So I've always found the houses in Oblivion to be quite boring. I've tried spicing my houses up a bit but the most I've ever done is put some special weapons on display and all the shields of the different cities. I'm on the PS3 so I can't do mods so what can you do to spice up your house without mods?

- By accident I found out that a some of the matrixes from the SI look really neat as displayes. I think I have an amber bow matrix on display.

- Books are tough to stack without mods, so I usually stack three on top of each other, then put something like a skull or quill atop them.

- Bread loaves, a wheel of cheese and an elven dagger look nice on the pantry shelf.

- Potion bottles and even some ingredients look nice on display, as well as wine bottles.

- A flat basket full of rubies and sapphires and other jewels.

- A large dark bowl with vegetables in it.

- A ceramic bow with fruit.

- A silver urn by the bed for, well, you know.

- A silver tea pot by the fire for heating water and a silver bowl on a table as a wash basin.

- An Ayleid Ruin statue.

- Quill, book, ink pot on the writing table.

- Folded cloth bolt at the foot of the bed as an extra blanket.

- Vases of flowers of course.

- Varla / Welkynd stones look nice.

When I was playing on the PS3, I once spent hours trying to hang weapons on the racks in the Bravil house. other than that, the most I ever did was arrange some Alchemy equipment and a few exotic looking ingredients near to wherever I stashed my alchemy stuff.

The items I most wanted to display always seemed to be the items most likley to fall through the floor

Wow those are some good ideas. And I've already discovered the difficulty in stacking books. I just spent a half hour stacking seven of them... except for The Lusty Argonian Maid which went by my bed :hubbahubba:

I posted on this in another thread, but I like to use the drop paintbrushes at different elevations. You can get two to hang there about a foot or two apart. Then you can hang what ever. I hang a full set of armor on them against the wall. You can lay a shield down and use it like a shelf. I just set the boots on the floor. I also hang torches on them in different areas for a cool effect. It takes time and a lot of patients. I don't know which, more of.

Already a lot of inspiration, just by reading Acadian's post! I'll keep an eye on this topic.

does your houses reset after three days ? because that's what I was always afraid off.

If you drag or knock some of the original items around, they may reset back to where they were. For example, if your house comes with a basket and you drag it to another corner, it will likely migrate back to where it started if you leave the house for three days. Popping the basket into your pack before positioning it can eliminate this. If your table comes with, say, an arrangement of three apples on it, they will likely respawn three days after you eat them. Items that have been in your pack that you arrange around the house will not respawn or move around (unless you knock them).

Another idea I have never done, if you have, say a large round table: Place a centerpiece (maybe a skull), then surround it with a collection of different types of daggers so the tips all point inward at the centerpiece. I have always thought that would make for an interesting arrangement/display.

Me too.

I got in the habit of not selling all the gems, jewels, nuggets, amulets, and rings awhile back when Renee Gade II and Igodah Go^Pe were still alive. She would then put all of them in bowls in various spots around the house, . There's a wide, flat basket you can take from various guilds or steal from houses. It's tan-colored. This is good for putting keys on. All my characters keep all the keys they find all over.

A couple of my past characters would also put pumpkins outside the door of hte house. I guess this is sort of a halloweeny sort of thing.

Luci Pheria (my chaotic evil Witch) was in the habit of collecting skulls, bones, and putting these on the outside of her main house (Weatherleah), as a sort of "warning" to anyone who comes along. She used the various flat surfaces inside Weatherleah to lay various ingredients upon, so she always had a worthwhile collection of ingredients to make poisons & potions from.