Furnishing and decorating your base in Project Zomboid

In Build 42 the reliable way to handle furniture is the Move Furniture cursor, opened from the furniture icon on the left-side toolbar. Guides for 42.19 and 42.20 say the right-click route is unreliable, so use the icon. While the cursor is open, Tab cycles the modes: Pick Up, Place, Rotate, Scrap and, on some objects, Repair. R cycles between objects that share a tile, or turns the facing of the piece you are placing. If you cancel the cursor, click the icon again; Tab will not reopen it.

Hover over an object before you click. The info panel shows its name, weight, the tool and skill it needs, whether it still holds items, and its chance to break. Pickup is a timed action, so do it in a cleared building. Before you can lift a container such as a fridge, oven, dresser or locker, you have to empty it. Rain collectors must be drained and lit barbecues put out.

Large pieces such as beds, big sofas and some counters break into several inventory parts. You need every part on you or dropped nearby, or placement fails. The target tile must be clear. To place, switch to Place mode or right-click the item in your inventory and choose Place.

The tool only has to be in your inventory, not in your hands. The usual pairings are below. Where an object can break, guides describe the chance as (10 minus skill level) times 7.5 percent, which works out to 75 percent at level 0 and zero at level 10 (one source). Many simple chairs and ordinary house fridges need no tool and cannot break.

Weight is the real limit, not Strength. A solo character can carry about 50 units, so a full backpack can stop you lifting a fridge. Approximate weights from current guides: house fridge about 40, oven, washer or dryer about 20, mini fridge and microwave about 10, sink about 5, simple chairs 5 to 7.5. Treat these as rough and trust the in-game panel. See carry weight for how heavy loads slow you.

Opinion For a whole house move, back a van up to the door and fill the trunk one room at a time. The vehicles page lists trunk sizes.

If you cannot find the furniture you want, build it. Carpentry recipes come in tiers, and higher tiers look better and unlock as you level. The levels below come from a single recipe list, so confirm them in the build menu. Materials vary, but planks, nails, a hammer and a saw cover most of them. The Carpentry page has the full recipe set and skill leveling covers fast XP.

Scrap mode in the furniture cursor takes an object apart for planks and sometimes nails. It is loud and destroys the piece, so do not use it on working furniture you want to keep. Dismantling explains what you get back.

Vanilla painting uses a paintbrush and a bucket of paint in the color you want. You right-click a wall you can paint. The catch is which walls count. Walls you build yourself can be plastered and then painted. Player reports and mod descriptions say that most of the original walls in houses and motels cannot be repainted in vanilla, and the usual workaround has been to tear the wall down, rebuild, plaster, then paint. Plaster wall is listed as a Carpentry 6 recipe (one source). Older guides describe plaster as a bucket mixed from plaster powder and water. We could not confirm the exact Build 42 plaster ingredients or the full color list, so check the build menu.

There is no wallpaper in vanilla. Wallpaper only comes from mods, such as the popular wallpaper and extra paint colors mod for 41 and 42. One quirk the mod's author points out is that in vanilla, a plastered wall and a white painted wall look the same, so you can skip painting if you want white.

Build 42.20 added free 3D item placement. Drop an item on a floor, table or shelf, then right-click the world item and adjust its position and rotation. You can hang guns and crafted melee weapons on a wall this way, or set plates on a table and plush toys on a bed. The same update added hundreds of new posters and wall decorations to the map. Rugs and wall pieces are moveable scenery, so try the Pick Up mode on them; not every tile can be lifted.

Opinion Do not fill one room with hundreds of placed items. It can hurt performance, and server hosts often ask players not to.

Table lamps and floor lamps are moveables too. They give light only when the building has power, either from the grid before the shutoff or from a generator later. Wall switches and ceiling lights are part of the building. We could not confirm a vanilla recipe in 42.22 for wiring new ceiling lights or switches. For portable light, Electrical unlocks an improvised flashlight and lantern; one guide lists them at level 1 and another at level 3. See lighting and Electrical.

For blood, right-click the stained floor and choose Clean up blood; for stains on a wall, target the floor tile next to it. Bleach is used up as you clean, so check how much is left. Blood also fades by itself over time. Junk piles can be heavy, so carry them to a bin a few at a time. Bodies are a separate job covered in corpses.

Mostly no. We found no source showing a comfort or decor stat in Build 42, and cleaning guides say a bloody base has no gameplay penalty. Some furniture has real uses. Beds give better sleep than the floor. Shelves and crates add storage, and working appliances let you cook and keep food cold. For unhappiness and boredom, use the tools covered on the mood page, such as books, TV and good food. Decor itself does not count.

Opinion Furnish for function first: bed, storage, fridge, stove, then light. Leave paint and posters for the long, safe stretch of a run.