Decorating a homestead without mods feels impossible, am I doing this wrong?

[RiftenWanderer]

So I'm on my third playthrough and finally committing to actually finishing a house instead of just buying it and abandoning it. Picked Lakeview Manor this time. Got the basic layout done, added the kitchen wing, all that stuff. But now I'm at the point where I need to actually furnish it and it just feels... sparse? Like, there's maybe 15 unique items I can craft or place without mods, and half of them are weapon racks and barrels.

I know people talk about how you can decorate with stuff you find in dungeons but that seems tedious as hell. Do people actually do that or is that just what modders tell you to do to make vanilla look better in their screenshots? Because on Switch I can't mod anything, and I'm genuinely wondering if Hearthfire is just designed to feel empty without third-party stuff.

What am I missing here? Are there specific crafting recipes I haven't unlocked yet, or is this just how it's supposed to be?

 

[NordOfSolitude]

Yeah, Hearthfire is definitely barebones without mods, ngl. You're not missing any secret recipes - the crafting options really are that limited. Weapon racks, display cases, a few tables and chairs, some shelves... that's pretty much it.

The dungeon-looting thing is real though, and I get why it sounds tedious. But it's actually less painful than it sounds once you get into it. You're not talking about doing a full dungeon crawl every time - just grabbing stuff as you naturally loot. A goblet here, a nice plate there, some books from a bandit camp. After a few playthroughs I started naturally picking up decorative items instead of just vendoring everything. Lakeview Manor's got decent shelf space, so even just filling those with books and potions and random Dwemer stuff makes it feel way less empty.

That said, if you're on Switch and want actual furniture variety without mods, you're kind of stuck. There's no workaround for that. Some people just accept it and lean into the "rustic hunter's lodge" vibe, which honestly can look decent if you commit to it. Others just give up on decoration entirely, which is fair.

What difficulty are you playing on? Sometimes the grind of building the house feels better when you're actually using it as a base between runs instead of just a storage dump.