How to Build a Simple Minecraft House

Minecraft Survival Haus bauen Tutorial 1.21 - Starter Haus bauen in Minecraft Survival Tutorial Play video

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Note: the video above is in German.

Your first house in Minecraft doesn’t have to be big. It needs to get you through the first night, hold a bed, crafting table, furnace and chests, and be easy to extend later. In this guide you’ll build a starter house with a 7×7 footprint – with an exact material list, ten steps and variants for when you’re short on wood or want something prettier.

The guide works the same in Java Edition and Bedrock Edition (consoles, tablets, Switch, Windows). As of October 2026, the current versions are Java 26.3 and Bedrock 26.50 / 26.52 with the “Wilderness Bound” game drop. The basics of house building have barely changed in years – the video above shows a similar starter house in version 1.21 and still works well as a template.

The house at a glance

Material list with amounts

The amounts are for the basic version with wooden walls and a flat wooden roof. One log makes 4 planks at the crafting table (or right in your inventory).

In total you need roughly 45 logs (12 as pillars, the rest turned into about 125 planks), about 60 cobblestone, 3 wool and a little coal. That sounds like a lot, but a single big tree already gives you 5 to 10 logs.

Money-saving tip: build the walls from cobblestone instead of planks. Then you only need about 30 logs, and your house is even safer, because cobblestone withstands explosions better than wood and doesn’t burn.

Step by step: building the starter house

1. Pick a building spot. Look for a fairly flat area close to trees and stone. Make sure there’s no cave right underneath – mobs come out of dark caves.
2. Level and lay the floor. Dig the 7 × 7 area flat and replace the top layer with cobblestone. That gives you a solid floor and shows you exactly where the walls go.
3. Place the corner pillars. Stack 3 logs on each of the four corner blocks of the floor. The pillars show you the height and look much better than plain walls.
4. Build the first row of walls. Fill the bottom row between the pillars with planks – 5 blocks per side. Leave one block free in the middle of one side for the door.
5. Raise the walls. Add two more rows on top so the walls are 3 blocks high. Above the door gap, keep the second row free too (the door is 2 blocks tall). In the second row on the other three sides, leave one block free in the middle for windows – plus one more wherever you like.
6. Put on the roof. Lay a 7 × 7 layer of planks on top of the walls. It’s easiest if you walk along the wall and place the blocks upward from inside. If you like, add a one-block overhang all the way round (9 × 9 = 81 planks or slabs).
7. Fit the door. Place the wooden door in the gap. It keeps zombies out on Peaceful, Easy and Normal – on Hard, zombies can break down wooden doors.
8. Light it up. Put at least 4 torches on the walls inside and a few around the outside. Mobs don’t spawn where it’s bright.
9. Furnish it. A bed, crafting table, furnace and chest fit comfortably into the 5 × 5 room. Place two chests next to each other and they become one large chest with double the space.
10. Add the windows. Once you’ve smelted sand into glass in the furnace, put the glass blocks into the window gaps. Until then, you can fill the gaps with planks.

Done! Your house now has everything you need for your first few days.

Tips for the first night

A full Minecraft day lasts about 20 real minutes, and a little over 8 of those are night. So plan like this:

• Wood first, then tools. With a crafting table and a wooden pickaxe you can mine cobblestone and coal ore, and with a stone pickaxe iron ore as well.
• Collect coal early. You’ll often spot coal ore on hillsides. If you can’t find any, burn logs in the furnace to make charcoal – it works just as well for torches.
• Emergency shelter. If it gets dark before the house is finished: dig 2 blocks into a hill, seal the entrance and place a torch. Carry on building in the morning.
• Make a bed. You get wool from sheep (with shears or by defeating them). Sleeping in a bed skips the night, and your bed becomes your new respawn point.
• New in Wilderness Bound: the straw bed. 3 hay bales make 4 straw beds. They let you skip the night without changing your respawn point – but a straw bed is gone after one use. You’ll often find hay bales in villages.
• Plug the gaps. Check from inside whether light shines through anywhere or a block is missing. Spiders can climb walls, so a closed roof keeps them out.

Variants: making your house look better

• Stone house: cobblestone walls with wooden corner pillars – it looks rustic and saves wood. Later you can smelt cobblestone into stone in the furnace and turn that into stone bricks.
• Gable roof: instead of the flat roof, place wooden stairs rising diagonally from both long sides until they meet in the middle. Fill the gables (the triangles on the short sides) with planks. It looks like a real house and only needs a little more wood.
• Porch: lay a strip of wooden slabs in front of the door and add fences as a railing. With a lantern on the fence, the entrance stays bright at night.
• Two floors: turn the roof into a floor, build a second 7 × 7 storey on top and connect them with a ladder. Then the ground floor has room for chests and the furnace, and the bed goes upstairs.
• Basement: dig out a room under the house and add stairs leading down. A basement makes a great storeroom – remember the torches so no mobs spawn there.
• New blocks from 2026: Wilderness Bound added wool and concrete stairs and slabs in 16 colors, plus gray poplar wood. They’re great for colorful roofs or cozy seating corners.

Minecraft lighting is also available for real bedrooms – see our roundup of the best Minecraft lamps. And if you fancy more technical builds after the house, try a secret piston door next or lay out a round tower. More basics are in our Minecraft tips for beginners.

A tip for parents

Planning and building their own house is the moment Minecraft “clicks” for many kids: they count blocks, work out amounts and think ahead about what they still need before nightfall. If you’d like things more relaxed, set the difficulty to Peaceful – then no hostile mobs appear and building takes center stage. In Creative mode, every block is available in unlimited amounts, which is great for trying out floor plans.

Frequently asked questions

How do you build a simple house in Minecraft?

Find a flat spot, lay a 7 × 7 floor, place logs on the corners as pillars and build walls of planks 3 blocks high between them. Leave gaps for a door and windows, cover the house with a roof and put torches, a bed, a crafting table, a furnace and a chest inside.

How much wood do you need for a starter house?

For the 7×7 house in this guide with a flat roof you need around 45 logs: 12 for the corner pillars and just over 30 for the planks in the walls and roof, plus a few for the crafting table, chest, door and bed. Using cobblestone for the walls saves a lot of wood.

How do I survive the first night in Minecraft?

On your first day, gather wood, craft a crafting table and a wooden pickaxe and mine some cobblestone. Before sunset, get into an enclosed room, seal the entrance and place torches. A bed made from 3 wool and 3 planks lets you skip the night.

How do I stop mobs from spawning in my house?

Hostile mobs in the Overworld only spawn where the block light level is 0. Place enough torches or lanterns so there are no dark corners, and close off doors, windows and any holes in the walls and roof.

What size is good for a first Minecraft house?

A 7 × 7 outside footprint gives you 5 × 5 blocks of space inside. That is enough for a bed, crafting table, furnace and two chests, it is quick to build and easy to extend later.

Conclusion

A 7 × 7 starter house goes up in a single Minecraft day and keeps you safe through the first night – as long as the door, roof and lighting are right. After that it grows with you: first glass windows and a gable roof, then a basement or a second floor. The most important rule never changes: where it’s bright and closed off, no mobs get in.