How to build a house in Minecraft

One of the most important things to do in a new Minecraft world is build a house.

At night, monsters like skeletons and zombies will spawn, so you’ll want a house to safely hide from them, as well as serve as a home base for your character.

Where to build your house

You should build a simple house at your initial spawn location, especially if you plan on playing with friends. This will give them a safe spot to hang out if they spawn in during nighttime and will also serve as a marker so you know where spawn is.

Once you get a bit deeper into the game, you can make a more elaborate house in your favorite biome.

How to make a house

To make any building in Minecraft, you’ll just need to place blocks to make walls. Place blocks on top of each other to build up some walls, and make a roof by placing blocks side-by-side on top.

Most blocks will work for a preliminary house, whether it’s Dirt, Wood, or Cobblestone. Sand and Gravel will also work, but they cannot be used to make a roof, as they will fall down. Keep in mind that using wood-based blocks will make the building susceptible to fire, so we recommend using stone or other mined blocks.

Image: Mojang/Microsoft via Polygon

Make sure to put some torches in your house, as monsters will spawn in the darkness. You’ll also want to add a door, which you can make by arranging planks in a 2-by-3 form on a crafting table.

Image: Mojang/Microsoft via Polygon

After putting all this together, you should have a simple area to hide from monsters at night.

What to put in your house

Since your house will serve as your base, you should at least have a Bed (three Wool and three Planks), Chests (eight Planks), a Crafting Table (four Planks), and a Furnace (8 Cobblestone or Blackstone). Everything listed below will be made at your Crafting Table using the ingredients indicated.

Later on, for more advanced Minecraft gameplay, you’ll want an Enchanting Table (two Diamonds, four Obsidian, and one Book), Bookshelves (three Books and six Planks), an Anvil (three Blocks of Iron and four Iron Ingots), and a Grindstone (two Sticks, one Stone Slab, and two Planks), though most players may opt to have this setup in a different building. These items are used to enchant tools and armor.

Decorating your house

Once you’re able to harvest materials easily, you can work on upgrading your house. You can make Concrete by using Concrete Powder (one Dye, four Sand, and four Gravel) to create colorful homes, use Buckets (three Iron Ingots) to create pools of water (or lava), and use Sand to make Glass Panes (six Glass) for windows. You can also use Wool to make Carpets (two Wool), and even decorate your walls with Paintings (eight Sticks and one Wool).