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10 Best Minecraft House Designs for 2023
Dwight Pavlovic
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February 7, 2023
Minecraft celebrated its 10th anniversary in 2021, and it’s been an incredible decade for one of the most popular PC games in history. The game’s developers aren’t about to slow down either, with one of the game’s biggest updates – the Wild Update – due out in 2022.
With so much content available to explore and build, there’s never been a better time to start playing Minecraft. And to help newcomers and old veterans alike with their next house build, we put together a list of the best house designs available right now.
The first half of our list focuses on accessible design ideas for players who want to start building immediately, without the hassle of exploring too much. The second half offers tips for more exotic materials and bigger challenges.
Easy to build Minecraft house ideas
Choosing the perfect build site can become an obsession, and there are good reasons to thoroughly consider your choice. For one, some biomes simply don’t offer the same advantages as others. And as you think about the resources and conditions of each biome, be sure to factor in proximity to food and reliable construction materials.
1. Get a quick start with wood
Wood is one of the most widely available building materials, and the base game features these 8 types:
- Acacia
- Birch
- Crimson
- Dark oak
- Jungle
- Oak
- Spruce
- Warped
Oak is the most common and you can find it in a majority of the biomes. Simply harvest logs to start building or use them to make planks for other tasks.
The Wild Update is expected to add mangrove swamps and some unique building materials, including mangrove wood. In addition to harvesting the new mangrove variant, you can create mud blocks by adding water to a dirt block. You can easily find mud blocks, too; they appear below the water in mangrove and swamp biomes.
Our first tutorial to share has minimal material requirements and a small footprint. The simple design makes it more versatile than a rough starter cabin, too. In other words, it’s a quick build that you may want to use for a while.
2. Graduate to stone and brick blocks
Stone and brick are a good next step, especially once you have a foothold in the game and want a more durable build. Wood may be an adequate place to start, but it doesn’t have quite the same protective edge as non-flammable materials like stone and brick. Accessing stone and materials for bricks requires some extra steps, but they’re widely available.
This brick guide gives a fast and straightforward template to follow. It also translates well if you prefer to work with stone – just swap out the material. You’ll even save a little extra time, because bricks require more planning and preparation.
3. Dig out underground bases
How you design your underground construction is up to you, but there are numerous advantages to heading beneath the surface in Minecraft. The barriers to working with underground spaces are minimal, and you can flesh them out however you want.
The beauty of building underground is space, which you can expand by excavating. You can also restrict access and improve protection by building underground, protecting the environment around your HQ and making it less conspicuous. Spudetti’s guide to an easy underground house offers a straightforward design and manageable ingredient list, with big multipurpose spaces.
4. Build medieval homes on a grander scale
Once you master a few of the basics and feel ready to combine more of your techniques, you may want to try out a build with a theme. There are lots of ways to make cool Minecraft spaces, but themed medieval houses add a deeper layer of immersion to your home without requiring exotic materials or a huge time commitment.
With BlueNerd’s tutorial, you can find a manageable design that combines the advantages of a wooden house with a few more complicated materials. As the description points out, his build features bone blocks, which are a little difficult to find. You can use birch for a similar appearance instead.
5. Weave nature into your build
One of the most open-ended ways to develop your eye for home building is to bring some nature into it. You can do this however you want, too.
Maybe you could use more natural materials in your build, or you can embellish your layout with a garden or agricultural space. Minecraft farm houses are one popular approach, and they require easy-to-find materials while mixing plants into your design.
Others take the concept a little further, blending nature and home almost step-by-step as they build. Zaypixel’s Hobbit Hole is a great Minecraft build idea and it’s a breeze to replicate, even for newer players.
More challenging Minecraft house ideas
Not all cool Minecraft houses are complex, but it’s more difficult to work with some materials and themes compared to others. For example, truly modern houses tend to combine more complicated techniques compared to basic Minecraft homes.
6. Incorporate obsidian for extra protection
Obsidian is one of the strongest materials in Minecraft, and you can find it where water encounters lava. Building a house out of obsidian means greater strength and protection. When you’re building, you can use obsidian like any block, and you can use it for a full or partial build. It does require some sophisticated tools, like a diamond pickaxe, to acquire it, otherwise you need to hunt for it in the wild.
OalTee demonstrates a slick way to build modern looking obsidian modules in their short tutorial. The exterior is minimal, but it’s a high impact and simple-to-replicate look. Plus, it’s a great introduction to obsidian, which you’ll find in our more challenging ideas.
7. Add flare with netherrack and nether bricks
It’s not too difficult to harvest netherrack, but it does require a nether portal for access. You can then use it for building and you may love its unique feature: it burns indefinitely when you ignite the top of the netherrack block. It’s a fun option to play around with when decorating, especially for the medieval houses and underground base in our list.
It has some other uses, too, and you can make it the focus of a dedicated build if you like its appearance or characteristics. HeySofia addresses the challenges of designing a netherrack home in the seventh episode of her Ugly Block-ing tutorial series. The outcome for her is a versatile, modern space. It’s cozy, but it has a more distinctive feel than brick or other materials.
8. Use quartz for a more versatile look
Quartz blocks are a durable and popular Minecraft building material. While quartz crystals are often clear, these resemble marble. It’s a great element in a modern Minecraft house or even as a primary building material. To acquire it, mine from nether quartz produced from nether quartz ore.
ShockFrost showcases a full-blown Minecraft mansion made almost exclusively out of quartz in his guide, with a look that wouldn’t be out of place in a real-life capital city. In this case, it has a more stately, classical atmosphere. You can also use quartz as supporting material in a modern home. It’s up to you!
9. Design a contemporary home
While the level of difficulty will depend on your final layout, modern homes are one of the game’s more challenging build ideas. They become even more difficult if you want to involve materials like quartz blocks. But if you’re ready for it, you’ll find this is one of the most interesting designs to experiment with.
If you’re looking for something modern but fun, Julious’ aquarium-style mini-mansion is a great concept to explore. The thick aquarium walls are impressive from inside and outside, while the interior space is efficient. The overall effect is dramatic, but the construction time is easily manageable.
10. Decorate with prismarine
Prismarine is one of the most popular materials in the Minecraft world, primarily because of its unique appearance and properties. It actually changes color back and forth from blue to green. This makes it ideal for a nautical theme – appropriate since it occurs naturally underwater – or just to make an impression.
Twin Saw embraces that sentiment in their prismarine mansion build. The final look is baroque and medieval, with a fantastical flourish thanks to the addition of prismarine and a steep, windowed roof. It’s a great direction if you want that Lord of the Rings feel mixed with a more elaborate look.
Summary
The best Minecraft house designs balance time concerns. That’s part of why small designs are so popular. They’re both attractive and not terribly challenging to replicate.
However, creative build ideas are a fantastic way to deepen your immersion. You can also tweak your experience with Minecraft shaders, mods, custom seeds, and texture packs if you want to go beyond the game’s standard appearance.
