Have you ever finished a long day of slaying dragons and clearing out dusty dungeons, only to realize your character has nowhere to kick back and relax? Sure, you could stay at an inn, but there is something special about having a place of your own. In the world of Skyrim, specifically with the Anniversary Edition and the Hearthfire DLC, you aren’t just limited to buying pre-made houses in cities. You can actually build and furnish your own custom homestead from the ground up.
Building a house is one thing, but figuring out how to furnish a house in Skyrim is where the real fun (and sometimes the real headache) begins. Whether you want a cozy library, a massive trophy room to show off your kills, or a warm kitchen for your spouse and children, furnishing is what turns a cold stone building into a home.
Why Furnishing Your Own Home in Skyrim is a Game-Changer
Before we dive into the “how,” let’s talk about the “why.” Back in the early days of Skyrim, you bought a house like Breezehome in Whiterun, paid a steward some gold, and the furniture just appeared. It was easy, but it lacked a personal touch. With the Hearthfire DLC, the game changed. You get to choose which wings to add to your house, meaning your home reflects your playstyle.
If you are a master alchemist, you can build a tower dedicated to your craft. If you are a collector, you can build a room full of mannequins and weapon racks. This level of customization is why over a million players every month still search for the best ways to optimize their Skyrim housing. It’s about more than just storage; it’s about immersion.
Prerequisites: How to Unlock Your Hearthfire Homes
Before you can worry about how to furnish a house in Skyrim, you actually need to own some land. There are three specific plots of land you can buy in the game, each located in a different hold. To get these, you usually need to do a few favors for the local Jarl. Once they like you enough, they will offer you the chance to buy a plot of land for 5,000 gold.
Lakeview Manor: The Forest Retreat
Located in the beautiful woods of Falkreath, Lakeview Manor is widely considered the most popular home in the game. To get it, you’ll need to talk to the Jarl of Falkreath. Usually, he’ll ask you to take out a bandit leader. Once that’s done and you’ve helped a few locals, his steward will sell you the land. It’s a gorgeous spot, but watch out for the occasional necromancer hanging out nearby!
Heljarchen Hall: The Snowy Overlook
If you prefer the cold, biting air of the north, Heljarchen Hall in The Pale is for you. It sits on the border between the snowy wastes and the tundra. To unlock this, you’ll need to complete the quest “Waking Nightmare” in Dawnstar and then kill a giant for the Jarl. It offers a great view of the Throat of the World and even allows you to build a unique Apiary for bees and honey.
Windstad Manor: The Coastal Fortress
For those who love the water and perhaps a bit of a spooky vibe, Windstad Manor in Hjaalmarch (near Morthal) is the perfect choice. You’ll need to complete the quest “Laid to Rest” to get on the Jarl’s good side. The unique feature here is the Fish Hatchery, which is incredibly useful if you do a lot of alchemy or enjoy fishing.
Homestead Comparison Table
HomesteadLocationUnique PerkBase Cost
Lakeview Manor, Falkreath Greenhouse / Beehives 5,000g
Heljarchen Hall The Pale (Dawnstar) Apiary (Honey) 5,000g
Windstad Manor Hjaalmarch (Morthal) Fish Hatchery 5,000g
Step-by-Step: Building Your House Foundation
Once you have your land, you’ll see a drafting table, a carpenter’s workbench, and a chest full of basic materials. You can’t start furnishing until the walls are up! You start with a “Small House,” which eventually becomes your entryway. From there, you expand into the “Main Hall,” and finally, you add three wings (North, West, and East).
Using the Drafting Table and Carpenter’s Workbench
The Drafting Table is where you select what you want to build. You don’t need materials to “select” a plan, but once you do, that plan moves to the Carpenter’s Workbench. This is where the actual physical work happens. You’ll need Sawn Logs, Quarried Stone, and Clay for the bulk of the construction.
Planning Your Wings: Choosing the Right Rooms
This is the most important part of the build. Each wing has three options, but you can only pick one per wing. Once you build it, you can’t change it without loading an old save or using mods. Think about what you need:
- Library: Great for book collectors.
- Armory: Perfect for showing off unique armor sets.
- Kitchen: Essential if you use the “Survival Mode” mechanics.
- Trophy Room: For those who want to display stuffed versions of the monsters they’ve killed.
Exterior Additions and the Cellar
Don’t forget the outside! You can build stables for your horse, a garden to grow your own ingredients, and a smelter so you don’t have to run to town to melt your ore. Also, always build the cellar. The cellar is a massive space where you can build every single Shrine of the Divines, giving you easy access to any blessing you want.
Core Guide: How to Furnish Your House in Skyrim
Now we get to the heart of the matter. You have your walls, your roof is on, and the place looks… empty. It’s just a big, hollow wooden shell. You have two main ways to fill it up: the “Lazy Way” (hiring a steward) or the “Hard Way” (crafting it yourself).
Hiring a Steward to Do the Heavy Lifting
If you have plenty of gold but very little patience, this is the method for you. A steward is a follower whom you ask to look after your home. Not every follower can be a steward, but popular choices include Lydia, Jordis the Sword-Maiden, or Rayya.
Once you have a steward, talk to them while standing on your property. You will see an option that says, “I’d like you to buy some things for the house.” You can then pay them a flat fee (usually several hundred to a few thousand gold) to furnish a specific room.
The Catch: The furniture does not appear instantly. This is a common point of confusion. Your steward “orders” the furniture, and it trickles in over time. You might have to leave the area and wait several in-game days for everything to show up. Also, stewards cannot build the Shrines in your cellar. You’ll have to do those yourself.
The Manual Crafting Approach (DIY)
For the players who want to feel like they truly built their home with their own two hands, manual crafting is the way to go. Inside every room you build, there will be an Interior Carpenter’s Workbench. When you interact with it, you will see a list of furniture items you can create.
This method requires a lot of specific materials. You aren’t just using stone and wood anymore. Now you need Iron Fittings, Hinges, Nails, and Glass. You’ll also need items from the world, like Goat Horns for lights or Straw for beds.
Why choose this?
- Control: You can choose exactly what pieces go in. If you don’t want a random table blocking a doorway, don’t build it!
- Skill: Building your own furniture actually gives you a bit of Smithing experience.
- Cost: It is technically cheaper in terms of gold, provided you are willing to mine the materials yourself.
Room-Specific Furnishing Tips
Each room has its own “vibe.” When you are at the workbench, focus on the essentials first.
- The Bedroom: Build the beds first. You can’t move your family in until there are enough beds for everyone.
- The Kitchen: Focus on the Cooking Spit and the Oven. The Oven is unique to Hearthfire and lets you bake delicious treats like Garlic Bread (which cures all diseases!).
- The Main Hall: This is the social center. Build the large dining table and the chandeliers first to make it feel grand.
Common Furniture Recipes Table
ItemKey Materials Needed Best Location
Bed Sawn Log (1), Straw (1), Leather Strips (2) Bedrooms / Main Hall
Display Case Sawn Log (1), Iron Hinges (1), Glass (2) Armory / Trophy Room
Dining Table Sawn Logs (2), Iron Fittings (1) Kitchen / Main Hall
Wall Sconce Iron Ingot (1), Goat Horns (1) Everywhere (Lighting)
Alchemy Lab Glass (1), Iron Fittings (1), Sawn Log (1) Alchemy Tower / Cellar
Shrine Base Quarried Stone (2), Iron Ingot (1) , Cellar
Materials Mastery: Gathering and Farming Your Resources
If you decide to furnish the house yourself, you will need a lot of supplies. Many players get frustrated because they run out of Iron or wood halfway through. To fully furnish a single Hearthfire home, you are looking at needing roughly:
- 150 – 200 Iron Ingots (for nails, hinges, and fittings).
- 100+ Sawn Logs.
- 80+ Quarried Stone.
- 50+ Clay.
Where to Find Everything You Need
- Iron Ingots: Buy these from every blacksmith you see. You can never have enough. You’ll be turning these into Nails by the hundreds.
- Sawn Logs: You can buy these from any lumber mill (like the one in Riverwood or Falkreath). If you are friends with the mill owner, they might even let you saw the logs yourself for free.
- Quarried Stone & Clay: Look around your property. Every Hearthfire plot has an infinite source of stone and clay nearby. You need a pickaxe and some patience.
- Glass & Goat Horns: These are harder to find. Check with “General Goods” merchants like Belethor in Whiterun. They often carry a small stock of these specialty items.
Efficiency Hacks
In the current version of the game, there are a few ways to speed this up. If you have a steward, you can ask them to buy stone, clay, and wood for you. This saves you the trip to the mill and the tedious mining animation. It costs a bit more gold, but it saves your sanity.
Also, keep an eye out for Corundum Ingots. While Iron is the main player, some high-end displays and locks require Corundum.
Advanced Hearthfire Tips & Tricks
Once you’ve mastered the basics of how to furnish a house in Skyrim, you can start looking at the finer details. This is what separates a basic house from a legendary Dovahkiin estate.
Making it a Home: Family and Displays
A house is just a building until people live in it. To move your spouse or children in, you must have a bed and a chest for each of them. If you built the “Bedroom Wing,” this is easy. If not, you need to make sure there are enough beds on the upstairs level of the Main Hall.
For the collectors out there, Mannequins are your best friend. But be warned: Skyrim is an old game, and sometimes mannequins like to “walk” or move slightly when you aren’t looking. Don’t be scared; it’s just a classic bug! To fix it, take the armor off and put it back on.
Avoiding Common Building Bugs
One of the most frustrating bugs happens when you upgrade from the “Small House” to the “Main Hall.” Sometimes, if you furnished the small house extensively, those items might clip through the walls of the new hall. The Fix: Try to build the exterior of the entire house (Main Hall and Wings) before you start placing furniture inside. This keeps the game’s “room markers” clean and prevents items from floating in mid-air.
Using Console Commands (For PC Players)
If you are on PC and you cannot find enough Goat Horns to save your life, you can use the console. Press the tilde key (~) and type: player. additem 0300303f 10 This will give you 10 Goat Horns instantly. While some call it cheating, others call it “magical interior design.” If you want to move furniture you’ve already placed, use the SetHouseCell command, but be careful—this can get messy quickly!
FAQs: How to Furnish a House in Skyrim
Can I furnish my house without the Hearthfire DLC? No. The ability to build and manually furnish homes is specifically a feature of the Hearthfire DLC (which is included in the Special Edition and Anniversary Edition). Without it, you can only buy pre-furnished city homes.
What is the cheapest way to furnish the house? The cheapest way is to mine all the stone and clay yourself, chop your own wood (if the mill owner allows it), and mine iron ore to smelt into ingots. It costs 0 gold but takes a lot of time. The best balance is to hire a steward to buy the raw materials, then craft the furniture yourself.
Can I change a wing after I’ve built it? Not in the base game. Once you choose to build a Kitchen, you can’t swap it for a Library later. You would have to load a save from before you built the wing. Choose carefully!
Why isn’t my steward furnishing the house? They are! They take their time. Every time you leave the “cell” (the area around your house) and come back, there is a chance more furniture will appear. Try fast-traveling to a distant city, waiting 24 hours, and coming back.
How do I get more mannequins? Mannequins are tied to specific rooms. The Armory wing has the most mannequins. If you want a museum-style home, the Armory is a must-have.
