Modern HomeDesign forMinecraft

Modern HomePyramid HouseThe LibraryTwo Story Wood HomeTwo Story Modern HomeCylindrical Structures

Glass HouseSecond Story Room andDesigner FloorEmerald CottageModern Home with SwimmingPool

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Modern HomeBuilding modern style homes isa great way to get creative inMinecraft. Let’s get started witha design I came up with afterseeing a real house near myneighbourhood that stood out.It was all white and hadmirrored glass windows in thefront and a mirrored glassgarage door. Not being able touse mirrored glass in Minecraft,I came up with this design thatuses diamond windows:

To build this house we’ll needthe following materials:

Quartz blocksDiamondCobblestoneIron DoorSmooth sandstoneblocks

We will start on the left side ofthe house, where you see thetall, narrow windows.

Lay down a single row of 5 quartzblocks. Then build up on both edgesuntil the structure is 6 blocks high.Connect up your two columns atthe top. Then build a third columnin the center, leaving two 1x4 emptysections for the windows.

Above is how your wall should lookafter filling in each column withdiamond. Alternatively, you could

use blocks of ice to simulate thewindows.

Next, go to the right side and buildback two more columns of quartz,as shown here.

Now add a three block wide sectionon the back. Include a 1 x 2diamond window.

Here is an aerial view to make sure

you have it set up right.

Next we will do the front door. Thestructure will include two irondoors surrounded by diamond. Firstadd two columns to the right of thesection we just finished, offset byone block (see below). Then buildup four diamond blocks, then tworows across at the top, and thendown one column of four diamondblocks. The doors can go in thespace. Cap off the section with a 4x2block of quartz.

Next add two columns of quartz tothe right side (as viewed fromfacing front).

Next we will add the garage. Firstwe are going to build out a wall ofquartz from the right side of thedoor area, around 6 blocks.

The garage door will be 4 diamondblocks in height, and 8 diamondblocks wide. Then add two rows ofquartz blocks on top.

Now let’s add a covering structurefor the entry way. First add a 6block high column of quartz, to theleft of the diamond section thatencloses the front doors, and oneblock out from the garage.

Now will in with quartz blocks.Have your roof extend out as far asthe garage, and then add a block toconnect up with the supportcolumn, forming an upside down“L” shape.

Now build a nice entry way. I used afour block wide section ofcobblestone, and will usecobblestone for the driveway aswell.

Next, let’s fill in the interior of thegarage with smooth sandstone. Itwill be six blocks in depth and eightacross, to match the width of thegarage door.

Now build the exterior wall to theside of the garage, and enclose theroof above.

The next step is to build the outsidewall, first laying down one row ofblocks. The details here will dependon your particular terrain, but I hadmine next to a natural body ofwater, so I am going to put a porchgoing out to the water and leave anopen entry way next to it. Here is anaerial shot:

You will notice I started the interiorfloor using birch wood planks. Ialso put an iron door going into thegarage from the main house, anddirectly above it are three light bluestained glass blocks. I am usinglight blue stained glass blocks forwindows on the back and side of thehouse as well.

Next I am adding some walls forinterior rooms. The details of thisaren’t important you can build upyour interior rooms as you see fitfor your design. This aerial shotshows the complete filling in of the

interior floor with birch woodplanks, plus the patio area withcobblestone.

The rest is just filling in outsidewalls with quartz blocks andoccasional windows of light bluestained glass. Here is the sidecoming back from the garage:

Here is the side with the patio.Notice I added an iron door goingout to the patio, and used all glass

in the corner.

Here is a view of the back of thehouse.

And an aerial shot, as seen from theback. Notice I raised the roof on thefar right section and made it oneblock lower in the back left.

Pyramid HouseAn interesting design is to builda pyramid. Keeping with ourtheme of “modern” I am goingto build a simple pyramidhouse that is mostly glass. I willuse chiselled sandstone andcyan stained glass. Start bydigging out an 8 x 8 hole:

Now fill with sandstone:

Now build a ring around thiswith chiselled sandstone:

Notice I left a one block spacefor an entry way. I won’t be

using a door in this building butsimply have an open entry. Topoff the outside ring with cyanstained glass:

Now here is the trick tobuilding a pyramid shape. Finda corner and put a block thereat the level of the highest row.Then put a block on top of that,and use it to start building aring of blocks that is one blockinside from the previous ring,and one block higher. Whenyou are done destroy the starterblock. Here I add the starterblock in one corner:

And now fill in the next level:

After that, its just a matter ofrepeating the process until the

top gets filled in.

Here we are nearly finished

filling it in.

At the very top, I can fill it in

with a 2 x 2 section of cyanstained glass.

To spruce things up add somefurniture to decorate your

interior.

In one corner of the pyramid, Icreated what you could think ofas a bath or water fountain.Wall in one section withsandstone blocks. Then get abucket of water and dump itinside.

The LibraryI am calling this building the“library” because I got the ideafrom the library at theUniversity of California, SanDiego campus. Although itreally doesn’t look like that. Butthe idea I got was to create abuilding where each successivefloor is larger than the onebelow it.

In real life that kind of buildingwouldn’t be structurally sound

without additional supports,but no matter. It will do inMinecraft. For materials, we areusing:

GoldStone or use grey clayBlue stained glassPillar QuartzIron doors

Let’s start on the first floor. Diga 6 x 6 hole.

Fill it with pillar quartz, whichmakes an excellent pattern for a

fancy floor.

Now add a row of stone or grey

clay around the outside. Thenadd one iron door.

Next we will fill in one row ofblue stained glass. Then on top

of that add a row of gold,followed by another row of bluestained glass and a row of stoneor clay.

Fill the clay in all the way so itwill be the ceiling of the first

floor.

Now we want to extend it out.Add a ring on the outside of theceiling that is two blocks wideall around. From ground level,you can see it overhanging therest of the structure.

Now all we have to do is repeatthe process, for as many floors

as you would like to have. I didthree floors. Just repeat thepattern of blue glass, gold, blueglass:

Then add a new ceiling, eachtime extending it out 2 blockswider than the previous level.

Two Story WoodHome

Like the first house we did thisone is based on a real design as

well, which includes a lot ofblack stained glass and darkwood. Spruce planks are a goodchoice for dark wood. I usedoak and birch for inside floors,and some cobblestone andquartz as well.We will start construction onthe left side of the building.Create an 8 x 8 section ofspruce:

Next, dig a six block widetrench.

Fill it with oak wood planks.

Now build up a front area ofblack stained glass, 4 blocks

high. Extend a row of spruceplanks on top of it.

Now fill in to the top. Withblack glass, and then on theright side add a column ofquartz blocks, 8 blocks high.

Now fill backwards with fourmore columns of quartz.

This takes us to the next area ofthe house, where we will add

some more black stained glasswindows. First put a bottomrow of cobblestone, then 3blocks high and seven blockswide of black glass. Then top offwith two rows of quartz.

Now go to the middle (thefourth block) and add an

outside column of cobblestone.

To the right of this, we will add

our front doors. I will use twowooden doors, although ironwould work with this design aswell.

You can see behind the doors Ihave started laying down the

inside floor, for the bottomfloor of this house I will usebirch wood planks, which give anice light color. Now enclosethe doors with some quartzblocks as shown here.

Next extend the top row ofblack glass to the end, and then

the two rows of quartz above it.

From here, we can enclose the

boundary of the side and backwalls. The exact dimensionsaren’t that important, but hereis an aerial shot to use forguidance. I am going to addanother door on the side.

Now turn your attention to theupstairs area. Return to the

spruce section where we beganthe house, and start addingflooring, extending back fromthe wood row that divided thetwo sections of black glass. I amusing oak wood planks on thesecond floor. Notice that I amleaving an open area where Ican add some stairs.

The bottom floor is birch woodplanks. Next behind the original

spruce wood plank wall webuilt, I added a wall of blackstained glass.

Now fill in the rest of the topfloor with oak wood planks.

Here is an aerial view.

Now fill in the roof. The roof ismade of spruce wood planks.

On the side of the house abovethe front doors, I added askylight made of plain glassblocks. It is 5 x 4.

The remaining tasks are to fillin the back and the side next to

the front doors.For the back, I filled in theentire area with black stainedglass.

On the side I used mostly glass,but filled in the center withquartz and added a door in theback corner.

Now clean up the yard from anyweeds and add some walkways

made of cobblestone.

Two StoryModern Home

This modern home is builtusing stone, quartz and cyan

stained glass. Begin by digging alarge square hole.

Use smooth sandstone to fill itin:

Now go to the area that will bethe front of your structure. Onthe outside, build a two blockwide section of stone from themiddle to the front, and wrap itaround. Do this on both sides,and it will look like you havetwo “L”’ shapes.

Now on the rear of each “L”,build up two blocks.

Now build out toward the frontfrom the top as shown here,

two blocks wide:

Then fill the empty space with

cyan glass blocks.

Next add two iron doors in

between the two structures youjust built.

Now above each “L”, build tworows of quartz, but start thefirst row on the outer edge ofyour “L”, so that the second rowof quartz creates an overhang.

Here is a view from below soyou can see what I mean

And a view from above. Notethe offset of the quartz relative

to the stone “L”.

Add two cyan glass blocksabove the doors, then connect

your quartz “L” shapes in thecenter.

Now let’s add the second floor.Using smooth sandstoneblocks, start adding them intothe areas where we left theinside offset with the quartz.

Here it is filled in.

Now add a row of stone blocksfor the second floor.

Top that off with cyan glass.

Then add another row of stoneblocks.

And then, a row of quartz.

On top of that, add another rowof quartz, two blocks wide, but

offset like we did on the firstfloor.

An aerial view:

Fill out the ceiling with quartz.

When everything is filled outhalfway, which will be to theend of the L shapes we startedwith, it will look something likethis.

Now add three quartz blocks toeach back corner.

Then fill out from the two “L”shapes with a row of stone, and

close off the back with a row ofstone leaving a space for a backdoor.

I am going to fill in a lot of theback area with plane glass

blocks. Fill in as you like.

I am topping off the back area

with quartz.

Adding another overhand of

quartz on the back:

And the back door.

Now at the edge of what wehave so far for the second floor,

add a set of steps made ofsandstone.

Side view of the steps:

Now add a wall around part of

the steps on the second floor:

An aerial view:

Fill in the rest of the secondstory floor with sandstone. Now

fill in the back wall and sides ofthe top floor with stone andplain glass.

Then enclose with quartz.

Here is an aerial view of theroof. Notice I dropped down

one block in height on the rearhalf of the house.

CylindricalStructures

The next design is based onanother real house. It has alarge cylindrical structure to theside where they have a spiralstaircase. I’m not going toactually do a spiral staircase,but I’m going to show you howyou can approximate roundstructures in Minecraft.

Let’s see how to do it. First startwith a straight row.

Make it an odd number ofblocks. On each outside edge,go over and down one and addanother hole. Then repeat.

Now move over and down oneagain, and add another row on

each side.

Then you duplicate the pattern

on the other half of oursimulated circle. Here is theone I am using for this build:

For this structure I am going touse the orange colored acaciawood planks for the floor androof. The outside ring of thecircle will be quartz.

Now I start to build up, leavingsingle column wide spaces for

windows on the straight sides.

For this project I am using lime

and purple stained glass forwindows.

Here is an aerial view. I amleaving one side open because itwill connect to the main house.

Fill in the last section withacacia wood planks.

Now extend about 3 blocks for ahallway, and then build the

outer walls of the main house.

Raise the front wall with space

for two three block widewindows and a front door.

The side wall will also have two2 x 3 windows, and we will putone large one in the back.

The back window is a large 5 x2.

Now finish filling in the entirefloor area with acacia wood

planks.

Above the door, I placed a 2 x 2

purple stained glass window.Notice I used wood doors, butiron would work too.

Around the building, I willalternate window colors a bit.

The first window to the right ofthe front doors will be greenstained glass, and then the nextone over we go back to purple.

Following the same pattern, thefirst side window over from the

doors has green glass, and thenthe one behind that is purple.The back window we go back togreen.

I placed another large window

in the back corner, but wentwith green again because itoffers a little more interiorlighting.

Now top off the structure withacacia wood planks to start the

roof.

After filling it in, starting one

block in from the outside, go ablock higher. Our goal is tocreate a pitched style roof.

Raise again for the next row,and have it 3 blocks wide at that

height. Then raise again, andagain in the center where it willbe 5 blocks high.

Here is how it looks from thefront.

Now cover the hallway and adda roof to the cylindrical part of

the bulding.

Here we’ve filled in the edge,

notice that we have also filledin the windows, including twopurple windows in the hallway.

Here it is completely filled in.

A couple of views of the housefrom different angles, touching

up the front yard with somegrass and flowers.

Glass HouseWhen deciding on a modernstyle Minecraft house, oneoption to consider is the glasshouse. A glass house is notentirely glass, but is mostlyglass. Let’s build this example.

This house is made of whitestained glass and quartz. Begin

by digging an 8 x 8 hole.

Fill the hole with quartz blocks.

Build columns out of quartz 5blocks high on all corners, and

then add some columns to thecenters of each side.

Now connect up all thecolumns so that there is anoutside ring of quartz. Leavethe front open.

An aerial view:

Now fill in the ceiling of thefirst floor leaving a space for

steps coming up to the top.

Build the staircase. Use two

blocks for each step.

Now let’s add a quartz section

to the entry way where thedoors will be. The quartz shouldenclose the doors, 3 blocks highon each side, and 4 blocksacross. Position as shown.

Now fill in with white stainedglass.

Now going upstairs, add somefencing in one corner up from

the stairs.

For the top, we will construct

all of it with white stainedglass. Build up 3 blocks andthen enclose it with theexception of the corner with thefence, which will function as abalcony.

Build a wall around the backside of the building.

Fill in with grass and plants asdesired.

Second StoryRoom andDesigner FloorIn this project we’re going toinclude a few enhancements to ourhome building. First we’ll create astylish designer floor using brickand quartz. Then we will add anupstairs room and then includesome interior design items byadding furniture and paintings.I’m going to make a largerstructure, you can shoot for 18 x 12.

I picked a relatively open spot butdue to the rough terrain usuallyfound in Minecraft had to do someyardwork smoothing it out byadding some Grass Blocks.

Next I’m going to add onelayer of Clay to form theboundary of the house. Toadd a little flair to thedesign, the clay will only beon the bottom layer andwe’ll use sandstone for therest of the walls.

The irregular shape towardthe rear of the house was aresult of the nearby terrain.I could have smoothed outthe terrain some more butyou don’t have to make allyour structures perfectlyrectangular.Now we’ll go inside the claywall and prepare the floor.Begin by digging it outcompletely inside the clay

walls. Then begin addingregular brick, but checkbelow as I am going to putquartz in the entry areafrom the front door.

Here is a shot of the entryarea. I added a 2 x 2 sectionof quartz centered aboutthe front door.

Next I put a boundary ofquartz around the brickarea. Try experimentingwith your own floor designs.

For the next step, put in thefront door. Notice I leftenough space for a doubledoor.

Now start adding a coupleof rows of sandstone all theway around, placingwindows where you like.

Then add a layer or two ofsandstone on top of thewindows. For the ceiling, Iwill use wood planks. I don’twant the wood planks to bevisible from the outside onthe back, so will extendthem from the top layer ofsandstone. However we’llleave the wood visible onthe front.

Also notice I placed a set ofdouble doors out the back.I’m also including someglass in the ceiling for skylights. On the second storywe will include a singlebedroom with a balcony.Facing the front door, thestairs into the bedroom willbe just to the left of the floordesign we did above. Soplace your skylights withthe bedroom in mind.

Here are the steps with anopen area that will lead intothe bedroom:

Now head upstairs andbuild the bedroom walls outof sandstone, adding acouple of windows. Alsoleave a space for a singledoor that will go to a fencedbalcony area. My bedroomextends to the back wall ofthe house, but only abouthalfway to the front justbefore the skylight.

Now fence in an area toyour liking on the roof fromthe bedroom door.

Here is how the bedroomlooks if you walk up thestairs and turn around.

Next head back downstairsand create some rooms bybuilding some sandstonewalls. Doors for the interiorcan be optional.

The next thing I did wassome interior decorating.You can add paintings andbuild tables with slabs.Here is the bedroom with abed, bookcase and somewall paintings.

Emerald CottageWhen building your house inMinecraft don’t be afraid to tryunusual materials or colors fora different look. As a way ofillustrating this I constructedan emerald cottage that alsoincluded yellow stained glass.To do something different weare also going to carpet theinside floor.The back of the cottage will berounded, and the front squaredoff. To build the rounded

section, start with a row of fouremerald blocks. Then go off oneach side with 2 offset blocks,and then build two straightrows of four blocks.

Square off the front leavingroom for a door.

Now add a row of quartz on topof the emerald as shown. Don’tput quartz on the back.

Now add four yellow stainedglass blocks to the left of the

doorway, and two to the rightside.

On the backside, we will addtwo rows of yellow stained glassright on top of the emerald.

To lay carpet in Minecraft, youhave to put something

underneath. So fill the insidewith cobblestone.

To keep with the color scheme,I added lime green carpet.

Here is an aerial view of whatwe have so far.

In the doorway, add 4 emeraldblocks.

Now add two iron doors.

Now let’s make it more colorful

by topping off with moreemerald blocks.

Now let’s start filling in theside.

We can make a nice pattern byalternating emerald and quartz.

Fill the pattern to the back.

Top off the back with quartz.

Now fill in the last side. I have asingle 3 x 2 window of yellow

stained glass.

For the roof, we will build a

pyramid. If you haven’t youmight want to read the chapteron building a pyramid, we willuse the same technique here.Start by putting in a dummyblock so that we can startadding blocks inside the outerring at a higher level. The firstrow of the pyramid will beemerald.

Fill in all the way around, thendestroy your dummy block.

Then repeat, alternatingbetween quartz and emerald.

Fill in the top with a 2 x 2section.

Here is our completed cottage.

Modern Homewith SwimmingPoolIn this chapter we’ll build a“modern” style home out of quartzand glass. We’ll put a pool out backdesigning it slightly differently. Tofit in with the house we’ll make thepool out of quartz as well. To getstarted, dig a hole for the pool - Ichose to make it 6 x 10. I’m going toput walls and a bottom in the poolso the water will fill an area 4

blocks wide. This time we’ll make ituniform depth, so dig 4 blocks deep.Then fill the bottom and sides withchisled quartz block. When I amdone mine looks like this:

Fill the pool with acheckerboard patter usingdirt on alternating squares.Make sure each emptysquare is isolated. Then putmore dirt blocks (3 deep) sothe dirt sections are theheight of the pool.

Fill the pool with acheckerboard patter usingdirt on alternating squares.Make sure each emptysquare is isolated. Then putmore dirt blocks (3 deep) sothe dirt sections are theheight of the pool.

When you’ve filled all theempty sections with water,change to another tool likean iron hoe to be sure youdon’t accidently pour morewater, and then destroy allthe dirt blocks. All the waterwill run together. Jump inand you’ll see it’s easy toswim around in the pool.

Now we’re going to startadding levels that will go upto the house from the longside of the pool. To buildthese levels we will useplain quartz blocks (not thechisled). Start by diggingout two rows next to thepool.

Then fill it in with plainQuartz Blocks:

The house is going to be elevatedbehind the pool with a series ofsteps or levels. Start by addinganother 2-3 rows of plain quartzblocks, one block higher than theone you just added.

Now add another 4 rows ofblocks one block higher.Here is how mine looks atan intermediate step:

Adding another raised level:

Now we’ll start laying downthe interior floor for thehouse. To add some designto the floor, I’ll use ChisledQuartz Blocks. Don’t dig ahole to put the floor in, wewill use the sides of theChisled Quartz Blocks toadd a nice design touch tothe outside of the house.

For the walls of the house,except in the front, we willuse plain Quartz blocks.Start by adding 2 x 4sections on each side,starting where you beganthe Chisled Quartz floor.

Next connect up the twowalls you just added withthe first part of the ceiling.

For the backside of thehouse which goes out to thepool, we’ll add Glass Panes(not blocks).

Fill in as desired but besure to leave some space towalk out to the pool.

Now let’s extend the wallstoward the front. Add a 2 x2 section of Glass Blocks toeach wall moving towardthe front.

Now extend the floor outfurther to the front. For abit of design, first I added arow of plain quartz blocksand then built out a crosspattern using plain quartzblocks. The length of thecross is 8 blocks. Then Ifilled in the rest of the floorarea with chisled quartz.

When you are putting in thenew part of the floor, extendit out one block on eachside, then build out the nextsection of the wall on thisextended section. I built thenew part of the wall usingplain quartz and glassblocks.

Now extend out the roof 5blocks wide, including a 3block wide section of glassblocks. This section willinclude an upstairs balcony.Place the glass blocks onerow behind your outter rowof quartz.

On the other side, use someplain quartz blocks to buildsome stairs:

Now go upstairs and useChisled quartz blocks tobuild a wall around yourbalcony.

On the pool side of the roof,build a one block highChisled quartz wall allaround. On the sideopposite the balcony, builda wall as shown here usingplain Quartz blocks andglass blocks. Then build arow of plain quartz blocksacross the top over to thebackmost block of yourbalcony area to connect

them up. I used GlassBlocks to fill in the frontceiling area, and plainQuartz Blocks to fill in therear side (toward the pool).

Now lets go backdownstairs to the front ofthe house. Facing the front,fill in the right hand sidelike this. Note the column ofChisled Quartz along withthe front window, and alsonote the drop down by onelater of the roof in the frontof the house.

Going around the front tothe left side of the house,you can see how I filled inthe walls on the left withquartz and glass blocks.

Now add some stairs to godown out of the front of thehouse. I added three rowsof stairs. If you need to clearout the ground in front ofthe house so you can stepdown from it.

Here is the view of the righthand side:

As a final touch, use plainquartz to put a two level(one block wide each) fencearound the pool: