How to decorate your house in Starfield

Getting into a place of your own is an ordeal in of itself, but once you have a house in Starfield it’s yours to decorate how you wish. Like many things in Starfield, decorating isn’t obvious though, so we’ll cover everything you need to know about decorating in this guide.

How to decorate your house in Starfield

You’ll need to own a house first before worrying too much about how it looks. We have some guides to get you going in this regard if you’d like a house in New Atlantis or in Akila City.

Once you own a house, travel directly to it. Starfield comes with an in-house editor system that includes assorted furnishings and utility stations. Look for a terminal on the wall next the front door of whatever house you choose. This is the activation button for entering the housing editor, and it’s the only place to get furnishings in the game.

The housing editor system isn’t anything astounding, but it gets the job done. You’ll notice there are categories for crafting and upgrade stations, decorations, and even terminals for convenient Mission Board access and Bounty clearing.

The editor will show you where you can and can’t place items, and allows you rotate and reposition placed objects for the right look. There is a small resource cost for placing items, but it’s nothing too demanding. I was able to fill out a basic room with what resources I already had on hand. The requirement for each item is listed in the editor.

Image by PC Invasion

Don’t overlook the cycle option either. Some objects come with around 17 variations. The item diversity is limited, but there at least doesn’t seem to be a budget. Feel free to fill out your house as much as you want.

Where things get interesting is with the “persistent universe” the Bethesda devs talked about in the Starfield Direct showcase. Item permanence is a thing in Starfield, meaning everything you touch will stay that way forever in the environment. Apply this knowledge to home furnishing, and that’s a lot to work with.

You might decide to stack sandwiches in the kitchen or pile up a bunch of junk and turn your house into a hoarder zone. The secret to doing this is the “hold” function I accidentally discovered. More likely, it was my subconscious thought to try grabbing things like was possible in The Elder Scrolls. You can grab any item in the environment and then place it down. It’s clunky, because there’s only one direction to rotate anything, but it’s there.

How to place items in Starfield

To grab an item in the environment, hold the “take” button or key instead of normally clicking it. You’ll then gain control of the item for direct placement.

Now go decorate your house in Starfield how you want and to your heart’s content. Also stay on the lookout for mods that expand the item pool beyond Bethesda’s limited furnishings. We’ll be sure to cover more. Now that you know random items are fair game in your home, why not check out how to increase your carry capacity, too, so you can fill up those pockets and turn your companion into a proper pack mule.