spot.
2 Museum
The Museum is a very important building in Animal Crossing: New Horizons. It's essentially the main tourist attraction for those that visit a player's island, and a headquarters for collectible critters and fossils. Putting flowers around it and a fountain in front of it may be cool, but what about a grand staircase that leads up to one's building containing those island collections?
It's an awesome, visually fun idea that was shown in the Japanese ad as well.
1 Haunted House
This is another great terraforming makeover from an Animal Crossing: New Horizons advertisement video that will be really cool for any Halloween fans that would love to create a creepy island.
Fans are likely to point to its similarities to Aika Village; the famous spooky town in Animal Crossing: New Leaf that sprung wild theories and stories that will make one question what kind of game Animal Crossing really is. Overall it's a great idea and awesome inspiration for a makeover for the fall.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons is available now on Nintendo Switch.