Linden Homes tip: wallpaper those boring MeadowBrook walls!

A quick tip for the morning...getting bored with the limited choices in walls in your MeadowBrook Linden Home? For just a few prims, you can "wallpapper" an area or even an entire floor. It's a lot easier than, for example, trying to create a loft in a Tahoe home!


Here's what to do, for those who haven't figured it out on your own. Go to your building tools and create a cube. Change the depth to something narrow, like about .005. Move the prim near a wall that you'd like to "papper" and stretch the height and width to fit. Adjust positioning as needed. Right-click on the prim and select "edit." In the texture tab, chose a texture from your inventory.


Now, as far as finding textures...the grey texture above is from the vivid - suede textures pack2 on xstreetsl.com. The cost is $79L for 10 textures, which isn't bad. I like the dimensionality of the sueded "fabric" texture on the walls.


There are many other textures available on xstreetsl.com. Here's a suggestion on how to search for them and cut out a lot of those you really don't want to look through. Go to category > home > building products > textures. Scroll up to the top of your browser window to the search button. Click on the "advanced search" link.

Make sure the "Search within the current category" checkbox is checked. Put in a description for the style you'd like to search for. Put in a price range (for textures/texture packages, 0 to 150 is a good range). You can optionally add permissions, but leave blank if you don't care about that right now. Sort by age - ascending if you want to see the newest ones first. Sort by price - ascending if you want to see lowest priced ones first. Now, click on the green search button at the top. You'll find that this cuts out a lot of the clutter and junk that you'd typically find if you were just browsing through the textures category.

Free Linden Homes Textures

Did you know that textures used in Linden Homes are available for free? Use these to make custom elements that match your home's decor...a window seat, a second floor for a Tahoe home, etc.

See the Second Life Wiki Linden Homes page for more details and SLURLs.

Linden Home update

I'm now comfortably settled in a Plumtree, a model that I haven't tried before. It features a first floor with a step-up living area and a nook under the stairs. The second story has a small loft set apart from the main living space and a deck with a small pool.

Currently I've got my photo studio in the main area on the second floor, and plan to use the loft area as a bedroom (the bed's in there already). This still leaves room on the second floor for a bathroom (or, as I may do, just a tub) and a sitting area.

I really like this floor plan; so far this and the Grayson are my favorites of the Meadowbrook homes. I've also tried the two Skylight models; for various reasons I feel those designs were designed with less optimum usability (two examples: one of those models has stairs that are easy to fall off; and at least one of the models has an L-shaped area on the second floor that is pretty much unusable - too wide to simply be a walkway and too narrow to be used as living space.

I'm keeping with the shabby chic theme right now, especially as I finish out the shabby chic store tour. It is very typical to see modern furniture in the Meadowbrook homes so I wanted to do something different. Those of you who prefer a different style, never fear, I am going to feature other styles in the future and will be doing "resets" featuring different styles.

In the photos above and at left there are pieces by bitter vanilla, La'Licious, Shabby Chic furniture, and other designers. I'll be giving a more in-depth report on what I'm using as things progress.

With everything moved I've moved in so far, I've only used about 65 prims of my total 117 prim allowance!  That leaves a lot of prims to use in the remaining furniture pieces and accessories.

Why 117 prims?

117 is the number of prims a Second Life premium account holder is allowed to place in their Linden Home. While 117 prims might appear to be a high allowance to those without experience in furnishing a virtual home, it ends up being a challenging limit. For example, many sofas available for sale in Second Life are 12 prims or higher. That's 10% or more of the prim allowance, for just one piece of furniture.

Even items advertised as "low prim" may not be really low in prim count. "Low prim" tends to be used as a relative term when describing furniture. Is it "low prim" compared to the designer's other work? Compared to what the designer perceives as an average prim count for this kind of object in SL? Compared to some arbitrary number (as in, if a sofa is under 10 prims, it's "low prim")? Consequently, even items advertised/marketed as "low prim" may not have all that low of a prim count.

But never fear, that's why 117 Prims is here. I'm going to try and cut through marketing claims, and give you the straight scoop. What kind of furniture out there is truly "low prim" and what compromises does a designer make when lowering prim levels? How much is that furniture going to cost the buyer? What styles does a particular home furnishings store specialize in, and are they worth your time to visit? What accessories will liven up your Linden Home without inflating your prim count, and which ones are prim-count-busters?

Stick around, and enjoy the ride.