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Minecraft base step by step tutorial

Towards the end of 2025 I had a thought. How small could I comfortably build?

This post offers my most detailed tutorial to date. It’s a small build with materials accessible in the early game.

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Inspiration for building smaller

This post was inspired by small Lego sets. Sets that communicate a concept without a lot of blocks and don’t break the bank. The quick and easy assembly leave plenty of time for interaction. With less of the story told, your imagination has more space to play.

Exploring smaller builds appealed to me for a couple reasons. First, I like the idea of story telling without saying every word. Taking the time to understand what makes the mind identify something and focusing on the key points and dropping what doesn’t explicitly tell the story.

A plains biome has a foot path cut through it's middle. Small hills flank the path on one side. In the distance, atop one of these hills is a small house.

Second, is build time. Supporting early game or players looking to build things without a lot of time. Getting a build done creates an opportunity for interaction. A platform to build off of and create other ideas. Motivating you to interact rather than intimidating you with a list of unfinished tasks.

Whether it’s your only house or a structure used as part of a larger project. Having some well thought out smaller builds in your toolkit is the goal here.

Deciding where to build

If you’ve been following my blog, you’ll notice I decided on a new area for this build. I chose a new location so that the smaller build scale didn’t seem out of place.

While I’m excited for this experiment, I do foresee a drawback to building at this size. Sometimes you need bigger builds for functionality; especially if you play this game a lot (redstone contraptions, storage systems, farms).

I do believe building at the 1 chunk scale is best for most builds, balancing time commitment and practicality. In the future I’d like to find a way to mix these scales together.

A aerial view of a plains biome. A path enters the bottom of the image and ends at a patch of blueish grass centred in the image.

So why did I decide to build here? The blueish grass above is a river, a future location of a squid farm. While moving to a new area my seem against my ethos; this unique location offers time saveing benefits.

Block by block tutorial

This is a new approach for me. My “tutorials” have been more general guides. Let me know your thoughts in the comments.

  • A 2 deep hole is dug in the shape of the floor. A crafting table is placed at the end of a path at the edge of the hole. On one side a 1x1 hole allows access to the hole.
    Inventory: dirt if you need to level land. A crafting table and a shovel.
  • Upside down barrels now fill the hole in the previous image. A hopper feeds one barrel. Stripped birch forms an upside down L in the top left. Striped oak fills out the rest of the foundation. On the exterior oak trap doors create a table at the transition. Spruce fence posts are dotted outside the structure.
    Inventory: 5 barrels, 7 oak fence posts, 5 dirt (fill the space under barrels once placed), 3 oak trap doors, 1 hopper, 8 stripped oak logs and 7 stripped birch logs.
  • A blast furnace on the interior opposite the oak trap doors on the exterior, flanked on 3 exposed sides by furnaces. A spruce door is placed in the open position (prevents zombie breaking). Fence posts are connected by the gates and the posts on the corners of the house have copper bars on them. A hopper feeds the furnace that was placed on the hopper from the previous step.
    Inventory: 3 furnaces, 8 waxed exposed copper bars, 3 azalea bushes, 1 blast furnace, 4 spruce fence gates, 1 spruce door, 1 hopper and 1 stone brick stair.
  • Oak trap doors form a 1x2 window surrounded by stripped oak. In front of the house fenced garden is taking shape filled with azalea bushes. The walls now reach 2 high and a chimney made of decorated clay pots is rising from the exterior oak trap doors.
    Inventory: 1 flowering azalea leaves, 2 azalea leaves, 2 moss carpets, 1 birch stair, 1 oak trapdoor, 1 smoker, 1 soul lantern, 2 decorated pots, 7 stripped oak logs, 6 stripped birch logs and 1 barrel.
  • As the walls climb, the roof, supported by copper bars begins to take shape. Beginning with spruce pressure plates in the corners. A single spruce fence gate sits above the door to aide in support and add interest.
    Inventory: 1 decorated pot, 1 oak trapdoor, 4 spruce pressure plates, 8 stripped oak logs, 7 stripped birch logs, 1 campfire, 3 birch stairs, 1 spruce gate and a shovel.
  • Trap doors and camp fires now join the pressure plates to form the outline of the first floor roof. The walls now transition entirely to birch variants. The chimney continues to climb skyward with the structure. Ladders are now added to access the second floor.
    Inventory: 1 decorated pot, 8 spruce trapdoors, 10 stripped birch logs, 3 ladders, 3 campfires, 3 birch stairs, dirt (helper block) and a shovel.
  • The player returns to the interior to place some overlooked interior items. An ender chest is placed on an inverted birch stair from a previous step and 2 birch shelves create a railing and facia separating the split levels of the 1st floor.
    Inventory: 1 ender chest and 2 birch wood shelves.
  • The second floor interior begins with spruce slab flooring and a single spruce trap door over the ladder.
    Inventory: 4 campfires, 8 spruce slabs, 1 spruce trapdoor and a shovel.
  • The walls rise 1 block higher along with the chimney. 1 oak trap door is placed where a 2 tall window will eventually form.
    Inventory: 1 decorated pot, 10 stripped birch log, 2 birch shelves and 1 oak trapdoor
  • The window from the last step gets another trapdoor and 2 more 1x1 windows appear with oak trap doors. Spruce fence gates are added to exterior corners to support the second story roof. A red bed is placed in the interior.
    Inventory: 10 stripped oak logs, 1 bed, 3 oak trapdoors and 6 spruce fence gates.
  • Spruce trap doors, camp fires and spruce slabs form an L shapped roof. Stripped Birch Wood rises just above it in a square. A flat square roof over the sleeping area flanked by the clay chimney.
    Inventory: 9 oak logs, 1 decorated pot, 10 Spruce trapdoors, 3 spruce slabs, 8 campfires and a shovel.
  • The house is complete. A clay pot is placed on-top the decorated pot chimney that rises 1 pot above the flat roof portion. Spruce buttons are around the edge of this section where the slopped roof does not join.
    Inventory, 2 clay pot, 1 decorated pot and 4 spruce buttons.

3 Tips for your Minecraft builds

I decided to lean into a style I’ve been building with in my main area. A town that I add to every 500 days as a museum.

This style lends itself to smaller builds. The larger fantasy roofs of medieval Minecraft builds need a little more room. With that, my first tip:

1. Choose a style that works

Squared off shapes, mildly sloped roofs, low contrast pallets and wooden accents to add detail. All these things make the “Masia” and “Pueblo Reviva” styles a great option for smaller builds.

Two red houses in a Masia style are connected by sky-walk. They straddle a river gorge spanned by a tuff bridge.

Interesting shapes can be built without taking up big spaces. Simple square or rectangular windows can be 1×1, 1×2 or 2×2 rather than the large spaces curved or fancier windows would require.

Many block palettes of low contrast are available in colours that match this style. The low contrast palettes allow for extra small details (trap doors, buttons, slabs) and a wide variety of colours provide options.

2. Low slope roofs

Those low slope roofs opens up an interesting block combination for roofs. Slabs, camp fires, trap doors and pressure pates allow for a gentle slope with a lot of texture.

A small masia style house sits atop a hill near a body of water. A small fenced garden sits in front of the house next to a path to the entrance. The house is built of stripped wood and accents are spruce wood.

This creates a very busy roof, but busy roofs are visually acceptable. And the low contrast of stripped logs (when compares to tuff) keeps things from becoming overwhelming.

3. Incorporate functional blocks into the structure.

I have been using crating tables as door mats on a lot of my builds. Moving inside upside down barrels give storage. The floor on the elevated aide is furnaces. I was even able to sneak an auto furnace in.

A small split level interior. The open front door has a crafting table as a door mat; floor is upside down barrels on the lower half and a combination of furnaces and a blast furnace on the higher level. The split levels are separated by a single stone brick stair and two birch shelves. A smoker is inset into the wall next to a ladder; flanked by an ender chest and a barrel.

When building this small the interior gets tight. You may only get a couple functional blocks into the space. Incorporating these blocks into the structure expands details and functionality.

Wrap up

This is a new format. I really want to offer a tutorial that helps readers build smaller without compromising looks.

Mega builds are cool and give a lot of space for details. Building small can take more thought to get right. But something like this could be built in an hour or two if you have the blocks.

Let me know in the comments if this helped you or what would improve the tutorial!

Build stats

Real Life Days: 2

Minecraft Days: ?? (didn’t record properly but it wasn’t many)

Hours: 3.3

This build was a 1 chunk build, if you’d like to see more 1 chunk builds click here.

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