15 Best Pond & Lake Design Ideas in Animal Crossing New Horizons

Your island is about to get a really amazing water feature. It’ll be the star of the show! You might wonder what you could possibly do with this power. What shape should it take? Where should it go? How will my villagers react? Don’t worry! We’ve got all the answers here, in this handy guide to aquatic sculptures for your island.

1/15. ACNH Fishing Spot Forest

There’s a lot of information for you to digest here. You’ll find all kinds of forest scenes on the web, but how can you tell which are the most realistic? The best way is to take advice from someone who knows about these things.

What does a full-blown forest need? We asked our resident hippo, George, and he told us it needs a small lake in the middle of some strong cedar trees.

2/15. ACNH Sightseeing Dock

Create a giant lake to set up your dock space, then place a small area of wooden pathway to keep visitors safe. Craft some country fencing and cherry blossom trees to give a pretty view, then place a tourist telescope to enhance the experience!

3/15. ACNH Lake of Crater

Light your lake up like a Christmas tree — with some of these hyacinth lamps. This scenic lighting option is easy to install, looks great year-round and costs less than a new boating engine! It’s the perfect way to celebrate the season without any hassle.

4/15. ACNH Lapcat Lake

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, you’ll find plenty of changes that have been made since the last game. First up, let’s talk about the local festival—the villagers of Lazy Town were getting a little antsy with just one festival per year, so we added another one! In this second festival, you can team up with some of your favorite Lazy Biz-nese Animals and go on adventures for unique collectibles.

5/15. ACNH NY City Harbor

NYC is a beautiful city. You can celebrate its grandeur by creating a huge lake in your island, placing the Statue of Liberty in the middle and sculpting some cliffs along the perimeter — heck, you might even want to add some waterfalls. It’s all personal preference!

Your extremely excited engineer is always looking for ways to spice up your home. Why not make him a cardboard house, which he can place anywhere in your house? A small LED flashlight inside is a quick and easy way to turn it into a night-light. And the best part? It’s free!

6/15. ACNH Lake Castle side

This is an example of how you can transform a rather minimalist Minecraft build into something that even fans of the game’s older style would be proud to display. The design begins with a simple pier in the foreground, made entirely from panels. This serves as a highlight for the materials used elsewhere (that is, silos).

The original decorator also used fences to create the castle turrets. Really smart idea! All that’s left to do is decorate the area with anything else you might have lying around, like those pansies and camellia bushes.

7/15. ACNH Picnic Umbrella Lake

This is a great addition to any island and a fun way to have little kids learn about physics. Remember when you use the boat ramp, because you might go flying if you’re not careful. After you create the lake, add a picnic blanket to lay on while you stop and smell the flowers.

Place this blanket over the picnic basket, and you’ve got an enchanting outdoor picnic set. Then just place a couple of cushions on that, and take a seat on your new garden bench overlooking the lake. No candles required!

8/15. ACNH Duck Pond

I’m all for bringing some greenery into your home, but this is a little much. This post by Apartment Therapy cuts right through the fluff, giving you four different ways to decorate with plants — but not on this scale. “When you’re working with larger scale items in a room, smaller plants are best,” says the article.

9/15. ACNH Pond Garden Swamp

Anywhere you have a pond near a thicker patch of trees and grass, you’ll be able to place this water table. The mum cushions are absolutely optional, but they’re going to give your frog villager a nice home for the rest of its days. You can make the game board any shape you want, as long as there are some mini islands in middle for those mum cushions.

It might look like a peaceful farm, but it’s also ideal for a firefight. Sure, this is an ideal area for hiding and flanking the enemy, but that doesn’t mean you should shy away from picking off enemies from afar. When you kill them, there’s a high chance they’ll drop some dirt to make a defensive rampart if you want to stay in the same position — or you can use it to make a flower bed!

10/15. ACNH Pond Moonlight

Creating a beautiful artificial moon is a fantastic idea, but it’s not without its challenges. If you’re looking at getting into the business of making moons, you may want to consider this helpful guide that’s going to walk through how to do so. The best part? It’s as simple as sculpting a moon-shaped lake in a spot that has a great view of the nighttime sky.

11/15. ACNH Watering Hole Flamingo

Charming Charlie’s new tropical flamingo collection is here to put a whole new spin on your regular, boring flamingo. These new, comfy flamingos hang out at a tropical watering hole, sipping cocktails and getting ready for their next vacation — but only for you!

12/15. ACNH Frog Lake Colorful

Now that you’ve learned how to craft your own lake, why not get some practice in with this frog-shaped island? As you can see from the picture, the trick is to leave plenty of open water space, both for eyes and cheeks, as well as in between. Practice makes perfect!

This path is a great start — with the rainbow colors and the cute drawings, you’ve created some interest. Next, add some bold potted plants to either side of your walkway or get some other acnh neighborhood ideas, and then you really have something! Think about using brightly colored flowers to really wow the neighborhood — or even better yet, use the new tulip scare that’s happening at your lot to draw attention to your spring-themed decorations.

13/15. ACNH Pond Spooky Pumpkin

You can visit this site anytime of the year. So if you’re planning on building a pond in your yard, you might as well add some killer pumpkin decor to it! That way, when it’s time to show it off, you can do so with pride knowing that the visitors will be totally impressed by the pumpkins, fencing, and the other festive items.

You can craft the garden bench and brick for a pond hangout spot. Throwback skull radio is all you need to set the ambiance, plus K.K. Dirge. Speaking of ambiance, be sure to check out my new track: ‘Creepy Crawlies from Beyond’.

14/15. ACNH Lover Lake

A heart-shaped lake is just the thing you need to complete your wedding day! This DIY project will take you and your partner three letters, one mouse and a lot of patience. Otherwise, it should only take you a few hours. Wrap up this gift for your loved one with a nice bow and enjoy the love for years to come!

For your wedding to really stand out, consider adding a special table to the venue. You can have a full-sized cake set at the head of the table, but don’t stop there! Make sure you have a ring on display too. Guests will enjoy looking through your unique decor and no one will ask what you’re up to.

15/15. ACNH Lake Waterfall

This will make you wonder why no one thought of this sooner — it’s a unique take on waterfalls and lakes. To create this gorgeous beauty, it actually takes a lot of work. First, you want to dig out the lower level and fill in the sides with land. Next, you sculpt the surrounding waterscapes (so they look like natural cliffs). It’s actually quite a unique process that isn’t as easy as it looks!

Start by creating the “Lower Level” of your lake with the tool that’s available just above. Then create the “Upper Level” of your lake, and remember to create a small island in the middle where you can place some cute floral ornaments.