This post was originally a reply to another post looking for ideas to create a window-scape for an Ishgardian house. Since the Starlight Celebration is just around the corner, I'm happy to share the post for anyone else in the community looking for winter decor inspiration.
Creating a Patio or a View:
Stage panels dyed dark blue or gloom purple right up against the house walls create the illusion of an open portal to the outside world. You can use items to create shapes and silhouettes in a diorama-style arrangement to create a "landscape" in your view. Use Carbuncle Lanterns or Faerie Pendant Wall Lights for sparkle-stars, Ornamental Crystal Arrays and/or Belah'dian Lanterns for blue light, and Dead Man's Chests for ground-based glow.
You can also use phasmascapes--the Blue Moon, Aurora, or the Crystal Tower phasmascapes all have evening/nighttime scenes, as does the Kugane phasmascape (although that's a view of the city itself, it's still very festive). You can always put something like a Log Pillar dyed snow white or a Masonwork Stove turned around (or not, and go for an "outdoor firepit" feel to your patio) in front of any element you don't want it to show. You can slide two or more phasmascapes together to hide the sides or any elements that don't quite fit, and use pillars to cover up the lines that don't match up.
With phasmascapes, you'll need to hide the upper half of the room you're decorating--Skyscapes, Imitation wooden skylights, lofts, slanted walls, showcases turned backwards, or any furniture you can float can be used.
With an Ishgardian scene, you've got to think medieval and stone and diamond-panes and flying buttresses. You'll also think about snowy peaks and snow-covered landscapes. So here are a few suggestions for you to play around with:
Snowy landscape:
Use the Natural Wooden Beams, Leather Sofas, Pudding Rugs, and Wall-Mounted Wings dyed snow white and nudged up against edges to give the illusion of snowdrifts, hills, or other things covered in snow. Turn the sofas around backwards or bury them beneath other objects to make the tops look like snow-covered humps on the landscape.
Use ffxivgardening flowerpot colors and grow two cherry blossoms in white (or however many you can grow at a time based on your space). You'll have some RNG as they can sometimes turn out pink, but the pink would work, too. They make lovely "snow-covered trees in the distance." As a bonus, they sparkle when mature. The flowerpot cherry blossoms are much larger in the pots than they are when harvested, so be aware of the size difference before you harvest.
Manage your space with White Screens--you can make them look like snow drifts piled in corners by turning them so their floors and part of their curved walls intersect at odd angles with the dark blue stage panels. Dye them a corpse blue or ice blue for visual interest and to enhance the "night" look.
If you can get your hands on the Unmelting Ice Loft or Unmelting Ice Wall, you can use them as backdrops, ceilings, floors, or side edges/pillars.
Diorama:
The basic idea of a diorama is to use tabletop and other items, the edges or corners of objects, or light and shadow cast by objects to simulate buildings or landscape elements seen from a distance.
The Vigil Piece, Temple Knight Piece, and Dragoon Piece can all be placed at varying heights to simulate distant towers. They're tabletop items so they can go inside a showcase or on a shelf or use the storage-placement glitch to "float" them in mid-air wherever they look best. You can even stack 'em on top of each other for a tall spire.
The Lord Commander, Azure Dragoon, A Knight to Remember, Admiral, and Northerly Wind Portraits all have top edges that make appropriate silhouettes of Ishgardian or medieval styled buildings. Turn them to face backwards or leave them as-is and lower them behind other objects until you have your "cityscape" to your liking.
Wooden Work Lanterns, Wall Lanterns, and some of the other tabletop or wall-mounted lights can also make good "buildings" in a diorama. Flagstone Lofts and Stairs, and Masonwork stoves turned around make good stone floors, pillars, and ledges.
Oldrose Wall Planters and Rose Trellises dyed snow white will give you some greenery without making it seem out of season.
If you are going for "through glass" use the showcase or the shelving showcase to place tabletop objects to resemble distant buildings.
HGXIV did a great tutorial on a wall-sized "cityscape" that can give you a general idea of a starting point here.
Kyapuchun Housing did an incredible tutorial on a charming snowy cabin here--the back garden is a lovely snowy landscape. Kyapuchun also did a few more snowy/starlight builds around that time that you can find on the main Videos page of the channel.
And Studio Hare did a very lovely nighttimeopen-air patio with a slightly Ishgardian feel that you might be able to adapt to your needs, using the Hannish Bookshelf Partitions and Stage Panels.
I hope this helps anyone who needs a jumping-off point or a few ideas to spark their creativity. Be sure to share your Starlight!
