The Island Builder tool in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream is an impressively comprehensive way to establish, build, expand and customize your in-game island, but with endless possibilities it can also sometimes lead to decision paralysis – what do you start doing when you can do just about anything?
In this list, we've found some inspiration for your Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream island decorating scheme to help you get started designing the island paradise of your dreams. Create neighborhoods, parks, boardwalks, archipelagos and so much more with the items you'll unlock to build!
Updated on June 27, 2026: Now that the game has been out a little longer, and we've seen more creative ideas popping up around the internet for how to design your islands, we're updating our list of island design ideas for Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream to include almost twice as many ideas as we had closer to launch. Have fun building and living the dream!
Standard Island Goodness
If the default island layout in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream wasn't so distinctly adorable, Nintendo would have given us something else, so there's no shame at all in sticking with this instant classic for a while!
Especially if you dress it up with the paths you unlock from the wishing fountain and the various exterior decorations like plants, seating, play equipment and more, there's nothing wrong with staying with the default island layout for a while. If you're just starting to make Miis for the island, it's a good idea to start small anyway, to help you get the hang of it.
Jail Beach
Do you have a Mii that just won't stop asking if you should put a vending machine on the beach, or for an umbrella just a grid or two from the one you just put it there self? Is someone messing with your favorite Mii and you need them to think about what they've done? Make an area on the island for naughty Miis with a river pool of despair to think about their decisions for a while.
Make a small indented area on the island with a beach below ground level, but don't forget to put some stairs leading in and let in any Miis that need a time out. They won't stay there permanently, but it's a fun notion that they're in the penalty box.
It's a good time to feed them one of the spoiled foods, if they're hungry too.
Solitary prison
But what about those times when jail beach just doesn't cut it? What if you made your romantic partner, but things have gone south and you need a moment before cutting them off? What if you have a themed island and your traditional loner character needs a little extra space?
Head into the water with the land tool and create a small island far, far away from the main area, unbound by any land or shores, and move the Mii out into it. They may occasionally appear on the main island, but we love the idea of leaving them isolated.
Lively beach promenade
Although there aren't as many playgrounds or theme park attractions in the game without creative use of the design tools, you can still access plenty of outdoor furniture and wooden paths to create your own boardwalk space. Between the Ferris wheel, the Tomoria restaurant, and all the beach furniture you can buy and place, there's plenty of room to get creative.
You can even use the Mii Network News tower to give the feel of a drop tour, or just to have something else to spice up the area outside of the benches, palm trees, and colored lights. Place colorful banners to welcome guests, and you have a boardwalk worth visiting.
Suburban islands
While you'll still technically be called a rare island in the eyes of the game, there's nothing stopping you from creating all kinds of exterior blocks outside of a capital area, to really separate your urban and suburban areas.
Place all your shops and attractions on the main island with the fountain, then create outer islands for all your Mii homes. Connect them all with little beach paths, and your Miis will be able to travel seamlessly to and from town. You should leave some green areas in the suburban areas with trees and plants, and use stone paths to get a more central feel of the island with the shops.
Natural bridges
However, you can create independent districts on your island, if the idea of beach walking doesn't quite do it for you! This option provides more of a mixed-use set of spaces for your Miis, with different utility spaces interspersed with homes and shops.
Everything is connected by thin land bridges, which tend to work best when you leave them at least two spaces wide so your Miis can go down into the center without congestion issues. You can even pave them with the search tools, providing stone or metal bridges for your Miis. Your prettiest Miis can even get a golden floor bridge, if you're feeling generous!
Bungalows by the harbor
This layout of Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream Island provides such a tropical atmosphere, placing the Mii houses at the end of wooden piers that jut out into the water from a central pier through the neighborhood. You see this style a lot in Southeast Asia, and some users have even taken things a step further with custom skins for the area.
Tomodachi Life: Living The Dream – Complete Souvenir List
Send your Miis far and wide with travel tickets in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream and collect the souvenirs they bring back to you.
Guide your tropical Miis back to well-decorated beaches, place Tomoria right on the sand, and you can even make the island feel more like an all-inclusive resort than a permanent residential area if you prefer.
Expand The Fountain
The size of the fountain is one of the biggest complaints we've seen so far when people are looking for layout ideas for Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream island, but why not turn a flaw into a feature instead and make a cute pond to go around the fountain?
You can carve out a shape around the fountain space and tastefully use decor and greenery to spice it up even further. You'll still see tons of Miis hanging out here, and they'll have such a beautiful space to do so – it's especially good for higher-level islands that might not need access to the fountain for more than regular daily donations.
Seasonal parks
There are tons of buildings and decorations to place in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, and the more Miis you make, the faster your island will start to get crowded, but it's always a good idea to try to leave your Miis some green spaces to enjoy throughout the year, especially by using the seasonal decor.
Grab the plants, shrubs, and flowers you get from the fountain at any time of the year — the ones you unlock after MNN Broadcast says it's the start of a new season — and redo the green spaces on your island to make them more natural outdoors. Edging paths with seasonal decor like sakura leaves or snowy edges gives you an area you can consistently renovate to keep you busy.
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Keeps it nice
After granting a few wishes, you'll be able to start unlocking all kinds of new roads from the Island Builder menu at the wishing fountain, and it's with these that you'll be able to get creative with how you pave the streets and walkways on your island, like the one you can see above.
The Mii houses all line up with the sidewalks and paths paved through the area, there are nice mixed-use neighborhoods with both shops and houses, and the whole island seems visually tidy at all times. Put down some decorations and fences to keep things linear with your decorations and your island will always look well organized.
