Tutorials/Furniture

This article describes different pieces of furniture you can construct in Minecraft. Note that these have little to no function and are just for decoration.

= Introduction =

In Minecraft, excluding beds, furniture is merely decorative considering you can't really do anything with them. It is generally used as a way to make a home more comfortable. This tutorial focuses on as many types of furniture as possible, ranging from chairs to ovens to closets. Note that there are also various mods that can make your furniture actually useful and also fun.

= Bedroom furniture =

The most essential piece to a bedroom is the bed. You can make a 'fake' bed using wool, But this article isn't about that kind of thing. This is about decorative furniture (for the most part). Let's start with some basics: Dressers, desks, and bookshelves.

Dressers
A dresser is literally a stack of double chests. An idea for a more interesting home is to have themed chests with only certain things (i.e. Only store armour in the dresser).

Bunkbed
For the bunkbed you need a wall with 4 width and 4 height. Get fence pieces and place them each on the outer rim of the wall, then place planks in the wall spaces on the bottom only. Place a bed on top of the two blocks. Next, get rid of the blocks under the bed and then place a bed where those blocks were. Note: the top bed will not change your spawn point unless there is a solid block with two empty blocks above it one block below the bed and directly adjacent and you will wake up on top of the bed, so there needs to be more than one block of space above the bed.

Bookshelves
To make a bookshelf, stack as many bookshelf blocks as you desire. It's also a good idea to add a crafting table to your bedroom, and possibly a jukebox. As well as bookshelves, you can use slabs and stairs stacked on top of each other to simulate normal shelves.

Potted Plant
To make a potted plant, place a block of dirt. (If you have a pickaxe with Silk Touch, you can use grass instead.) If you still want a grass block, but don't have a Silk Touch pickaxe you can simply use a bonemeal on the dirt block, you may also get a long grass, a rose or a yellow flower on the grass block. Next, dig out the blocks around it on the floor.

Above each hole, place a trapdoor. Then make them all in the open position, with its flat side against the side of the dirt block.

After that, fill in the holes. Then put a flower, tall grass piece, or fern on top of the dirt block and you're done!

Another way to make potted plants is to put signs around a block of dirt as the pot and then put a plant on top of it.

Desks
To make a desk, take your choice of support (Fence or fence gate are best) and place 2 for a freestanding desk, 1 for a desk attached to the wall. Then make a surface (wooden slabs work well. But, with the beta 1.8 update, pressure plates can be placed on fences, creating a much flatter surface. Additionally, if three fence blocks are placed in a row, two could be covered in pressure plates, and one with glowstone or a redstone lamp on top, making a "lamp".

Another neat way of making easy and simple desks is to have a set of pistons lined up in patterns in rectangular shapes or lines. After the pistons are placed, put a single redstone torch under each one of them, causing the pistons to activate, and thus making a quick and simple table. An adaptation of this is to put a piston in the ground facing up and put pressure plates around it. When you walk up to it, the table/desk pops up.

A different way of making desks is to make a huge table out of blocks. There should be four "leg" blocks, acting as the "legs" of your table. On top of the "legs" you can put slabs or blocks, making a simple table. This form of table is one of the easiest to make.

The last type of table is the "Block-by-block" table. It consists of a simple arrangement of multiple blocks. By putting many blocks in a rectangular, square, or straight pattern, you can make a very simple table useful for keeping things on. This form of table is mostly built with white, plain wool, because it causes the table to look like the table is covered with a clean, white tablecloth. [Credit to Minecraftfurniture.net]

Computers
Place an iron block, a painting on the side, and a "keyboard" in front of it. I use a powered minecart rail because it looks like there's buttons on it in the original texture pack. Best use with a desk. I just use 3x2x1 logs and put the "computer" in the middle.

Alternate flatscreen method
On any surface, place a wooden, or stone pressure plate. From the outside (or rear of the 'desk'), place a sign on the edge of the pressure plate (check for the black outline showing the plate as selected). This sign can be decorated with common logos, like real monitors. Now move to the front of the 'desk' (or back of the sign, which is now floating) and place a picture. An optional lever can be placed on the left or right as a mouse.

Two of these screens can be setup (the pressure plate is required to hold the sign) for dual monitor configurations. This however has not been tested.

Lamps/Light sources
To make a lamp, place a fence block and put a torch (or some glowstone) on top.

Or, to make a different kind of lamp, build up 3 blocks from your original ceiling, place glass blocks where the original ceiling was and leave one block open for an escape hatch and start placing lava. This would be best used in creative mode in a netherack/nether brick structure (creative mode because depending on how big your house is it might take a lot of lava to cover the ceiling!)

Mood lighting can be made by placing a glowstone block and shield it on all sides but one. Next, place a slab in the remaining spot. The result is a small patch of slightly whiter light. This will not create a radius of light however, so its solely for the effect.

A modern/futuristic style light can be made by placing down any block and then a stone slab (or any half-step) on top. Then remove the bottom block and put another half step in its place. Put a glowstone block on top of all of it. It should look like the glowstone hovers above the stone slabs.

Another modern way is to have a wall with stairs on all of the bottom row of blocks but the corners, and place glowstone in the corners. Then place one more stair piece next to the glowstone to make an 8x8 pixel square of glowstone. Lastly, place a half slab of the same type of the stair(wooden plank, cobblestone, stone brick, sandstone) on the glowstone. There you have a modern 'glowing' couch piece. I recommend either stone brick(modern) or sandstone(blends in with glowstone).

If you want off/on turnable lighting you need a lever, iron block and redstone torch. put the iron block down, on the iron block redstone torch and put a lever to the iron block. As of the 1.2 release you can use redstone lamps too, it gives more light and you can integrate it in the wall.

Piston Lamp Diagram
Torch/Glowstone

Piston

Redstone Torch

= Living room furniture =

The living room is your house's heart, where you can gather with friends (if you're on a server) and waste your time, if you want to.

T.V.
There are two main designs for televisions in Minecraft. You can make a decorative TV that is really just black wool or obsidian decoratively in or on the wall or floor. You could also just use a 2x1 painting starting from left to right to imitate a flat screen TV. You can also put two blocks of any material, two fence uptop and a 2x1 painting on the fence.

If you have space then there is another method. Build a frame 4x4 out of black or grey wool. Next carve out a small room within the frame. Put a row of glass along the lowest row that isn't the frame. You can then lure an animal or monster into the frame or if your on creative mode use a spawn egg to get a villager, animal or monster. Just put in another layer of glass and you have a TV!

A more expensive method is a redstone lamp in the wall with a lever next to it and a painting over the lamp. When the lever is pulled light will shine through the painting.

Sofas and Chairs
A sofa is literally, 2-4 stair blocks with a sign attached to either side as "arms". Chairs are precisely this, only they are 1 stair block. There are many more variations to the chair, so experiment! Also some people use slabs with signs on sides and blocks behind to create chairs and sofas. ALSO sofas can be made with half slabs and signs put 2 slabs down and put the signs around but connected to the slabs. To make a 'leather' sofa, use slabs surrounded by wool blocks.

If you have a dog (tamed wolf) you may also want a dog bed in your house for it to sit on. You can make one like this (birds eye view) /=sign attached to side -=wood slab

//

/--/

//

More Interesting Seating
A step up into the modern world of interior design is the "lounge Bench". Make an extra long "sofa" with a 90 degree angle in it somewhere, no sign "arms", and possibly using slabs and blocks, instead of stair pieces. If in a corner, a bookshelf looks appealing in the corner, and blends in with the wood's texture.

Fireplaces
Fireplaces give your living room a more "homey" feel. A fireplace can literally be a little hole in the wall with netherrack in it. Or it can be a sleek, ultra-modern piece of contemporary minecraft art. A nice design is a brick outline in the wall and floor (as of 1.8, brick slabs can make the area around it on the floor elevated). Then make a 1x2x1 hole in the wall inside the brick outline and put in netherrack. Light the netherrack, and add a chimney for all the smoke to go out through (and outside decoration!) A more contemporary and "sleek" design is to make the same brick outline, but then, add lava instead of netherrack, and put glass in front of the lava, making for an ultra-modern, "artificial fireplace" feel. Also with the 1.8 update, add iron bars around the fire to look like a fire guard for a more realstic look.


 * AlbinoMcGee's Fireplace


 * Pick a spot away from any flammable material. Next, dig a 2 block deep hole and put netherrack in it, then light the netherrack with flint and steel. Next you should place a glass block on top of the fire, not the netherrack, so you wont burn yourself (you will have to put a block adjacent to the hole to place the glass block then later remove it). Put chairs and/or couches surrounding this and you have yourself a fire pit and lounge.




 * Minecart Fireplace
 * Minecart fireplaces are fireplaces that will not burn your house down. When a minecart is on fire it produces an animation similar to fire but not real fire. To make one of these just set a minecart on fire (to do this make a railway directly around a lava column, make the minecart go on it). Then put the minecart in your wooden fireplace and remove the rails. Make sure the fireplace is a block deep so that when you put the minecart in it will not be visible.


 * Old Style Fireplace
 * This fireplace is the old style brick built ones. You will want this next to a wall. First dig a 3 block deep hole. After that, add netherrack at the bottom and light it up. Third, place netherrack  on the top of the hole. Next, place a brick on both sides of the fire and put another brick on top of those and in the middle of the ones in the top. Repeat  in front of the bricks so you cannot throw things in the fire. This part is optional. If you want to add a chimney, add bricks on the top to the sides and the front of the fire. Keep adding until you reach your roof and then break the area where the fire is. Add 2 - 3 more levels of the chimney on the roof. Finally, add netherrack on your roof level and light it up!


 * Traditional Fireplace


 * This is similar to the Old Style fireplace, but more elaborate. Simply make a 5x2 floorspace from cobblestone, and replace the centre-back block with netherrack. Next, place a 3-high column of stone bricks on each side of the netherrack, and place stone brick stairs on each side (place them so that the steps go towards the centre). Add a stone brick between the two stairs, and attach an additional stone brick below. Build up a column of stone bricks upwards from the centre brick, until it exits the house, placing a torch on top to imitate a chimney stoke. Finally, ignite the netherrack and add nether-brick fences around the opening. You could also add stone stairs to the underside of the opening. See the image for reference.

IMPORTANT: Wood blocks and stairs will ignite if they are less than 4 blocks above the fire or any adjacent blocks. Replace nearby blocks with double wood-slabs, to prevent it from catching fire (as of snapshot 12w17a, wooden slabs will also ignite, so if you have version lower than 12w17a, you are safe with slab)

Coffee Tables
To create a coffee table, use any type of slab and place them near your sofas, chairs, etc.

Corner Tables
Build a fence and add a wooden pressure plate on top for a good looking table. Another option is to place a piston in the ground with a redstone torch below it. The piston will activate, and will create a nice, one block table.

Dining Room Tables
1. Place two stair blocks of your taste facing each other, and place two slab blocks of your taste on top of them. (Take note, your house must have slab floors for this table to look good.) P.S. You could even try the piston table again, doesn't require the slab floor and looks cool with a cake on it!:) 2. Place 4 blocks (maybe wooden planks) for the corners of your table anywhere then place some upside down half slabs in the middle and between the corner blocks to make an awesome table (you can put cake on it too.)

Shelves
Building a shelf is simple. all you need to do is place a trap door where you want your shelf to go, and you're finished! You could also place slabs on a wall. That way you can put stuff on them, such as a cake.

Since 1.2.4 Update, you can now place stairs upside down. That allows functional stair shelves. Place a block, then get out your stair and place it on the block. So long as you were facing upwards it will become upside-down and you can make non-floating cake holders or do it outside under a window for a window seal mabye even use lot with crafting tables mixed in for a cat play tower

Modern Table
Place two glowstone blocks where you want the center of your table to be, then surround the glowstone blocks with glass panes for a cake and coffee table that will light up your living room!

Simple Table
Place 2 blocks above where you want your table, now create a 2 block deep hole below the blocks above your table(3 if you include the gap for the table which should already be there), get into the hole, look up and place 2 stairs facing each other on the bottom of the, get out the hole and fill it in, now remove the 2 blocks above the table, you now have a nice simple table.


 * ~88~ 8=Block
 * ~##~ #=The stairs
 * 88 ~=Air
 * 88
 * 8888

Ceiling fans
Ceiling fans are an optional add on, but are only recommended for houses with 3 blocks or more between floor or ceiling. A simplistic design is arranging slabs on the ceiling like a fan. There are also more complex designs involving pistons. To build a design like this, place four pistons, pointing outward from a central block of whatever type you choose. You can add some wiring in the ceiling of your house to sequence the pistons. The basic idea is to build a 3 clock and attach two oppositely facing pistons from the fan directly to the clock. Attach the other 2 through an inverter. The circuit's speed will make the fan alternate quite fast, simulating a spinning motion.

Chess/Checker Board
To make a Chess/Checker Board, place a noteblock anywhere to form the table and board. You can build any type of chairs you like for the table. Notice how the noteblock looks a lot like a chess/checker board.

Note: This may not work with alternate texture packs.

Piano
Need some music in your house? Here's how to make a piano that plays music or just notes.

All you need is:
 * 2 Netherbrick Stairs
 * 1 Note Block
 * 1 Jukebox
 * Several Music Discs

Now to the building:
 * Place the jukebox and note block together side by side (preferably against a wall).
 * Place the netherbrick stairs on top of both music blocks facing you.
 * Voila, now you have a piano that can play music or just notes.

Cool Fences
To make a "cool" fence, place a stair where you want your fence to go. then place a slab block on top of each stair.

= Kitchen =

A kitchen may consist of a small chest with food products, such as meats, bread, or raw ingredients. You may wish to add a Crafting Table as well as a few Furnaces, to simulate a working area and an oven. Counters are made by placing Stone, Stone Brick or Wooden Plank blocks in any manner a real-world kitchen would be placed in. Also, the kitchen should be placed on Cobblestone or Stone Brick floors, rather than Wooden Plank floors. You may also make a fridge by placing a dispenser on the floor, an iron block on top, and an iron door in front. Then just place a button next to the dispenser, and when you press it, the iron door will open, and the dispenser will dispense your food!

= Fridge =

You can make a fridge for a nice finish, and to make your kitchen more distinguished. You can make a fridge by stacking 2 Iron Blocks on top of each other, and then putting a button on the top block. It looks chunky, but it's still pretty cool.

Firstroad's Fridge This fridge will look fancy and you will have the ability to store items. Firstly dig a block where you want to put your fridge, then put in there a chest, leave the above block blank and put above it an iron block or a snow one (for those who use a texture pack) then put an iron door and a lever above or next to it.

Useful Fridge This fridge will give you food when you need some. Place a dispenser on the ground with an iron block on it. Place a door in front of those and place a button on the iron block. When you press the button, the door will open and the dispenser will drop the food you stored

Useful Fridge 2 If you need some food in a hurry, all you need is a wall, 2 iron blocks, a button, and a dispenser. To build it, dig one block into a wall. Place a dispenser in the wall, and from inside fill it with food. Place iron blocks in front and on top of that. Place a button somewhere on the bottom block. When you press the button, instant food!

IArgos's fridge Place a dispenser and on top, put an iron block. Then place an iron door in front of it, and put A button/lever on the iron block. Then just fill the dispenser.

fireglo450's fridge To make this fridge, you need 6 blocks of iron, 3 sticky pistons, 2 redstone torches, one lever, and some wire. To set it up, make a 2 wide and 3 tall rectangle out of the iron. Make sure it is against a wall and in a corner. On the side facing into the corner, cut out the walls and place the sticky pistons, setting up redstone torches appropriately as inverters to the pistons. Then, attach the lever to the 2nd block up on the non-piston-attached side. Wire this lever into the piston inverters, and voila, a working fridge. inside the fridge, place an iron block in the middle, a stone slab as the roof, and put a chest in the top space. At the bottom, put a block of ice in as a sort of "freezer."

'''...Ultratruckis -@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@ facing down. Now, put the block underneath the piston that you want your fridge to be made out of (I.E- i want an iron fridge, so the block underneath the piston will be iron). Now put a redstone torch on top of the tower. This will force the piston down. Delete the piston, tower and redstone torch. You should be left with a block with a shading error. Add blocks around it so that you cant see the black... stuff. You now have a fridge!

...MetalManII's Simple Fridge... you will need: 2 dispensers an iron door 2 buttons 2 blocks of any kind ( i prefer iron blocks) Instructions: place 2 dispensers one on top of the other, then fill with food. Jump on top and place an iron door so it is touching the dispensers. On either side place the 2 blocks, one omn top of the other. Add buttons to these blocks. TaaDaa a perfect fridge, and its compact too! press a button, the door opens, food comes out, door closes. my kinda fridge. Have fun! -MetalManII-

= Bathroom =

You can make bathrooms with even running water, but this would mainly serve as decorations since you (hopefully)can't actually take a bath or use the toilet.

Toilet
Note: This is synonymous with the garbage incinerator, but is generally smaller, flatter, and at ground level. All you need is a trapdoor, a lever, bucket of lava/water, and a stack of dirt or items for disposal.
 * Dig a block or few down. The hole is the bowl, the lever is the flushing lever, and the trapdoor is the lid.
 * Next pour the bucket of lava/water in the hole.
 * Then place the trapdoor on top.
 * Finally put the lever next to the trapdoor
 * Now you have a little toilet/garbage incinerator for disposing things or just for decoration.

Advanced Toilet
To make an advanced toilet, all you need is:
 * 11 white blocks (iron works better than wool since it's not flammable)
 * 1 Button
 * 1 Trapdoor
 * 1 lava bucket

Here is how you make it:
 * Place the Blocks in an ring shape, with three blocks stacked at the end
 * On the front center of the three blocks in back place the button.
 * Dig a 3 deep 1x1 hole in the center (empty) brick and place lava at the bottom
 * On the middle (lava) TOP brick, place a trapdoor. The trapdoor acts as a toilet lid, able to move up or down.

You're done! This type of toilet is much more advanced than the other toilet.

Here is another toilet design. You will need:
 * 2 Buttons
 * 1 Piston
 * 1 Bucket of water
 * 1 Trapdoor
 * 3 Solid blocks

To start, you will want your toilet up against a wall. Now, dig out a block with three 1x1x1 spaces coming off the central toilet bowl. In the first space, place a piston facing into the toilet bowl. In the second, a bucket of water. Extend the third to run underground and out of your house. Then, place the three blocks against the wall around the hole. Put the trapdoor on top. You can now place one button so it opens the trapdoor, and the other so that it powers the piston. Make sure that the water in the center hole is still. Test it by hitting and throwing some items on the trapdoor. Hit the trapdoor button, and once the items are down in the toilet, hit the piston button. This makes for a nice "flushing" effect.

1.9 Pre-release Toilet
The 1.9 Pre-release toilet is exactly like the Advanced Toilet, except there is a cauldron full of water on the bottom, replacing on of the blocks, and acting like the "toilet bowl".

Sitting Toilet
To make a nice toilet that you can sit on and do your business, all you need is:
 * 3 Solid blocks
 * 1 Rail
 * 1 Minecart

Optional:
 * 1 Trapdoor
 * 1 Lever

Here is how you make it: 1) Place the 3 blocks in an L shape with two blocks stacked on top of each other and one block placed in front of the stack. 2) On the block in front of the double stack of blocks, place the rail and then the minecart on top of the rail. 3) Now destroy the block that is under the minecart; this will cause the rail to break and let the minecart fall onto a block without a rail making it unable to move (easily).

Optional: 4) Place the trapdoor in the space above the minecart connected to the top of the 2 stack of blocks. 5) Place the lever on the same block as the trapdoor on a different side.

Another way to make a toilet

materials:
 * 1 Water Bucket
 * 1 cauldron
 * 1 trapdoor
 * 5 half blocks

optional:
 * 4-6 whole blocks

place the cauldron on level ground and surround 3 sides with half blocks, then place 3 of the 4-6 blocks on the ground using them as a wall(of course), then place the 1-3 blocks you have left on the 3 wall blocks then place the trap door on top of the cauldron and voila you now have a working (aside from flushing) toilet

Shower
You can place slabs on the ground to mark off the edges of the shower. This should usually be built in a corner. Then place a piston in the ceiling or wall and place water behind it. You can use a lever to turn the shower on and off.

Sink and Mirror
You can make a very acceptable looking sink and mirror combo by making a section at least 3 blocks wide of your floor material. In the middle "2nd" block place a rail then an empty minecart on top of that, but its easier just to use a cauldron.which should intersect with the wall just enough. Surround the left and right sides of the cart with your wall material as well as the back at least 2 blocks high. Replace the block that is behind and above the minecart with ice to make a mirror. You may also consider using a glass pane if you completely surround it with your wall block type besides the viewing angle to make it a full pane.

Another Sink and Mirror combination requires that you make a 3x3x3 cube with your wall block material and fill the center most cube with a water bucket. Before doing so, you would want to designate which middle wall you want to be a mirror and then place a glass pane there so it will be a window. Like the above option, use a rail and a minecart in front of the mirror to make the sink.

A good idea is use a cauldron with water to make the sink, it's more fancy and the cauldron doesn't move when pushed.

It may be possible to take the rail removal suggestion from the above toilet section, but that has not been confirmed.

A lever can be added above the cauldron sink, and looks like a very decent faucet.

Misc. == ==

Misc. Furniture is pieces of furniture that really don't fit in any categories Listed Above.

Pet Door
A pet door is actually quite simple to create and will save you the trouble of having to keep the door open for your pets. To make a pet door make a 1x1 hole in the wall then put pressure plates on both sides of the hole. Inside the hole, put in a fence gate. Now you pets can come in with ease and no monsters will be able to fit in! (Except for the Cave Spider, which only spawns in a mob spawner found in abandoned mineshaft.)

Radio
Basically, all you need are 2 note blocks and an Iron block. First, place the note blocks. Make sure you have a 1 block Gap between them. Then, place the iron block in the gap. You could even place buttons or redstone torches on the blocks to give the feel of having knobs and an antenna! or replace one block with a jukebox to play music

Utility Furniture
Try to make your furniture java a purpose instead of being merely decorative. For example, a fridge could hold food in a way so the block holding the food is hidden but still accessible. Or, a fireplace can be used as an item incincerator. Try coming up with ways to incorporate uses into furniture.

Redstone
Try using Redstone to "deploy" furniture. You can even try to make a barren room with everything hidden, with a lever that reveals or creates furniture. Trust me, this sounds weird, but it is really cool when you actually use it.

Put furniture where the "?" is.

= Simple Furniture Videos =

Möbel