The sky is the limit in Minecraft, but building houses comes with a learning curve. What are some designs that beginners should try?

One of the first house ideas most players build in Minecraft is simple and little more than a wooden box built in a panic as the sun sets for the first time. Everyone has to start somewhere, however, people will quickly look for a lot more beyond the basics as they seek to build something visually interesting in Minecraft.

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There are plenty of beautiful designs out there, but many are extremely complex and would be difficult for beginners to get to grips with, even with a tutorial. These players need a middle-ground, a set of smaller and easier house designs that have their own little techniques and intricacies to teach them how to build the massive stuff and come up with cool ideas.

Updated on October 30, 2021, by Reyadh Rahaman:The aesthetics of a house are not solely dependant on the shape and size, as, with many types of blocks in the game, Minecraft players can make unique color and texture choices as well--even without needing to use mods.

There are tons of different kinds of wood to use as well as many variations of stone and a lot more. Any log cabin or dank dungeon can be transformed with the right building block choice. The possibilities are numerous when it comes to choosing a building material, so, for a unique house design, be sure to think outside the box!

The main section of the house design doesn't do much to improve on the box with a roof design that most players will have already built. However, the extra features around this house are what make it much nicer to look at.

Raising the main section of the house makes it nicer to look at and safer from Creepers, not to mention it gives lots of space underneath. This space below can be used to keep animals, store lots of items, or as a bedroom for a 2nd player. It allows the space around the house to be extended for other purposes, as shown in the image, which has attached a stable and a couple of farms.

However, be sure to light up this space below, otherwise, mobs will spawn in great numbers if left unchecked. Though, this doesn't mean that players will have to stick a bunch of torches all over the place. Utilizing fenceposts and lanterns, players can illuminate this natural outdoor basement in a visually pleasing manner.

Villages are a brilliant place for new players to hunker down. They already have pre-built houses and beds aplenty; they're a safe place to spend the first few nights. However, the houses aren't the most interesting to look at, no matter what wood they're built with. Thankfully, they can be improved with a few simple additions.

Changing the ratio of wood to stone gives a lot less grey in the building, and adding in more logs and trapdoors gives the design plenty of variation. The roof gets spiced up, too, with sections protruding for windows, making this easy house idea prettier on the outside and brighter on the inside.

Additionally, players can replace the generic cobblestone foundations with a different kind of stone, such as smooth stone, stone bricks, and more. This will remove some of the cracked and mundane looks that come with a generated structure.

What's the easiest way to ensure players avoid the box design? Build a circle! As expected in a game all about cubes, building circular structures takes a bit of finesse. Thankfully, there are plenty of tools online that can give players blueprints to work from.

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This building has a smaller circle on top of a bigger one to add some layers and variation to the interior design. The open feel this design gives the interior is perfect for people who like everything they need in one centralized location. If more space is needed, it would be effortless to build another layer underground or make the existing layers bigger and go further upwards.

Including water features in a house by the river can be a nice touch that can impress friends online as well as give players quicker access to the upper floors. Simply choose an area on the roof of the desired floor and place a block of water to create a small waterfall. To avoid making a mess, simply dig a one-by-one hole where the water lands to contain it. This will create a water elevator as well as a more aquatic aesthetic for one's riverside abode.

For the players who didn't build a wooden box on their first night, it's likely because they dug into the side of a mountain instead. Hollowing out a few rooms in a mountain is a fairly easy task, and the interior can be designed pretty much any way the player likes. However, the exterior can be so much more than a door on a mountainside.

This design extends the room's overall feel out onto the side of the mountain and made the whole thing open with a window. Not only does this look nice on the outside, but it means that players no longer have to rely solely on artificial lighting for the inside--everything can have a nice sunny feel.

Keeping most of the surrounding area about the massive window wall rugged and organic will allow the juxtaposition between the refined interior and natural mountainside to be both more noticeable and complimentary. However, there's nothing wrong with creating a little garden in front of the entrance of the big window to add a bit of flair without affecting the vibe of the mountain retreat.

Minecraft is lots of fun to play with friends, especially if everyone is experiencing the game for the first time. However, it means that whatever house someone builds (unless built separately) will need to have enough room for both players, which is where this design shines.

A satisfyingly symmetrical shape, this raised house design gives each player their own space, complete with a living area and bedroom. The open walkway is positioned to be safe from monsters and provide fresh air, while a neat little farm is tucked underneath. Players could also use the bottom layer to make more interior space, like a communal area, for example.

For a more cozy vibe, players can potentially build bunk beds if they have a lot of friends staying in a single house. To do so, simply use fenceposts and wooden slabs to craft a small structure above a bed in order to place another bed on top. Just be sure to leave enough room for the bottom bed so that the player sleeping there won't get trapped.

Want to be safe from monsters at night? The sea is the place to be! As long as players aren't foolish enough to build near an ocean monument, living a short distance from the shore in Minecraft will be a rather peaceful existence.

This design can be quite a modular one, as whenever players need more space, they can build off what they've already created. In the image, there is the main house, a smithing area, and a farm, but so much more could be built on top of that. It could be layered outwards and upwards infinitely, creating a towering raft with lots of intricacies.

While a simple dock will do when getting such an ocean house setup, it could be a fun idea to craft a full harbor with individual docking spots for boats and other waterfront features.

There are no fancy building techniques for constructing this house. However, it still manages to look fairly interesting, which is mostly thanks to its shape. It's rectangular, but the way it dips inwards and outwards gives the impression of several rectangles stuck together, making for a great house idea in Minecraft when combined with the solid roof design.

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The basement layer is well done too. The small amounts of stone poking out through the leaves add some color variation without overwhelming it with grey, and the windows make it visually interesting both inside and outside.

If players want to kick this already awesome roof's design up a notch, they can use even more stairs in strategic spots. When placing stairs, the kind of stair block that appears will depend on the surrounding stair blocks. For example, by placing a stair block to connect two existing ones that are diagonal to one another, players can create a corner stair block. This can be done to give the corners of rooves an even more refined appearance.

Uploaded by JUNS MAB Architecture Tutorial.

Players will need a farm fairly quickly in their world, and they'll eventually need quite a big one, so why not build it into the house? This tiered design makes it pretty to look at and practical for whatever crops need to be grown. Players could even trade some of the crop space for animal pens if they wanted.

The house design itself is long and thin, but there's nothing to say that can't be altered easily. For example, in the image, the section underneath everything is left hollow, which would look weird from the back, but players could easily build the house downwards into the ample space available there.

With tiers being a significant feature in this design, players can place individual stone walls in loadbearing sections to create thin stone posts. Additionally, when these stone posts are placed next to one another, they will automatically form walls, which will give players many visual options for the supportive parts of this house.

Modern house ideas are often quite easy to build in Minecraft as they have square designs. Compared to medieval houses, which have a lot of complexity, modern houses just have weaved rectangles. This is an example with a few less complicated weaving to get players familiar with the style.

The way each section slowly fans outwards and backward gives a feeling that is simultaneously sharp and rounded while still leaving plenty of interior space and working in windows for lots of light. If that isn't enough, there are a couple of skylights too that make the roof more visually interesting and light up the interior.

Taking the support idea even further, players can use stone pillars (not to be confused with stone walls and stone posts) to create a relatively realistic aesthetic. The detail of the stone pillars will look nicer than wooden logs if players prefer the visuals of stone over wood.

Uploaded by A1MostAddicted Minecraft.

A castle is a very common desire for Minecraft players. However, those who have seen the ridiculously complicated and massive ones may think there's no way they'll ever achieve that dream. That's not the case, though, as nothing says a castle has to be massive or complicated.

While it's not quite the same as living in a complicated weave of rooms and corridors, there are plenty of ways for simple buildings to still feel like a castle. This design has the essential turrets, which give way to a big entranceway to an open middle room. If this feels too simple for players, then it's simple to add more turrets or extend the gaps between the existing ones for a more interesting shape.

This design is pretty much asking to be made of a more unique kind of stone, such as stone bricks and chiseled stone bricks, for the more refined textures of these blocks will make one's castle look like it was truly built instead of being cobbled together from the simplest and most abundant resources.

Minecraft is available on Microfost Windows, macOS, Linux, Android, iOS, iPadOS, Xbox 360, Raspberry Pi, Windows Phone, PlayStation 3, Fire OS, PlayStation 4, Xbox One, PlayStation Vita, Wii U, Apple TV, tvOS, Nintendo Switch, and New Nintendo 3DS.

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Reyadh is a writer of fantasy, horror, and science fiction who loves to play video games full of monsters and magic. When he's not scribing unique and unrelenting speculative fiction or slaying demons in virtual worlds, he is writing strategy guides to help others reach their gaming goals.