Tool 04 · Designs & recipes

Tomodachi Life grid art — the designs gallery

A curated collection of Palette House pixel art across every in-game category. Each design comes with the recipe attached — open it in the Grid Maker and you'll see exactly which brush, mode and swatches to use.

✨ Browse the gallery Submit your design
12seed designs
5categories
1-clickrecipe handoff
creditpreserved

Grid Maker

Paint-by-numbers blueprint with a recipe card.

Pixel Art Maker

Image → pixel art with 4 dithering algorithms.

Grid Sizes

Canvas dimensions, brush sizes, pixel math.

Island Maker

Drag-and-drop layout creator — plan your island before you build.

Personality Matcher

Score any two Miis on the four-axis compatibility system.
About this gallery

What is Tomodachi Life grid art?

Tomodachi Life grid art is custom pixel art created inside the in-game Palette House — a 256×256-pixel canvas where you paint clothes, food, pets, decals, TV covers and book covers cell-by-cell. Because the canvas is small and the brush only has 4 pixel-perfect sizes, every Palette House design is inherently "grid art" whether the artist set out to make pixel art or not. This gallery is a curated collection of the best community pixel art across every in-game category.

How to use a design from this gallery

Click any card to open the design straight in the Grid Maker. The recipe card on the right will tell you exactly which brush, which mode, and which palette swatches the original artist used. Open the Palette House in Tomodachi Life: Living the Dream, match the settings, and paint cell-by-cell — most designs take 10–40 minutes depending on detail.

How to pick a design by skill level

Designs in the gallery are tagged by difficulty so you can pick something that matches your patience and your in-game progress:

  • Beginner (8×8 or 16×16 grid, < 256 cells) — chunky icons, simple emoji-style art, single-colour silhouettes. Paint time: 5–10 minutes. Great for your first Palette House design or testing the workflow.
  • Intermediate (32×32 grid, ~1,024 cells) — balanced detail vs. effort. Logos, character portraits, food items, pet outfits. Paint time: 15–30 minutes. The most common difficulty in this gallery.
  • Advanced (64×64 grid, 4,096 cells) — photoreal faces, complex pixel art, multi-colour gradients with dithering. Paint time: 30–90 minutes. Worth it for showpiece designs you'll see every day.

Categories explained

The Palette House in Living the Dream lets you design across several item categories — each with the same 256×256 canvas but different in-game uses:

  • Clothes — t-shirts, dresses, hats. Visible on every Mii who wears them, so high-traffic pieces are worth the painting time.
  • Food — meals you give Miis. Appears full-screen during the feeding animation — chunky 16×16 designs read best here.
  • Pets — coats and patterns for cats, dogs and other animals on the island.
  • Decor / decals — wall art, signs and decorative items placed in Mii apartments. Use the Island Maker to plan where they'll go.
  • TVs & book covers — rectangular canvases (not square). Dimensions vary per item — confirm in the in-game preview before designing.

Where these designs come from

Every entry credits its original artist. Seed designs were created by the maintainers; the rest are community submissions reviewed and added by hand. If you'd like to share your own work, save the Grid Maker project as a JSON snapshot and email it to support@tomodachigrid.com with your preferred credit name. We add the best submissions every few weeks.

Designs Gallery · FAQ

How submissions, recipes, and credit work.

Where do these Tomodachi Life designs come from?
The Designs Gallery is a curated collection seeded by the maintainers and grown by community submissions. Every entry credits its original artist.
Can I use a design without crediting the artist?
You can absolutely recreate any design for personal play — that's what the recipe card is for. If you share screenshots publicly, please credit the original artist as shown on the design card.
How do I submit my own design?
Save your Grid Maker project as a JSON snapshot, then email it to support@tomodachigrid.com with your preferred credit name. We'll review and add it to the gallery if it fits.
Can I download any design as a paint-by-numbers reference?
Yes. Click any gallery item and the design opens straight in the Grid Maker with the original brush, palette, and dimensions pre-selected — ready to follow cell-by-cell.