A big part of Animal Crossing: New Horizons’ appeal for many players is the fact that players are free to do anything they want. The island can be decorated however a player wants from the furniture to the locations of cliffs, waterfalls, and ponds. Everything is completely up to the player.
And another element of this comes from the fact that the game gives players the ability to customize furniture and decorative items. Not all items can be customized, but quite a few of them can be made in a different color or with a custom pattern. This can be done with Customization Kits, an item that can be purchased from Nook’s Cranny for 600 bells each. Some of the items that can be customized might surprise even seasoned players!
Updated January 7th, 2021 by Hayley Mullen: As we head into this new year, it’s great to look back on all the amazing items and tidbits that Nintendo put into their latest Animal Crossing title. Whether they be rare seasonal items or items that often get overlooked, the customization feature in New Horizons is vast and always has a new surprise waiting. We’ve added extra entries for those itching to change things up on their island.
15 The Frozen Furniture Set
This cooler-than-cool furniture series can be obtained by building perfect snowpeople during the winter season on your island. If a snowperson is pleased enough with its form, it will grant you a DIY recipe for one of the Frozen furniture items, such as the Frozen Sculpture, Frozen Tree, and Frozen-Treat Set.
Besides the default Ice color, players can customize every item to be Ice Blue, Ice Pink, Ice Yellow, Ice Green, and even Ice Orange. The above color is the stunning Ice Purple, accented by a Three-Tiered Snowperson and Illuminated Snowflakes.
14 Villager Photo
If you’ve been lucky enough to receive a coveted framed photo from a villager on your island, you may have noticed that photos can now be placed on the floor and on walls, but have you noticed that every villager photo is customizable?
There are 8 different frames in total that players can choose for their photo, including fun options such as Pop, Pastel (as seen above), Colorful, and even a regal Gold. Only the best will do for your favorite villager!
13 Unglazed Dish Set
This unassuming item actually contradicts its name once customized. The Unglazed Dish Set can be crafted with Clay and has a classic orange-brown color of a freshly fired art piece.
The customization options breathe life into this item that many players may have missed due to its name, such as the Powder white or Deep blue options. The best three are undoubtedly the Oribe-style, Modern, and Patterned set, the last of which sports delicate pink blossoms on its plates and cups.
12 Western Style Stone
This one may be a little somber, but life cannot exist without loss. For Animal Crossing to acknowledge this, as well as the different ways people grieve and honor their loved ones is a warm touch to this game, along with its many other lovable features.
What’s great about the Western Style Stone is that it can be several different stone colors, including white, light grey, and dark grey. Several players have used Animal Crossing to honor those that are no longer in their lives, and being able to customize the stone helps with differentiation.
11 Standees
Missing the sakura cherry blossoms of the Spring season? The Tree standee has you covered. These items may not seem like much at first, but the standees make for excellent decorations for houses, yards, and around the entire island, especially since they can be customized to fit any season.
In addition to the Tree Standee, there’s also the Grass Standee, Mountain Standee, and Hedge Standee. The Hedge is particularly unique in that it can be customized to look like an Azalea bush, Hydrangea bush, or Hibiscus bush. If your favorite hedge flower isn’t in bloom, consider using this convincing decoy.
10 The Iron Garden Furniture
The Iron Garden set of furniture is a set of DIY items that have become pretty popular among players, especially since its appearance in the game is usually pretty early on.
When originally crafted, these items are a green color that looks nice in an outdoor seating and eating area, but they can actually be customized to be a number of different colors. Each item in this set can be customized to be brown, white, blue, or black, perfect to fit any café or restaurant.
9 Outdoor Bath
The Outdoor Bath is one of many DIY items that can be crafted by the players that look amazing when placed somewhere around the island.
Players that want to put a spa area on their island will definitely want to get their hands on this DIY recipe, but something many players don’t know is that it can be customized. Customizing this recipe will change the color of the stones from their original grey to black, white, or brown.
8 Cushion
When purchased from Nook’s Cranny, the Cushion simply looks like a pillow sitting on the floor. Although this is handy for placing inside to decorate a living room or bedroom, that’s not the only way to use this item.
Something many players don’t realize is that it can be customized with any pattern and can be made into a ton of other items like a bag of soil for a gardening area, a bag of marshmallows to lay on the ground at the campsite, or a variety of other unique uses.
7 Peach Chair
There are different DIYs that correspond to each of the fruits that grow on islands in the game. Among them is the Peach Chair, a chair that uses peaches and wood in order to make this adorable, fruit-themed chair.
When originally crafted, it makes a white peach with a brown pit as a pillow inside the chair, but it can also be customized to be a yellow peach with an orange pit-shaped cushion inside the chair.
6 Paper Lantern
For people that want to make a Japanese-inspired room or area of their island, the Paper Lantern item can really help to add some light and ambiance to the island without taking up a ton of space.
These lanterns look like traditional paper lanterns with wood and paper, but customizing them can give them a whole new look. The lanterns can be customized to either have dark, light, or orange wood and the paper can be customized to be plain or have one of a few decorative designs on them.
5 All The Bamboo DIY Items
Bamboo Island is one of many mystery islands that players can go to using their Nook Miles Tickets. After leaving with all the bamboo pieces and sprouts their pockets can carry, players can craft the Bamboo Furniture and decor items.
While they look pretty nice in their original green color, players that want something a little different can customize them into two additional styles. One is a dried bamboo style that looks light brown and the other is smoke-cured bamboo that has a red tone.
4 Fish Drying Rack
Instead of being purchased from Nook’s Cranny, the Fish Drying Rack is an item that can only be obtained from the Fish Tourney when it happens during January, April, July, and October.
That means players have to really practice their fishing skills to get their hands on one! This has a medium-toned wood frame with fish hanging on the inside, but it can be customized to have light or red wood, as well as squid or octopus.
3 Street Piano
The Street Piano is a DIY item that requires an Upright Piano and a Painting Set. The original Street Piano looks like a classic piano that has been painted on with graffiti, but it can also be customized to look completely different.
Along with the graffiti style of the Street Piano, it can also be customized to have this pastel, geometric style that has a completely different look and feel. Either way, this item would look great in a player’s house or on their island.
2 Beekeeper’s Hive
Although players can catch bees that fly around their islands and those pesky wasps that come out of trees when they shake them, players can’t actually keep them and take honey from them to sell to Timmy and Tommy.
On the bright side, players can craft a Beekeeper’s Hive to decorate their island with. When crafted, it has a light wood color, but it can be customized to be blue, red, white, or yellow. Sadly it won’t attract bees, so it’s best to plant flowers nearby to entice them instead.
1 Log Stakes
The Log Stakes are a DIY item that, as the name would suggest, look like logs sticking out of the ground. They can be used as makeshift fences or as decorative items around the island. When crafted, they look like dark wood logs, but they can be made to look like light wood, white birch logs, or orange wood.
The variation is quite useful for creating different forested areas, and is no doubt a great accent piece for those crafting their Cottagecore dream in Animal Crossing.
