Tutorials/Adding beauty to constructions

This tutorial is to give aesthetic advice for your home or building.

Exterior
The beauty in exterior design can come from many different elements all interacting together. No matter what architectural style or color scheme you choose, the most important aspect of exterior design is adding details. This means that if you're building a big blue colonial style home, you want to make sure to use different shades of blue blended together, maybe with another color as an accent. You want to remember the pillars on the porch, and the bushes out front. People may not always agree with your style, but attention to detail is undeniable. Check out this series to see how details can be tacked on over time, using a survival-world castle as an example:

Basic things
Note: You can install a furniture mod to add even more realistic furniture. Carpenter's Blocks is also a good mod which lets you shape any block however you want.

Floor
Under certain circumstances, a glass floor can look excellent (for example, as a see-through bridge over a ravine), but in most other builds, glass is not the material to use. It's recommended that the floor should not be made out of grass blocks, as it is better suited to outdoor landscaping, and avoid dirt floors for similar reasons. It is better to use a wood planks or stone floor. (including its variants such as sandstone) Smooth stone slabs look good as tiles, as well as polished granite, diorite, and andesite. Wool is decorative, but again, keep it away from fire hazards. Carpet is a much better alternative to wool, due to its being cheaper. To add a touch of oldness to your floor, for example if it is made out of stone bricks, use some regular stone bricks (the more, the less abandoned it looks), some cracked stone bricks, and some cobblestone/gravel as very cracked stone bricks. You can also use the mossy variant of stone bricks/cobblestone. To make the floor look worn down/heavily trampled use stone and/or light gray wool. Sandstone floors can have cracks if a sandstone stair block is placed in an upside down position. For a tiled effect, use dark prismarine, which should look nice in environments such as kitchens, bathrooms and swimming pools. The underside textures of TNT can be used similarly, however for obvious reasons be very careful.

Windows
If you are in the beginning of your survival, it's a matter of preference as to whether or not you want to go focus on aesthetics or material conservation. If you choose the latter, then it's recommended not to use glass blocks, as you can use glass panes to conserve materials. If you either chose the former or are more advanced in your world, you should use glass blocks if it looks better.

If windows are at one to two blocks above the ground, it is easy to see out of them. Make large windows that take up a section of wall for a more open feel. If you make 1x2 windows, you can add wood blocks or trapdoors at the ends for shutters.

If you want your glass blocks to have a cloudier look, grab eight of them and one bonemeal, go to a crafting table and place the bonemeal in the center while surrounding it with the eight glass. The resulting blocks, if used correctly, can look amazing. Other colors can be used, for example a muddy effect can be created with a cocoa beans and glass.

Ceiling
If your ceiling is 2 blocks high, people can't jump. Adjust it so that it measures 3 to 4 blocks high, so your home will have a more spacious feel. Remember that endermen are three blocks tall, so keep your house well lit to prevent them from spawning; note that this will not prevent endermen that have spawned elsewhere from teleporting into your home. Or you could just make a 2.5 tall room by having a slab ceiling. A slab floor will prevent any mobs from spawning, provided your lighting is inefficient.

Certain blocks, such as TNT, have underside textures that can only be seen on the ceiling, and these can be used to one's advantage. However, as stated previously, use TNT at your own risk.

Stairs
If you have staircases that use full blocks instead of stair blocks, it is a good idea to switch them out. It makes it much easier to walk. If you want long stairs, use slabs. For completely vertical transport use a spiral staircase or a minecart elevator. If you want to use up horizontal space, use slabs and blocks. You could also use a slab/stair/block recurring pattern for slightly longers stairs (1.5 blocks apart to be exact), for more horizontal travel. Also you can use slab/slab/block/block, slab/slab/stair/block/block and so on to state the stairway's shininess.

Hall
Make a hallway if you have multiple rooms. They should be three or four blocks wide for a large house, and two blocks wide for smaller ones. Use carpets for this part to add some color, though wool works as well. It is recommended to also leave a space for a window if you have the space, so it will look brighter.

Exterior
Include a garden of shrubs, flowers, a few trees, and some potted plants. Put one or two leaf blocks on top of wood to make hedges. If your garden is large enough, why not add a treehouse or a pool? Maybe even a fountain (see far below) to be the center of attention. make sure to put stairs and other tile blocks (like stairs and slabs) to make it look even better.

Others
Keep lots of open spaces and do not use too many doors, so your house will look more than "Designer". Light rooms up with redstone lamps or glowstone instead of torches to improve lighting, or add chandeliers for a classier look. Also you can put paintings on the walls that look empty. You can "hang up" a torch by placing a torch on a block, then an item frame on the same block, before finishing it up by placing a stone button, stone half slab, or an anvil inside the item frame. You can also keep cats and dogs in the building.

Kitchen
Include tables. These can be made either by making an extended piston upwards, or by placing a carpet/pressure plate on a fence/wall.

Don't forget a sink. A filled cauldron or a hopper directed at the wall, with a down lever or tripwire hook at the top to simulate your taps. You could also place a waterbottle filled dropper behind the block bearing the leverfaucet, which when "turned on" will pour out free water.

For a cooker you could use a furnace topped by iron pressure plates, and put some stairs a few blocks above to simulate the light/ventilation thing.

Add a crafting table as a worktop, and droppers with item frames containing rotated snow layers as cabinets that hold bowls and bottles.

You could also add an island in the middle of the room, iron bars to simulate an area to hang pans, and a table that contains normal cake and chocolate cake simulated by daylight detectors.

If ridiculously expensive, hanging a beacon block from the ceiling makes for elegant lighting.

Living Room
Include chairs and couches, and something decorative or something to do. You can also add a fireplace, but beware of fire! You can make fireplaces out of any material, but it is recommended to use stone or brick. Add a few chests and slap some trapdoors on their faces and bam you have a cabinet. You can also hide chests under chests here.

Bedroom(s)
Include a bed, paintings, a jukebox, and a dresser made by stacking chests behind doors. Optionally, you may wish to include an enderchest to keep safe any valuables and easily transport materials in bulk. However, it may not be recommended due to the cost of the components used in construction.

Bathroom
Use Dark prismarine for the floor, as it resembles small bathroom tiles. For bigger tiles, quartz does no harm.

Add fences/ladders as a towel rack. Iron bars could also do good as a small radiator.

Put two upside down quartz stairs that are facing away from each other. On one side put a normal quartz block with a lever on top, and put a trapdoor on it so it lies on top of the other upside down stair. Congratulations, you just built a toilet.

Some Designs
See also Tutorials/Furniture

Furniture
Chair

Note that you can make a couch by adding more stairs. Chairs can also be made using a half-slab of preferably oak for the bottom, armrests made of trapdoors and a door for the back to give your chairs that extra-classy feel.

Table

A village-style table can be made from a pressure plate atop a fence post. As of 1.6, carpets can be used the same way, and often look better. Connecting more than one table when using carpets will look better also. Oftentimes, a simple slab floating at waist-height can suffice, sometimes fitting in with 'alternative style homes'. Another way of making larger tables with only four legs is to use carpets, fence posts and string, as carpets can be placed on string.

Appliances
Sink

Oven

Replace the furnace with a dispenser for a washing machine, tumble drier or dishwasher.

Fridge

Water cooler

FishTank

Place the stairs upside down, and facing out the way the ice is.

Large Building Decorations
Fountain

Side View

Top View

Architectural Styles
Another easy way to make a building or group of buildings look nice is to build them according to real-world styles. The style will determine the shape of your building, the material, and possibly the location as well.

Colonial
These types of houses were first built during Colonial times (1600-1700 roughly) using either brick or wood, depending on what was plentiful in the area. Massachusetts has a lot of good clay, so brick is popular. Farther north you might see more wooden constructions. Wooden ones can be made just about any color with pain, although reds, whites, yellows, and blues are common. The house type is fairly simple, as it is a rectangular prism with a few windows and add-ons basically. These could look good in a player-made town in a forest biome.

Victorian
This style came over from England with the first American settlers. It was a style used more by the wealthy as it was harder to build than Colonial style. Materials were often the same though, brick or wood. Occasionally stone may be used, but that would lead to a heavier and more expensive building so it is not as common. This style would look good on a hill overlooking some Colonial houses.

Modern
This contemporary style can feature many different colors, layouts, and building materials. Normally, houses are made up of squares and rectangles all fitted together with many windows present.