Stardew Valley graphics mods: retextures and recolors

Stardew Valley graphics mods change how the game looks without touching its gameplay: recolors of the whole map, seasonal farm buildings, new animals and pets, interfaces with a different palette, and animations. The most downloaded are DaisyNiko’s Earthy Recolour (earthy tones), Vibrant Pastoral Redrawn (vivid pastel), Elle’s Seasonal Buildings and Medieval Buildings. Almost all of them need SMAPI and Content Patcher, and they’re updated for 1.6. The golden rule: use a single map recolor and pick the rest of your retextures with palettes that match it. Below you’ll find the best ones by type and combos that work.

How retextures work

There are three ways to change the game’s graphics, and it’s worth knowing which one each mod uses:

• Content Patcher. It’s the current method and the safest. The mod replaces images at load time without touching the game files, and you remove it by deleting its folder. Options are usually in a config.json that’s created the first time you launch the game with the mod. With Generic Mod Config Menu, many can be configured in-game.
• Alternative Textures. It lets you have several textures for the same item, building or animal and switch between them with a paint bucket sold by Robin. More than 1,300 mods use it. If you uninstall it, everything goes back to its original texture.
• .xnb files. This is the old method: you replace files in the Content folder. It doesn’t need SMAPI, but a game update or file verification undoes it. These days most retextures use Content Patcher.

Version 1.6 also added a skin system for animals and pet breeds. That’s why the newest animal mods no longer need extra frameworks.

Map recolors: pick just one

A recolor changes the palette of the whole valley exterior. They’re incompatible with each other because they modify the same textures, so pick one and look for other mods with patches for it.

If you don’t want to change the whole map, there are partial touch-ups by Elle (junimods):

• Elle’s Grass Replacement (1.1.2): shorter, more colorful grass in all four seasons, with an option for the original height. It clashes with recolors that include their own grass.
• Elle’s Dirt and Cliff Recolor (1.3.0): swaps the yellow dirt for a more natural brown, darkens the cliffs and adds seasonal tilled soil.

Farm buildings

This is the retexture you notice most, because you see the house and barns every day. All of these change with the seasons and need Content Patcher:

• Elle’s Seasonal Buildings (1.3.5, 1.6 only): three overall styles, eight house designs and layers of grass, leaves and snow on roofs and walls. It includes palettes for several recolors, Earthy among them. It weighs 47.2 MB. If you notice stuttering when entering or leaving the farm, turn off the golden recolor of the Gold Clock.
• Medieval Buildings (2.2): stone, wood and flowers with a medieval feel for the house, greenhouse, barns, coops, silos, mill and well. Colors tuned for Earthy and Vibrant Pastoral. It’s the heaviest (84.8 MB); when updating, delete the previous version.
• Hudson Valley Buildings (2.1.1): Hudson Valley rural style in ten color combinations, each in a vivid or muted version. Each player sees their own buildings, so in multiplayer not everyone needs it.
• IdaIda’s Seasonal Gothic Buildings: dark roofs, stone and ironwork for every building and cabin. A different option if rustic styles don’t win you over.

Gweniaczek, the creator of Medieval Buildings, rounds out the set with three more mods:

• Way Back Pelican Town (2.0): a rustic retexture of the town’s buildings and decorations, the desert, Ginger Island and almost every festival. It’s designed for the original town map.
• Gwen’s Medieval Craftables (2.5): matching lamp posts, signs, sprinklers, kegs, chests and machines, with optional snow in winter.
• Fish Ponds – 3 options and Pigeon Mailbox: fish ponds and mailbox on their own. If you already use Medieval Buildings you don’t need them, because it includes them.

Interiors

• DaisyNiko’s Earthy Interiors (1.2.2): brings the earthy palette to the town’s houses and yours, removes the purple tint from shadows and recolors furniture, wallpapers and floors.
• Cuter Coops and Better Barns (1.2): slightly roomier coops and decorated barns, with ten wall colors. Version 1.2 fixed the incompatibility with Earthy Interiors.
• Elle’s Kitchen Replacement (1.1.6): a configurable kitchen with wood or tile countertops, dozens of colors and separate settings for the house, cabins and the island.

Animals and pets

Elle’s mods use the 1.6 skin system: each animal gets a random skin when you buy it or when it’s born or hatches, and in config.json you choose which ones go into the draw.

• Elle’s Cuter Barn Animals: hundreds of skins for cows, goats, sheep (including alpacas), pigs and ostriches, with void variants.
• Elle’s Cuter Coop Animals: chickens, ducks, rabbits and dinosaurs; since 1.0.3, geese and triceratops too.
• Elle’s Cuter Cats and Elle’s Cuter Dogs: up to 158 cats and 366 dogs as new breeds, without replacing the originals. The adoption price is configurable.
• Farm Animal Facelift (1.3.0): smooths the sprites and adds breeds like highland cows or Suffolk sheep. It has an Alternative Textures version. If you combine it with Elle’s mods, set the animals the other one covers to «vanilla».

Watch out in multiplayer: with Elle’s animal and pet mods, every player needs the mod and the same configuration. Otherwise there may be errors or crashes.

Interface

• Vanilla Tweaks – Interface Edition (1.2.0): subtle touch-ups to icons, wallet items and quality stars, true to the original style.
• DaisyNiko’s Earthy Interface (1.2): earth-toned menus with 12 accent colors or one per season. It works with every language, Spanish included.
• Lavender Dreams UI Recolor (2.2.4): the whole interface in lavender, with plants around the portrait that change with the season.
• Custom Menu Background: a title screen background with skies, mountains and trees, random or to your liking.

Interface recolors are incompatible with each other: use one. If you’re looking for interface mods that add information, that’s something else: see the quality-of-life mods guide.

Effects and animations

• Dynamic Reflections (4.0.1): reflections on water and in mirrors, puddles after rain and stars reflected at night. It only needs SMAPI, supports multiplayer since 4.0.0 and is marked as Android-compatible.
• Animated Fish (1.4.0): every fish moves in the inventory, on signs and in fish ponds. It needs Content Patcher and SpaceCore.
• Animated Food and Drinks (3.5.0): 70 animated foods and drinks, like steaming coffee. Same requirements.

Combos that fit together

These three combos use mods whose creators state compatibility or matching palettes:

1. Earthy: Earthy Recolour + Earthy Interiors + Earthy Interface + Elle’s Seasonal Buildings (with its Earthy palette). Hudson Valley Buildings also includes seasonal layers for Earthy.
2. Medieval: Medieval Buildings + Way Back Pelican Town + Gwen’s Medieval Craftables. It works with the original game, with Earthy or with Vibrant Pastoral.
3. Pastel: Vibrant Pastoral Redrawn + IdaIda’s Gothic Buildings (designed for the original and for Vibrant Pastoral) or Medieval Buildings.

Add Elle’s animals and Dynamic Reflections to any of them, since they don’t depend on the palette.

Conflicts, performance and Android

• One mod per element. Two mods that change the same building, the grass or the interface overwrite each other, as their creators warn. Keep only one active for each thing.
• Size. Medieval Buildings (84.8 MB), Way Back Pelican Town (51.4 MB) and Elle’s Seasonal Buildings (47.2 MB) are the largest. On modest PCs, the initial load may take longer.
• Updating. Several creators, such as Gweniaczek or Gervig91, ask you to delete the previous version before installing the new one.
• Android. Earthy Recolour, Earthy Interiors, Vibrant Pastoral Redrawn, Elle’s Seasonal Buildings, Medieval Buildings, Way Back Pelican Town, Gwen’s Medieval Craftables and Dynamic Reflections are marked as Android-compatible on their pages. Read the Android and console mods guide first.

More Stardew Valley guides: the best mods for 1.6, how to install mods with SMAPI, multiplayer mods and expansion mods. You’ll find every retexture in the graphics mods section. To change how the characters look, see the clothing and portrait mods guide.

Frequently asked questions

What’s the best graphics mod for Stardew Valley?

It depends on the style. DaisyNiko’s Earthy Recolour is the most used as an earthy base, and Vibrant Pastoral Redrawn is the pastel alternative. For buildings, Elle’s Seasonal Buildings and Medieval Buildings are the most popular.

Can I use two recolors at once?

No. Earthy Recolour and Vibrant Pastoral change the same textures and overwrite each other. Pick one and look for retextures with a palette for it.

Do graphics mods affect my save?

Content Patcher ones only change images and are removed by deleting their folder. Animal and pet mods assign skins and breeds to your animals, so read the creator’s page and back up your saves before removing them.

Do retextures work in multiplayer?

Building and map retextures are visual: each player sees their own. Elle’s animal and pet mods require everyone to have the mod with the same configuration.

Are there graphics mods for Switch or PS5?

No. Stardew Valley doesn’t support mods on consoles. They only work on PC and Steam Deck, and some on Android with the unofficial SMAPI port.