Furniture customization

The customization menu in Animal Crossing: New Horizons.

Furniture customization is a mechanic in Animal Crossing: New Leaf and Animal Crossing: New Horizons that allows players to change the appearance of certain furniture items. In New Leaf, customization can be done via Cyrus in Re-Tail, and in New Horizons, it is done by either Cyrus at Harv's Island or by the player at a DIY workbench.

There are two possible components of a piece of furniture that may be customizable: body or pattern. A body customization lets the player change the furniture's appearances from a list of options. A pattern customization lets the player select a pattern to apply to part of the furniture, either from a provided list or from a custom design the player provides.

Appearances

In New Leaf

The player confirming to Cyrus on the wood variant for a Blue Wardrobe in Animal Crossing: New Leaf

In Animal Crossing: New Leaf, furniture customization is done by speaking to Cyrus at Re-Tail. Cyrus's services are unlocked after the player has lived in town for at least seven days, sold at least 100,000 Bells-worth of items at Re-Tail, cataloged at least 100 furniture items, and cataloged at least 50 clothing items.

If the player speaks to Cyrus while a customizable furniture item is in their pockets, they can have it customized for 10% of its buy price. Once the player selects the body and/or pattern variation, Cyrus takes the item and after 30 minutes, the customization is completed. Additionally, if the player has an ore in their pockets while customizing a compatible item, they can choose to have the item's body variation customized based on the selected ore.

In New Horizons

The player customizing an item in Animal Crossing: New Horizons

In Animal Crossing: New Horizons, furniture customization is done either at a DIY workbench or from Cyrus for furniture items that cannot be customized from a DIY workbench. At the beginning of the game, Tom Nook gives the player a tutorial on customization, and afterward the feature is unlocked. Item that the player can customize require a varying amount of customization kits to customize, while items customized from Cyrus require  Bells to customize.