The trick is figuring out what to build next! Below you'll find 24 amazing Minecraft building ideas to inspire you, ranging from small, practical builds such as bridges and storage rooms, to massive aesthetic projects like castles, towns, and skyscrapers. Have a browse below and see if anything captures your imagination! Note: if you're after inspiration for your next house then be sure to check out our dedicated Minecraft house ideas page!
What better way to make an impression on your Minecraft server than to find an unassuming island in the middle of nowhere and turn it into a scene-stealing volcano dripping with magma? If you find the right mountain then much of the landscaping work will already be done for you - but if you want to create one from scratch, you can do that too! That's exactly how YouTuber "Shannooty" created the above volcano build , after all. For architects who want to think big with their next building project, let this magnificent gothic castle build by YouTuber "Geet Builds" inspire you to embrace your inner medievalist.
A big, bold, rustic castle is a builder's dream, with endless design opportunities in the battlements, the windows, the archways, and more.
Creating a modern-looking build in Minecraft is always an interesting challenge, as it forces you to think hard about the types of blocks you need to use. For those looking for the ultimate challenge, why not create a realistic modern skyscraper like those above, created by YouTuber "Alpine". Just make sure you get planning permission from others living nearby!
Floating bases aren't exactly a new concept in Minecraft, but they've stood the test of time because they're just so versatile. You can make a cute little floating island with a cottage like YouTuber "Rake" made pictured above , or you can hop into Creative Mode and use mods like WorldEdit to create colossal floating mountain bases if you like more on mountain bases below!
Ah, the bridge. Delightfully practical, but also a chance to create something truly beautiful. Like many other builds in this list, you can be as simple or as ostentatious as you like. If you don't want to get bogged down with a huge building project, a bridge might be a perfect mini-project for your latest world. The above bridge, by YouTuber "Zaypixel" , can be completed in just a handful of minutes.
There's nothing quite as eye-catching in Minecraft as a magnificent ship on the horizon. And they didn't even resort to black sails! But you could with your ship, of course. It'd look incredible with the realistic water you get by installing one of the best Minecraft shaders , too. If you're looking for a similarly nautical build, there's a lot you can do with a nice tall lighthouse. The actual real-life function of a lighthouse is to be a landmark, so it's the perfect opportunity to put your own unique style into a build.
Just as long as it shines at the top, you can do what you like. If you need some inspiration, check out YouTuber "Meddi"'s video on creating the above lighthouse. Note: if you want to inject some more life into your latest Bedrock world, why not check out our guides on the best Minecraft Bedrock seeds and the best Minecraft Bedrock Texture Packs?
Depending on who you ask, a cathedral can be even more grand and opulent than a medieval castle. A cathedral is a huge block of architectural splendour which gives you so many opportunities for interesting designs, patterns, and block choices. The above cathedral was built by YouTuber "Lanwan Builds" , and it's a recreation of Winchester Cathedral, a building I've walked around many times and been inside once or twice as well.
It's an incredible building, and such a build in Minecraft will be worthy of the blood, sweat, tears, and Diamonds you put into it. What better way to show off everything you've collected over the course of your Minecraft journey than to store it in a museum?
Much like castles and cathedrals, the grandest museums are tourist attractions in the real world, and so they're bound to attract attention on your Minecraft server. You can check out the interior of the above museum build by watching this video by its architect, YouTuber "MegRae".
Minecraft's default blocks offer so many different types of stone that you don't even have to use any of the best Minecraft texture packs to create a truly phenomenal statue. Statues are a great thing to build in Minecraft, because you can make a statue of just about anything, and it can be as realistic or as abstract as you like. Check out the above dragon statue build by YouTuber "thebigbaron" for some inspiration.
I bet you could make a similarly awe-inspiring statue out of Netherite to give it some extra sleekness. This ensures an organized and efficient inventory. Every base begins with a bedroom.
Minecraft players usually know the value of a bed, as they serve as the respawn point for players when slept in. Having a bed to return to makes accidental death a bit easier to take and reduces backtracking. Because of this important feature, a bed should be built in every base and not just your home base. Sleeping changes the time of day to sunrise and resets the weather to clear weather. The player wakes up next to the bed, facing the bed. Minecraft is a "hoarding game" in which players often gather as many random resources as they can carry.
Therefore, creating one or two storage rooms might be a good idea. When your base gets larger and your exploration trips longer, you will absolutely need those storage rooms to sort and categorize your resources.
The walls must be at least four blocks high since spiders can jump up to three blocks high. Of course, a closed roof with a lava pond on top is also nice…. Adding torches around your base can reduce the amount of monsters that spawn nearby, so add some light to your lawn!
You can also use fences , cacti , and burning netherrack to keep enemies out. Just remember that spiders can jump your fences. Using a fairly simple redstone circuit connected to a lever at one end, and one or more pistons at the other end, you'll be able to build some simple floodgates. If you extend the pistons first, and then place water, or even lava behind it, you can get rid of or even kill any mob passing by pulling the lever and letting the water or lava flow!
For a quick morning mob clean-up and a strong sense of catharsis, you can place lava floodgates surrounding your entire shelter, facing out. One throw of the lever reduces the surrounding landscape to a barren wasteland! Not to be used in wooded areas. The simplest of these is a "dry moat" or trench, a couple layers deep so that skeletons and zombies can't get across.
This can provide you with a reasonably safe area that is outside. This can be filled with water to push the enemies to a mob grinder, or simply filled with lava which has more dramatic and obvious effects.
Please note: It might not be a good idea to use lava when having a shelter built out flammable blocks such as wood, wool or wooden planks. Tower shelters would do well to have a three-block deep water moat to break the player's fall so they can safely fall to the bottom.
If a moat does not feel sufficient, build a lake around your base, preferably several levels below the entry level and with a bridge to allow easy access back and forth. Again, it can be water, or, if you want a dramatic flair, use lava. Remember to protect the bridge well, though, and be sure you are protected from within the island in case you miss a spawner. Making a drawbridge out of trapdoors is a fun alternative to the actual bridge. If you have a plentiful supply of arrows, building a small tower to pick off nearby monsters can be fun and provide useful resources such as gunpowder.
This is handy if mobs want to pay you a visit. Splash potions can also be used as ammo, but are harder to obtain. The benefits of using potions is that they can affect a wider area than arrows.
If you're not satisfied with moats or a perimeter fence, consider adding a trap or two. If you're up to a challenge and on a multiplayer server , you could even make an entire trap, designed to look like a base!
Dark rooms with no way out for mob spawning, entire mazes made of glass, and traps using pistons and lava. The possibilities are endless. Using trapdoors, some redstone, and switches, a simple drawbridge can be made.
Dig a moat around your base and make sure it is too long to jump across. Now, make short walls next to your entrance. Depending on whether you have a single door or double door, you will have to use one row or two rows of trapdoors respectively. Run redstone next to the trapdoors and connect them to switches inside your base, then cover up the redstone walls.
This prevents mobs from getting close to your door while you are inside your base, but the bridge has to be left open while outside your base, otherwise you'll have to find another way back in. Alternatively, you can make a T Flip-Flop gate and place another switch outside your house to trigger the drawbridge from anywhere. It is possible to make a drawbridge using sticky pistons that is very difficult for a mob to cross.
This draw bridge also involves the use of a moat or lake. A knowledge of redstone logic gates and how power is supplied to blocks is needed as the mechanism uses multiple redstone repeaters, NOT Gates and a T-Flip Flop. Using the T-Flip Flop one can wire the drawbridge so that it becomes accessible or inaccessible with the touch of a button from either side of the bridge. When the player s wants to cross the button is pressed causing both ends of the drawbridge and the center to be even allowing the player s to cross.
When activated to keep mobs out both ends of the drawbridge are raised 1 block higher than the water level making it impossible to jump from the water to dry land and the center blocks are lowered 1 below the water level causing the center area to flood. Assuming both areas are properly lit and secured this creates an impassable entrance to one's base.
Because zombies and skeletons can survive sunlight in water and hostile mobs can swim, if you have a base on the coast it's a good idea to make sure it isn't vulnerable to mob attack. Additionally, drowned pose a threat in the water. Building canals, lighting nearby islands, and building walls on areas of water you don't use can stop very rare, but still as deadly, attacks from the sea.
If you like to blow up stuff, you might like this. All you need is a lot of pressure plates wood and TNT. Once you found your spot dig two blocks down. Then place the TNT then another block, then the place the pressure plate. You can have a big mine field but usually more effort than it's worth. TNT cannons are a good destructive way to take out mobs. If you have a lot of iron, you can create a separate room containing multiple iron golems.
This can be opened via a piston door to allow iron golems into a courtyard or garden. This will allow them to be sent to kill zombies if your house is under siege. If you have a small house near or in the desert, and you want some more protection because you're just starting out, or if you're a veteran and you want a cheap, effective wall, then this is the wall for you.
It's basically composed of cactus blocks, placed about 3 blocks high, and all around your base in a way like this:. Place a snow golem in a small booth and give it a hole to throw snowballs at mobs through. Elevate the golem so that creepers can't blow it up and zombies can't hit it.
The best material to construct these are stone , stone brick or brick. Obsidian is harder to obtain but a lot better than stone-based blocks. They should be at least 4 blocks high and 2 iron doors for the exit. This is a room you can solely use to make weapons and store them. You'll want a crafting table and some chests for materials. This is useful since you can then use your original crafting room for things other than weapons, therefore leaving more space for such.
Some holes in the side would be useful for sniping all the mobs and creepers outside. This can be used to signal if enemies are near your base. Using the command block , you could make it so a message gets sent out when you pull a lever or press a button, and could also turn on a source of lighting so people can see the signal from far away.
Can be fun on single player or LAN, but it is also quite useful for multiplayer. This is useful for those short corridors from one part of your building to the other, as when you pull a lever at one side of the corridor, the floor would open making enemies fall down who are chasing you. Very easy to make, all you need is a couple of sticky pistons and redstone , and optional lava , then you're set! These are an easy way to keep mobs at a distance, and are especially effective against mobs which use sight as a weapon, such as creepers and endermen , however it can be tough to collect the necessary resources for this mechanism.
Say we're going to protect a window which is two blocks from the ground and four blocks wide. Next, place three blocks of gravel on each piston so that there is one block of gravel sticking up above the ground.
Behind each piston, place a solid block that accepts redstone , and then place a bit of redstone on each of these blocks, as well as the blocks behind them. From there, run a redstone line to the lever which we'll use to work the blast shields, keeping in mind that redstone can accept a signal from the block above it making it feasible to have the lever inside your house, preferably near the window you wish to protect.
The final product should look like this all the redstone should be off and the cobblestone is the window :. After that, cover the redstone circuitry with whatever you wish to protect it against damage, and you're good to go!
Note: If you're good enough with redstone, you can also have all blast shields around your house hooked up to a single lever, which you can flip whenever you need to.
This is a nice feature to add to the windows of your Nether bases. Surprising foes makes any weapon effective! No one will ever know when a fancy statue is a literal bomb! To make one, fill a statue with TNT , then add some underground redstone leading to a button to activate it.
Activating detectors makes this defense automatic,though beware of mobs or players setting it off! Building it near a base is not wise. Normal rails and one block of activator rail with some power applied can replace a large redstone usage if statue is lower than the shelter.
Push a minecart with TNT down the rail to activate. Remember to add the Activator Rail early on the rail if possible for a quick countdown! There are infinite possibilities in Minecraft.
These ideas are not always functional but can be fun to make and have. For your chests with many valuables, in case someone gets in base, they might not find your room to steal your stuff.
Every block traveled in the Nether is equivalent to 8 blocks in the overworld. So why not use it to save on materials for building a long rail? You can have a portal in your house and a portal somewhere else connencted by a minecart rail in the nether. This can connect to a village, some cool mountains, a mushroom biome, or another place of interest that would take way too long to walk to. Extremely useful on Large Biomes and island worlds.
This can be made out of any type of wool you want, but usually people build statues of themselves. This serves no purpose in single player except decoration. A room with framed trophies from your many victories: your first ghast tear , the enchanted sword you killed a wither with, your first nether star , a block of emerald , etc.
Use signs as plaques to mark the origin and perhaps the date of your trophies, give it fancy glowstone lighting, and have a pride-of-place shelf for a wither skeleton skull or perhaps even the Dragon Egg. This is a good way to put torches , cobblestone , gravel , and wood to use.
First, you should dig out a road as wide and long as you want it then fill the holes in with gravel, then build as many cabins as you want in each cabin put a table, a chair, and a chest , then light it up and put a wooden door on each one. Then build a restaurant, this should have some chairs and tables, and in the kitchen put a chest full of food and coal , then put furnaces in the kitchen, if you want to make it really nice add outdoor seating, and if you're on multiplayer charge people to eat there.
Then add a store only build this if you're on multiplayer. It should have lots of sorted chests. It's recommended you hire a guard to guard the valuables.
Now add your house, this should have a bed , a crafting table , and a chest, and anything else you want. Now add a fountain in the center of the city. Finally add a bunch of mini houses containing chests, and a crafting table. This can be about various things.
Minecraft, you, your worlds, or a favorite mob can be among ideas. If you want it to look grand on the outside, place large pillars around it. Also, a grand staircase to a large front entrance helps. If you are in multiplayer, you don't want anyone getting into an underground base, right? Well, dig down at least three blocks and make a room.
Then get out and put a piece of dirt over the entrance and place a sapling. Put bonemeal on it. Then dig the piece of dirt out and make a hill one block away from the tree. Dig one block into the hill and place sticky pistons so that when they come out they stick to the tree trunks and pull it back or forth, thus opening the entrance and closing it.
After that, you need to expand the base so it's actually useful! Ever wanted an area to see all the mobs in their epic glory? Build this! It's best if you use bricks , stone bricks , or stone. You'll also need fences or glass, and signs. First, build various pens for mobs. Place glass on all sides, or just one. Alternatively, you could make a deep pit and put mobs in it. Put a fence around the outside. When you're done with pens, place paths guiding players around. If you want it to look nice, place large fountains, flowers and hidden note blocks around.
If you want it realistic, build restaurants, statues, and gift shops around. If you have hostile mobs in your zoo, you can use a name tag to rename them so that they do not despawn. This is VERY easy. Simply find a lake or beach, dig out a large area, fill it with sand, and your own touches, and tada! You're done. Here is one way to make beach chairs: [1]. This is a little harder than the natural version. Dig out a large area.
Fill the outer shore with sand, add your touches and tada! You're done! Build a big castle of sand and sandstone with many rooms, chambers and whatever else you may desire.
Add a moat, sniping towers, or other defenses to make it a nice sand strong hold. This really serves no purpose in singleplayer.
Simply place tall grass , vines, leaves, trees, and water on and around your base s. It can give it a kind of cool look, depending on how well you do. If you have a tall base and you want to get down faster, place water on the ground to land on from a fall, so you can jump down safely. Or, if you have version 1.
Using this gives you a chance to find resources, and in the case of invasion by mobs , it will always provide a safer spot. Underground floors are also useful for making mob grinders or animal farms. If you're really good, add a whole back up shelter under ground. If you like to be safe, add multiple bunkers, but hide a super safe and secret bunker. You could also make a part of the floor out of glass in the same spot on each floor, so you can see all the way down, and it looks nice if you do it right.
It is normally advised that you do this after building underground floors, especially if you have a ton of resources after mining the basement out. These floors could even give you a chance to "snipe" some creepers and spiders in the morning. Place your balcony so that it has a nice view! Add a chest with bows and arrows for quick mob sniping. Useful for a variety of things, from providing a point for easy kills to enjoying views. If playing with flying enabled for example, in Creative Mode you can create platforms at the same height on multiple buildings for easy flight between the upper levels of different locations.
This works great in tree-forts, cities, and anywhere that multiple balconies are otherwise unconnected. Since 1. Install luxurious violet carpeting for the bedroom.
Give your craft room a nice glass roof. Rebuild the armory out of obsidian. Redo your outer walls in smooth stone. Add a second story to your library. Having more than one base helps if you need to travel farther to get resources. A base next to your spawn point is helpful if you built your main base far away and you died at night.
A base in a desert can provide sand , and a base in a tundra can provide snow. A base hovering in the sky can provide entertainment, especially if mobs spawn on the edge of it. A great idea is to connect them with nether portals that have a secure hallway in the nether. In case you need to quickly gear up and run back to get dropped gear or items. Perhaps a sword , cake or a stack of porkchops , and stack of torches. A more advanced kit can be made from dispensers that give you items at the click of a button or a step on a pressure plate, although arrows and torches still have to be accessed from a chest or two if you want the whole stack unless the dropper is used.
You never know, a creeper might one day get you. Build a tunnel to escape it. It could also be used to lead to a secondary base. Another idea is to have the tunnel lead to a central room with several other tunnels branching off of it, with tunnels leading to the surface, caves, perhaps even a secret hideout.
If playing on a multiplayer server, maybe even add a few dead-end tunnels to confuse anyone who may be following you through the tunnels. Simply make a hollow space out of glass and fill it with lava. An efficient method is to run a vertical column through many floors powered by a single lava block at the top. You can also make one of these high above your base to mark it from afar. If your house is made out of flammable blocks, this isn't recommended.
A Quarry yields very large amounts of materials such as cobblestone and dirt to make your buildings, and coal and iron to make tools and torches. It can require several days of game-play to finish building. Some rarer materials like gold can be found as well. See the Quarry page for instructions. Making a sunroof that points directly down your mining shaft has its advantages: you can tell the time of day more easily, and burn mobs like zombies and skeletons.
The sunroof can also provide enough light to discourage other mobs from spawning in your mine. Make a large pillar of stone or any non-flammable material and pour a lava bucket on it. It helps when you are a long way from home. Make sure not to build it too close to your base if it's made out of a flammable material.
No mobs can spawn on glass floors, making for a handy alternative to a well-lit shelter. Light is still important, though - you could even have a 1 block high space below all glass blocks on the floor and pour lava there. This keeps your shelter visible and provide a fancy, creepy feel. Players and mobs entering your house without your knowledge is a pain, that's why you need a doorbell. When a mob or player steps on the pressure plate the note block will play a sound, and you can make this more sophisticated making chimes or even a whole song that play upon entering.
If you have multiple entrances to your base, place different blocks under each note block to make sure that if a creeper comes to your west entrance, you don't get blown up when you try to run away through that door. A more technical variation on the Lighthouse - the light blinks on and off like a real lighthouse. You may also use a minecart rail system, which can be made so you put down rails in a square 4 rails on every side , then put down a booster and detector rail, power the booster, and connect the detector rail to the torches you want to blink with redstone.
Place a minecart on the booster and it will loop forever. This can be used to blink multiple torches with the same system, and does not require maintenance. You can connect more detector rails for faster blinking speed. If you find yourself using boats in a general area often, making a dock or two is a good idea. They can help prevent your boats from drifting off into the ocean, or slamming into a wall when you exit, thus breaking the boat. Dispensers can also be placed here and filled with boats for convenience.
Chests filled with boats are a good idea too. There are several ways to make useful docks. Warning: it is recommended to only use this method on Peaceful difficulty and to land on the half blocks at a lower speed, since instant death is possible when landing on half blocks at a higher speed.
Create a fridge by placing a dispenser on the ground, a block on it and a button on the side of the block to quickly get something to eat when you're starved.
Add a door in front of the dispenser if you feel it would look better, or if you just like the idea. You need 22 stone and a bucket of water. Taking out the stone pillar in the middle of the fountain can look nice, and placing half-blocks around the stone blocks can look fairly cool.
You can also make the fountain a source of light by replacing the stone pillar with glowstone. After making a fountain like this, you could experiment with making fountains in other ways. These are very cool looking.
Have these anywhere in your house: library, craft room, furnace room, you name it. All you need is redstone, sticky pistons, and levers. Be sure to keep them hidden if the rooms are secret - a good way to do so is hide the device you use to power the pistons.
After you find a stronghold, make a tunnel to it. This is an easy way to get to and from the End. Keep it well lit and defended so that if a creeper runs into you in the stronghold, it can't follow you back to your base and blow it up. You can spice up your base by adding a carpet made out of colored wool. Make sure that fire and lava aren't within two blocks from the carpet, otherwise your carpet will go up in flames!
Bright colors, like red, blue and purple are recommended, because black and gray carpets don't have the same feel. Try mixing colors together in cool patterns if you're looking to give a room a bit of flair. With the new carpets added in snapshot 13w16a , you can carpet the upper floors of your base without having your lower floors' ceiling made of wool. If you have enough resources, build a roller coaster out of rails. Add twists, turns, steep climbs and falls.
Use booster rails to keep it running fast. This is a decent way to keep occupied while you have nothing else to do in the vast world of Minecraft. Useful in multiplayer - you can charge other players to ride. This could also be used as a monorail type of system. If you have a large base, this helps you get around it faster. Create a base floating in the sky with no bridges or stairs connecting it to land.
Of course, it doesn't have to be this way to build it! The no-connections idea can be accomplished with waterfalls, piston elevators, and nether portals. Add other sky islands nearby with bridges to connect them, and it'll be like you never left the ground! If you truly don't want any connections to land, even with the waterfalls and nether portals and elevators, gather up all the resources you'll need and seal yourself away in the sky. But make sure you have a bed up there in case you die.
For extra entertainment, make a smaller island and plunge it into darkness, and watch mobs walk right off.
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