Problem:
Giving the players the liberty to decorate their house however they want is great - unless they lack the creativity.
Suggestion:
Giving the player a preset/ a couple presets for house decoration.
The placement of chests, crafting stations , decor, etc. is predetermined. When inside the house, the player can preview what the decoration would look like - and at Danos commit to a chosen preset to deliever required crafting materials to see it fulfilled. Basically the same way as Sacrament building upgrades work.
Different functionalities can be chosen, each comes with a trade-off.
An example of Presets:
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Type ‘Home’: Cozy and photogenic. Furniture is of less folksy/higher tier style. Few chests are included.
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Type ‘Storage’: Chests are a priority, while furniture consists of lower tier crafts.
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Type ‘Workshop’: All-in on crafting stations with a few chests. Furniture is also low tier.
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Type ‘Hybrid’: A pairing of two of the former listed. More balanced - but more expensive.
All presets in general should come with a fee. High enough to have the player consider whether they don’t want to do it themselves, but low enough to still be affordable.
Since chests are usually the priority of everyone, it is probably advisable to have different decorations split up.
After commiting to a preset at Danos (e.g. Workshop) the player gets a range of material delivery options. The player can chose to craft chests first, or workstations, or furniture like chairs and other decorations. Especially the later should be broken down into several smaller grouped tasks (chairs, vases, tables, etc.). After completing the task the respective furniture will be placed in its fixed position.
Some things I have no answer to:
Should committing to a preset lock the player out of placing/moving anything manually until the preset has been completed?
Getting all required crafting recipes can be tedious and locking the player out of progression due to an absent recipe will certainly not feel good. However allowing the player to place/move items manually during the process might lead to clipping issues or the player placing lower tier furniture as substitutes to save fees.
Are these presets per room/floor or house?
Having a house turned into a storage is a lot more punishing than having just a room turned into a storage. Offering individual presets per room/floor means a lot more customizability, but also workload on your end.
Source of creativity?
Community builds, Moon Studios in-house, or a community driven preset platform alltogether are all valid options, though at increasing costs of production.