Modern Home Design for Minecraft - Miner Dave

Modern Home Design for Minecraft

Modern Home Pyramid House The Library Two Story Wood Home Two Story Modern Home Cylindrical Structures

Glass House Second Story Room and Designer Floor Emerald Cottage Modern Home with Swimming Pool

Copyright © 2014 Bluewater Publishing LLC. All rights reserved.

Modern Home Building modern style homes is a great way to get creative in Minecraft. Let’s get started with a design I came up with after seeing a real house near my neighbourhood that stood out. It was all white and had mirrored glass windows in the front and a mirrored glass garage door. Not being able to use mirrored glass in Minecraft, I came up with this design that uses diamond windows:

To build this house we’ll need the following materials: Quartz blocks Diamond Cobblestone Iron Door Smooth sandstone blocks We will start on the left side of the house, where you see the tall, narrow windows.

Lay down a single row of 5 quartz blocks. Then build up on both edges until the structure is 6 blocks high. Connect up your two columns at the top. Then build a third column in the center, leaving two 1x4 empty sections for the windows.

Above is how your wall should look after filling in each column with diamond. Alternatively, you could

use blocks of ice to simulate the windows.

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

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

Here is an aerial view to make sure

you have it set up right.

Next we will do the front door. The structure will include two iron doors surrounded by diamond. First add two columns to the right of the section we just finished, offset by one block (see below). Then build up four diamond blocks, then two rows across at the top, and then down one column of four diamond blocks. The doors can go in the space. Cap off the section with a 4x2 block of quartz.

Next add two columns of quartz to the right side (as viewed from facing front).

Next we will add the garage. First we are going to build out a wall of quartz from the right side of the door area, around 6 blocks.

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

Now let’s add a covering structure for the entry way. First add a 6 block high column of quartz, to the left of the diamond section that encloses the front doors, and one block out from the garage.

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

Now build a nice entry way. I used a four block wide section of cobblestone, and will use cobblestone for the driveway as well.

Next, let’s fill in the interior of the garage with smooth sandstone. It will be six blocks in depth and eight across, to match the width of the garage door.

Now build the exterior wall to the side of the garage, and enclose the roof above.

The next step is to build the outside wall, first laying down one row of blocks. The details here will depend on your particular terrain, but I had mine next to a natural body of water, so I am going to put a porch going out to the water and leave an open entry way next to it. Here is an aerial shot:

You will notice I started the interior floor using birch wood planks. I also put an iron door going into the garage from the main house, and directly above it are three light blue stained glass blocks. I am using light blue stained glass blocks for windows on the back and side of the house as well.

Next I am adding some walls for interior rooms. The details of this aren’t important you can build up your interior rooms as you see fit for your design. This aerial shot shows the complete filling in of the

interior floor with birch wood planks, plus the patio area with cobblestone.

The rest is just filling in outside walls with quartz blocks and occasional windows of light blue stained glass. Here is the side coming back from the garage:

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

in the corner.

Here is a view of the back of the house.

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

Pyramid House An interesting design is to build a pyramid. Keeping with our theme of “modern” I am going to build a simple pyramid house that is mostly glass. I will use chiselled sandstone and cyan stained glass. Start by digging out an 8 x 8 hole:

Now fill with sandstone:

Now build a ring around this with chiselled sandstone:

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

using a door in this building but simply have an open entry. Top off the outside ring with cyan stained glass:

Now here is the trick to building a pyramid shape. Find a corner and put a block there at the level of the highest row. Then put a block on top of that, and use it to start building a ring of blocks that is one block inside from the previous ring, and one block higher. When you are done destroy the starter block. Here I add the starter block in one corner:

And now fill in the next level:

After that, its just a matter of repeating 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 cyan stained glass.

To spruce things up add some furniture to decorate your

interior.

In one corner of the pyramid, I created what you could think of as a bath or water fountain. Wall in one section with sandstone blocks. Then get a bucket of water and dump it inside.

The Library I am calling this building the “library” because I got the idea from the library at the University of California, San Diego campus. Although it really doesn’t look like that. But the idea I got was to create a building where each successive floor is larger than the one below it.

In real life that kind of building wouldn’t be structurally sound

without additional supports, but no matter. It will do in Minecraft. For materials, we are using: Gold Stone or use grey clay Blue stained glass Pillar Quartz Iron doors Let’s start on the first floor. Dig a 6 x 6 hole.

Fill it with pillar quartz, which makes an excellent pattern for a

fancy floor.

Now add a row of stone or grey

clay around the outside. Then add one iron door.

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

of that add a row of gold, followed by another row of blue stained glass and a row of stone or clay.

Fill the clay in all the way so it will be the ceiling of the first

floor.

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

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

as you would like to have. I did three floors. Just repeat the pattern of blue glass, gold, blue glass:

Then add a new ceiling, each time extending it out 2 blocks wider than the previous level.

Two Story Wood Home

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

well, which includes a lot of black stained glass and dark wood. Spruce planks are a good choice for dark wood. I used oak and birch for inside floors, and some cobblestone and quartz as well. We will start construction on the left side of the building. Create an 8 x 8 section of spruce:

Next, dig a six block wide trench.

Fill it with oak wood planks.

Now build up a front area of black stained glass, 4 blocks

high. Extend a row of spruce planks on top of it.

Now fill in to the top. With black glass, and then on the right side add a column of quartz blocks, 8 blocks high.

Now fill backwards with four more columns of quartz.

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

some more black stained glass windows. First put a bottom row of cobblestone, then 3 blocks high and seven blocks wide of black glass. Then top off with two rows of quartz.

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

outside column of cobblestone.

To the right of this, we will add

our front doors. I will use two wooden doors, although iron would work with this design as well.

You can see behind the doors I have started laying down the

inside floor, for the bottom floor of this house I will use birch wood planks, which give a nice light color. Now enclose the doors with some quartz blocks as shown here.

Next extend the top row of black glass to the end, and then

the two rows of quartz above it.

From here, we can enclose the

boundary of the side and back walls. The exact dimensions aren’t that important, but here is an aerial shot to use for guidance. I am going to add another door on the side.

Now turn your attention to the upstairs area. Return to the

spruce section where we began the house, and start adding flooring, extending back from the wood row that divided the two sections of black glass. I am using oak wood planks on the second floor. Notice that I am leaving an open area where I can add some stairs.

The bottom floor is birch wood planks. Next behind the original

spruce wood plank wall we built, I added a wall of black stained glass.

Now fill in the rest of the top floor with oak wood planks.

Here is an aerial view.

Now fill in the roof. The roof is made of spruce wood planks.

On the side of the house above the front doors, I added a skylight made of plain glass blocks. It is 5 x 4.

The remaining tasks are to fill in the back and the side next to

the front doors. For the back, I filled in the entire area with black stained glass.

On the side I used mostly glass, but filled in the center with quartz and added a door in the back corner.

Now clean up the yard from any weeds and add some walkways

made of cobblestone.

Two Story Modern Home

This modern home is built using stone, quartz and cyan

stained glass. Begin by digging a large square hole.

Use smooth sandstone to fill it in:

Now go to the area that will be the front of your structure. On the outside, build a two block wide section of stone from the middle to the front, and wrap it around. Do this on both sides, and it will look like you have two “L”’ shapes.

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

Now build out toward the front from 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 you just built.

Now above each “L”, build two rows of quartz, but start the first row on the outer edge of your “L”, so that the second row of quartz creates an overhang.

Here is a view from below so you can see what I mean

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

to the stone “L”.

Add two cyan glass blocks above the doors, then connect

your quartz “L” shapes in the center.

Now let’s add the second floor. Using smooth sandstone blocks, start adding them into the areas where we left the inside offset with the quartz.

Here it is filled in.

Now add a row of stone blocks for the second floor.

Top that off with cyan glass.

Then add another row of stone blocks.

And then, a row of quartz.

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

offset like we did on the first floor.

An aerial view:

Fill out the ceiling with quartz.

When everything is filled out halfway, which will be to the end of the L shapes we started with, it will look something like this.

Now add three quartz blocks to each back corner.

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

close off the back with a row of stone leaving a space for a back door.

I am going to fill in a lot of the back 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 we have so far for the second floor,

add a set of steps made of sandstone.

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 second story floor with sandstone. Now

fill in the back wall and sides of the top floor with stone and plain glass.

Then enclose with quartz.

Here is an aerial view of the roof. Notice I dropped down

one block in height on the rear half of the house.

Cylindrical Structures The next design is based on another real house. It has a large cylindrical structure to the side where they have a spiral staircase. I’m not going to actually do a spiral staircase, but I’m going to show you how you can approximate round structures in Minecraft.

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

Make it an odd number of blocks. On each outside edge, go over and down one and add another hole. Then repeat.

Now move over and down one again, and add another row on

each side.

Then you duplicate the pattern

on the other half of our simulated circle. Here is the one I am using for this build:

For this structure I am going to use the orange colored acacia wood planks for the floor and roof. The outside ring of the circle will be quartz.

Now I start to build up, leaving single column wide spaces for

windows on the straight sides.

For this project I am using lime

and purple stained glass for windows.

Here is an aerial view. I am leaving one side open because it will connect to the main house.

Fill in the last section with acacia wood planks.

Now extend about 3 blocks for a hallway, and then build the

outer walls of the main house.

Raise the front wall with space

for two three block wide windows and a front door.

The side wall will also have two 2 x 3 windows, and we will put one large one in the back.

The back window is a large 5 x 2.

Now finish filling in the entire floor area with acacia wood

planks.

Above the door, I placed a 2 x 2

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

Around the building, I will alternate window colors a bit.

The first window to the right of the front doors will be green stained glass, and then the next one over we go back to purple.

Following the same pattern, the first side window over from the

doors has green glass, and then the one behind that is purple. The back window we go back to green.

I placed another large window

in the back corner, but went with green again because it offers a little more interior lighting.

Now top off the structure with acacia wood planks to start the

roof.

After filling it in, starting one

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

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

height. Then raise again, and again in the center where it will be 5 blocks high.

Here is how it looks from the front.

Now cover the hallway and add a roof to the cylindrical part of

the bulding.

Here we’ve filled in the edge,

notice that we have also filled in the windows, including two purple windows in the hallway.

Here it is completely filled in.

A couple of views of the house from different angles, touching

up the front yard with some grass and flowers.

Glass House When deciding on a modern style Minecraft house, one option to consider is the glass house. A glass house is not entirely glass, but is mostly glass. Let’s build this example.

This house is made of white stained glass and quartz. Begin

by digging an 8 x 8 hole.

Fill the hole with quartz blocks.

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

then add some columns to the centers of each side.

Now connect up all the columns so that there is an outside ring of quartz. Leave the front open.

An aerial view:

Now fill in the ceiling of the first 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 the doors will be. The quartz should enclose the doors, 3 blocks high on each side, and 4 blocks across. Position as shown.

Now fill in with white stained glass.

Now going upstairs, add some fencing in one corner up from

the stairs.

For the top, we will construct

all of it with white stained glass. Build up 3 blocks and then enclose it with the exception of the corner with the fence, which will function as a balcony.

Build a wall around the back side of the building.

Fill in with grass and plants as desired.

Second Story Room and Designer Floor In this project we’re going to include a few enhancements to our home building. First we’ll create a stylish designer floor using brick and quartz. Then we will add an upstairs room and then include some interior design items by adding furniture and paintings. I’m going to make a larger structure, you can shoot for 18 x 12.

I picked a relatively open spot but due to the rough terrain usually found in Minecraft had to do some yardwork smoothing it out by adding some Grass Blocks.

Next I’m going to add one layer of Clay to form the boundary of the house. To add a little flair to the design, the clay will only be on the bottom layer and we’ll use sandstone for the rest of the walls.

The irregular shape toward the rear of the house was a result of the nearby terrain. I could have smoothed out the terrain some more but you don’t have to make all your structures perfectly rectangular. Now we’ll go inside the clay wall and prepare the floor. Begin by digging it out completely inside the clay

walls. Then begin adding regular brick, but check below as I am going to put quartz in the entry area from the front door.

Here is a shot of the entry area. I added a 2 x 2 section of quartz centered about the front door.

Next I put a boundary of quartz around the brick area. Try experimenting with your own floor designs.

For the next step, put in the front door. Notice I left enough space for a double door.

Now start adding a couple of rows of sandstone all the way around, placing windows where you like.

Then add a layer or two of sandstone on top of the windows. For the ceiling, I will use wood planks. I don’t want the wood planks to be visible from the outside on the back, so will extend them from the top layer of sandstone. However we’ll leave the wood visible on the front.

Also notice I placed a set of double doors out the back. I’m also including some glass in the ceiling for sky lights. On the second story we will include a single bedroom with a balcony. Facing the front door, the stairs into the bedroom will be just to the left of the floor design we did above. So place your skylights with the bedroom in mind.

Here are the steps with an open area that will lead into the bedroom:

Now head upstairs and build the bedroom walls out of sandstone, adding a couple of windows. Also leave a space for a single door that will go to a fenced balcony area. My bedroom extends to the back wall of the house, but only about halfway to the front just before the skylight.

Now fence in an area to your liking on the roof from the bedroom door.

Here is how the bedroom looks if you walk up the stairs and turn around.

Next head back downstairs and create some rooms by building some sandstone walls. Doors for the interior can be optional.

The next thing I did was some interior decorating. You can add paintings and build tables with slabs. Here is the bedroom with a bed, bookcase and some wall paintings.

Emerald Cottage When building your house in Minecraft don’t be afraid to try unusual materials or colors for a different look. As a way of illustrating this I constructed an emerald cottage that also included yellow stained glass. To do something different we are also going to carpet the inside floor. The back of the cottage will be rounded, and the front squared off. To build the rounded

section, start with a row of four emerald blocks. Then go off on each side with 2 offset blocks, and then build two straight rows of four blocks.

Square off the front leaving room for a door.

Now add a row of quartz on top of the emerald as shown. Don’t put quartz on the back.

Now add four yellow stained glass blocks to the left of the

doorway, and two to the right side.

On the backside, we will add two rows of yellow stained glass right on top of the emerald.

To lay carpet in Minecraft, you have to put something

underneath. So fill the inside with cobblestone.

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

Here is an aerial view of what we have so far.

In the doorway, add 4 emerald blocks.

Now add two iron doors.

Now let’s make it more colorful

by topping off with more emerald blocks.

Now let’s start filling in the side.

We can make a nice pattern by alternating emerald and quartz.

Fill the pattern to the back.

Top off the back with quartz.

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

stained glass.

For the roof, we will build a

pyramid. If you haven’t you might want to read the chapter on building a pyramid, we will use the same technique here. Start by putting in a dummy block so that we can start adding blocks inside the outer ring at a higher level. The first row of the pyramid will be emerald.

Fill in all the way around, then destroy your dummy block.

Then repeat, alternating between quartz and emerald.

Fill in the top with a 2 x 2 section.

Here is our completed cottage.

Modern Home with Swimming Pool In this chapter we’ll build a “modern” style home out of quartz and glass. We’ll put a pool out back designing it slightly differently. To fit in with the house we’ll make the pool out of quartz as well. To get started, dig a hole for the pool - I chose to make it 6 x 10. I’m going to put walls and a bottom in the pool so the water will fill an area 4

blocks wide. This time we’ll make it uniform depth, so dig 4 blocks deep. Then fill the bottom and sides with chisled quartz block. When I am done mine looks like this:

Fill the pool with a checkerboard patter using dirt on alternating squares. Make sure each empty square is isolated. Then put more dirt blocks (3 deep) so the dirt sections are the height of the pool.

Fill the pool with a checkerboard patter using dirt on alternating squares. Make sure each empty square is isolated. Then put more dirt blocks (3 deep) so the dirt sections are the height of the pool.

When you’ve filled all the empty sections with water, change to another tool like an iron hoe to be sure you don’t accidently pour more water, and then destroy all the dirt blocks. All the water will run together. Jump in and you’ll see it’s easy to swim around in the pool.

Now we’re going to start adding levels that will go up to the house from the long side of the pool. To build these levels we will use plain quartz blocks (not the chisled). Start by digging out two rows next to the pool.

Then fill it in with plain Quartz Blocks:

The house is going to be elevated behind the pool with a series of steps or levels. Start by adding another 2-3 rows of plain quartz blocks, one block higher than the one you just added.

Now add another 4 rows of blocks one block higher. Here is how mine looks at an intermediate step:

Adding another raised level:

Now we’ll start laying down the interior floor for the house. To add some design to the floor, I’ll use Chisled Quartz Blocks. Don’t dig a hole to put the floor in, we will use the sides of the Chisled Quartz Blocks to add a nice design touch to the outside of the house.

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

Next connect up the two walls you just added with the first part of the ceiling.

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

Fill in as desired but be sure to leave some space to walk out to the pool.

Now let’s extend the walls toward the front. Add a 2 x 2 section of Glass Blocks to each wall moving toward the front.

Now extend the floor out further to the front. For a bit of design, first I added a row of plain quartz blocks and then built out a cross pattern using plain quartz blocks. The length of the cross is 8 blocks. Then I filled in the rest of the floor area with chisled quartz.

When you are putting in the new part of the floor, extend it out one block on each side, then build out the next section of the wall on this extended section. I built the new part of the wall using plain quartz and glass blocks.

Now extend out the roof 5 blocks wide, including a 3 block wide section of glass blocks. This section will include an upstairs balcony. Place the glass blocks one row behind your outter row of quartz.

On the other side, use some plain quartz blocks to build some stairs:

Now go upstairs and use Chisled quartz blocks to build a wall around your balcony.

On the pool side of the roof, build a one block high Chisled quartz wall all around. On the side opposite the balcony, build a wall as shown here using plain Quartz blocks and glass blocks. Then build a row of plain quartz blocks across the top over to the backmost block of your balcony area to connect

them up. I used Glass Blocks to fill in the front ceiling area, and plain Quartz Blocks to fill in the rear side (toward the pool).

Now lets go back downstairs to the front of the house. Facing the front, fill in the right hand side like this. Note the column of Chisled Quartz along with the front window, and also note the drop down by one later of the roof in the front of the house.

Going around the front to the left side of the house, you can see how I filled in the walls on the left with quartz and glass blocks.

Now add some stairs to go down out of the front of the house. I added three rows of stairs. If you need to clear out the ground in front of the house so you can step down from it.

Here is the view of the right hand side:

As a final touch, use plain quartz to put a two level (one block wide each) fence around the pool: