34 Cool Things to Build in Minecraft When You’re Bored

Anyone can get bored of Minecraft and not know what to build next. Thankfully, we have a list of 34 cool things to build in Minecraft to give you some inspiration.

There are so many things to build in Minecraft, such as houses, castles, fancy nether portals, bridges, or even statues. To make sure you don’t get bored or give up on your idea, pick a project that you will have fun building. It is also important to pick a building idea that is a little challenging, but not too challenging.

If a building idea is too ambitious or difficult, you may find yourself giving up after a few hours and getting bored of the game. It is best to divide builds into several smaller projects, so you have a sense of accomplishment after you finish each part. For example, if you are building a castle in Minecraft, it would be a good idea to focus on building the walls first, then one tower, then more towers, then rooms connecting these towers, and so on.

Keep in mind that if you are looking for things to build in Minecraft survival, you will have to get all the materials yourself. For really big projects like a skyscraper, you will have to do a lot of work to get all the blocks you need. But if you are playing in creative mode, you don’t have to worry about this and can build as big as you want!

Here is our list of 34 Cool Things to Build in Minecraft:

1. Castle

Castles are a fun thing to build in Minecraft. Why? Who wouldn’t want to live in their very own castle! Castles are usually easy to build because they use simple materials like stone and wood which are easy to get. Castles can range from a small fortress with a few connected towers to a giant walled city.

There is a lot you can add: a wooden gate, a water or lava moat with a bridge, fountains, statues, gardens, and so on. Bonus: the walls and moat will keep mobs out of your base! Any mobs that get close, you can shoot using a bow from the top of your walls.

READ MORE: 8 Amazing Minecraft Library Designs

I recommend starting small and adding on as you need more space. There have been so many times where I started building a massive castle which ended up being too much work. You might get bored of Minecraft if you make your project too difficult. For inspiration, see our post with castle ideas and photos.

2. Mansion

Building a mansion for yourself in Minecraft survival can be a lot of fun. Design your own bedroom, storage areas, hallways, grand staircases, and more. You can go one step further and build a fancy fence around your property and build a nice garden or fountain in front of your home. For more inspiration, you can easily google examples of real-life mansions to model your Minecraft build after.

Feeling lazy? Try finding a naturally generated woodland mansion and renovating it to your liking.

READ MORE: Cool Minecraft Houses to Build in Survival

3. Town

Create a collection of buildings in a similar style and connect them with roads to make a Minecraft town. For added protection, consider building walls to protect from creepers and other mobs.

Some building styles to consider can include: medieval stone and wood, asian pagodas, or desert-themed with sandstone. If you are looking for cool things to build in Minecraft, a town can definitely keep you busy since there are so many buildings you can add.

Some ideas for town buildings: banks, hospitals or medical clinics, storage rooms, hotels, and town halls (with courtroom and jail).

4. Modern City

A modern city with skyscrapers, paved roads, lamp posts, parks, and sidewalks is a huge project, but can be quite rewarding if you have a lot of time for building. There is a lot of repetitive building involved (for example, adding lots of floors to the same skyscraper) so it may not be the best thing to build in survival Minecraft.

This kind of build would be way easier to do in creative mode, or using server plugins such as WorldEdit to help. Otherwise, you could always do this in survival mode with a group of friends.

5. Farm

Everyone needs a farm in Minecraft to grow your own food and supplies. You could make a simple farm with places for the essentials like trees and wheat, or a more fancy farm outdoors with a windmill and barn. Another option is to make an indoor or underground farm, but this will be more work. Crops need light to grow, so you would have to make sure there is enough light from torches, lanterns, or lamps.

A cool Minecraft farm idea could be to make a greenhouse of glass, using natural light to grow your crops. The greenhouse would keep out animals and mobs, but you should still light it up a bit so mobs don’t spawn at night.

6. Gardens

Gardens go well with almost anything, such as a town, the front of your house, or even just by itself. Try using flowers, trees, gravel pathways, benches, and water to decorate your garden. Fountains are a very nice centerpiece for gardens, but can sometimes be tricky to get the water flowing the way you want.

To get flowers for your garden, you can use bonemeal on grass to grow them or find them naturally throughout the world. Some biomes will have much more flowers than others.

7. Famous Landmark

Look on google for a photo of a famous landmark and use it as a reference for building something amazing in Minecraft. For example, famous castles like Neuschwanstein, the Eiffel tower, Big Ben, the Statue of Liberty, and so on. Hint: if you travel a lot, pick the favorite thing you saw on your travels.

If you are playing on survival Minecraft, maybe try to pick something a little less detailed or build a more miniature version of the landmark. Without the flying and infinite blocks on creative, it may be challenging to build on survival.

READ MORE: The 13 Best Modpacks To Play In 2023

8. Fountain

Fountains can be simple or large and complicated. They make a good decoration for gardens, castle courtyards, or even indoors. Try using ‘steps’ for water to flow down and glowstone or glass within the water. With the changes Mojang made to water flowing, fountains are a bit more tricky to make now and may need some experimenting to get the water flowing perfectly.

For added beauty, you should light up your fountain so it is more visible at night. This can be done with blocks like glowstone or redstone lamps. If you are using lamps, you could even link it to a daylight sensor so the fountain light only turns on at night.

For more fountain building ideas and examples check out our guide here.

9. Underground City

To build a city underground, look for a large underground ravine or carve out a huge hole with TnT. Put windows in the walls, hang vines, and have columns of water or lava (if you want). This one can be a lot of work, especially if you need to dig out larger areas for farms or growing trees.

On a Minecraft server I played on a long time ago, there was a very cool underground “vault” city that was dug out by the players. There were lots of hallways with doors to rooms and a massive atrium with trees and a garden. It is possible to make secret hallways and rooms as well. If you like digging, something like this can be fun to build!

10. Pyramid

Pyramids are usually built in desert biomes using sandstone or sand. They are a nice place to put a beacon, and can be built in other biomes too using various materials. If you want to keep an Egyptian theme, decorate the outside with pools, columns, and sphinxes.

Building a pyramid is really easy for most players, even in survival Minecraft. The building plan is very simple, you just have to make a really large square and then keep building smaller squares vertically until you reach the tip of the pyramid.

READ MORE: How to Craft a Beacon in Minecraft

11. Arch

Archways can be used as a grand entrance to a town, base, or other build. They are a fun thing to build and can be made of simple materials like stone or more luxurious materials like diamond or gold. They can be a big, impressive monument or they can be a smaller doorway to an area.

12. Library

Create a building decorated with bookcases, wood, red carpets, and stained glass, or even just a side-room in your base and make that your enchanting area. For extra fun, use pistons to make some hidden passages behind the bookcases. Check out our inspiration on library designs and layouts for more ideas.

Libraries are the perfect place to put all your enchanting tables and even potion brewing stands. Even if you don’t want to build a large library, you can still build a small one close to your storage room for enchanting and potions.

13. Cathedral

There are so many impressive churches and cathedrals in the world and building one in Minecraft can be quite difficult, especially in survival mode. However, they can make for a busy and satisfying project. For inspiration, find an image of a famous cathedral online for your reference as you build. Don’t forget the stained glass!

14. Fancy Nether Portal

Nether portals don’t need to be boring and there are so many different ways to design them. Try making a decorated room just for your nether portal or make an even larger nether portal and decorate it (nether portals can be much larger than the standard small size).

As an added bonus, keeping your nether portal in a separate room will keep away any mobs that walk through it. For building materials, I recommend using materials found in the nether such as quartz, netherrack, nether brick, or lava. This will make sure your portal still has a nether theme to it.

15. Fancy Storage Room

Storage rooms are an important part of any Minecraft house. They can be large, very organized, and decorated (if you want!). If you have the materials, use expensive blocks in your storage room to show off your wealth like gold, diamond, and emerald.

For more ideas about building a Minecraft storage room, check out our article for storage room design here.

16. Floating Base

Floating bases are not just for Skyblock, they can be a fun thing to build in survival Minecraft too. Build a large platform for yourself up in the clouds, bring up some construction materials, and start building a base up there. Make sure you have a safe way to get down though, such as a jump to a pool of water, a ladder, or slime blocks to fall on.

As an added bonus, if you are playing on a pvp server, a floating base high up in the sky can keep yourself hidden from other players. It is a good way to maintain privacy, as long as the base is not too big!

Sky bases make a good challenge for survival Minecraft. Also, definitely check out our list of the best Minecraft modpacks to play in 2023, which includes Sky Factory!

17. Docks

Try building a village right on the water with wooden sidewalks connecting the buildings. You can also build boats out of wood as decoration for your docks. Docks make a relaxing place to go fishing as well (another thing to do when you’re bored of Minecraft).

You should build docks where there is a lot of water, preferably on the land next to an ocean biome. Building docks in a river does not really make much sense, after all.

18. Tree house

Find a jungle biome and build a base in the trees, or build your own giant tree with wood then build a Minecraft base inside the tree. Watch out if fire spread is on though. It would only take one fireplace or mean player to burn down your entire build.

If you are building up in the trees, it is also a cool idea to build wooden bridges linking different tree houses together. However, this may make your house less private and more obvious if you are on a server with other players.

19. Sewers

Dig underground tunnels near your base and fill them with a little bit of water. Add iron fence gates or plants such as vines and lily pads for decoration and you’ve got yourself a sewer system. If you want, you could also put minecart tracks in here for transportation. A sewer system can be a cool way to link different houses together underground, as well.

For an added sense of adventure, add secret hallways with treasure for visitors. These hallways could be hidden with pressure plates, levers, pistons, and so on.

20. Subway

A minecart subway system is the perfect way to transport yourself around your city or between builds. Simply dig a long hallway underground and add ‘stops’ or ‘stations’ along the way with exits to the world above. The subway system can be used to link different bases from different players on a server as well.

21. Maze

Mazes can easily be built out of leaves/hedges and placed into a garden. They can also be made underground or inside buildings. For more fun, consider adding traps and surprises using pistons like drops, changing walls, and dispensers shooting arrows. Don’t forget the reward chest at the end of the maze.

If you are playing on survival mode, you’ll definitely want the Silk Touch Enchantment to gather leaf blocks from trees!

22. Statue

If you have an empty hallway inside your build, you can fill the space by building some statues. Make statues dedicated to your favorite items, mobs, animals, or players. Statues as shown in the photo also make a nice decoration for an entrance to your build.

See our full list of statues to build in Minecraft for more ideas.

23. Bridge

Is there a large river by your base? Or even a deep canyon? Build a fancy bridge to get across! Decorate the edges and supports for the bridge and add some lighting as well. Use nice materials like stone, brick, or wood instead of dirt and cobblestone. Your bridge can be as simple as a walkway or as grand as the Golden Gate bridge.

24. Lighthouse

A lighthouse in the distance glowing in the night is a cool decoration if your base is by an ocean. A lighthouse does not look very nice in a field or by a river, so make sure you build it on a beach by the ocean! For a classic look, build your lighthouse out of white material and with some touches of red (like concrete, wool, or terracotta).

If you’re good with redstone, you can even make a piston-based system to make your lighthouse revolve with light. See this YouTube video for more information on a redstone lighthouse.

25. Boat

Unfortunately if you build a boat out of blocks in Minecraft, you won’t be able to sail it yourself. But it does make for a good decoration on the water by your base. Built boats are usually made of wood and the sails made from wool. The boat can be as simple as a sailboat, or as large as a cruise liner with sleeping and dining cabins.

26. Penthouse Suite

If you are building a city and have skycrapers, make your home up in the sky as a penthouse suite. You would be able to easily watch over your whole Minecraft build from the top of a skyscraper. This one might be a bit more work if you don’t already have a skyscraper.

For an authentic look, keep a modern design and draw inspiration from those New York TV shows with penthouses.

27. Clock Tower

Clock towers are a cool thing to build in any medieval themed town, or even a modern city (think of Big Ben in London). They are usually very simple to build and can be made from a variety of different building materials like logs or stone.

Unfortunately, it won’t be able to tell you the time (unless you are a redstone wizard), but it’s a great decoration anyways.

28. Bank and Vault

The vaults of a bank are a unique way to store your items in Minecraft. Build up a bank, and in the back, have an entrance to an underground vault area with your items. What better place to store your gold and diamonds than locked up in an underground vault?

To make your vault more realistic, secure it with a very strong material. I like to build my bank vaults out of obsidian and have different rooms for different items. If you want to be even more creative, each floor can be locked and only opened from a lever in a secure office.

29. Restaurant or Tavern

You will need a place to store your food and access it easily. Sure, you could put it in your storage chests, but what fun is that? Try building a restaurant, kitchen, or tavern with a seating area and a place to order and obtain food. Your friends and visitors will love it as well, if you play on a server with other people.

For more fun, you can try building a fast-food restaurant like Subway or McDonalds.

30. Hospital

A cool thing to build in Minecraft survival is a large urban hospital for yourself and your visitors. Organize an emergency room, waiting area, and wards on the upper floors. If you want a smaller project, try making a small clinic building for your town.

I recommend building with whiter materials such as white wool or quartz to really make that red “H” or cross stand-out. Concrete would also be a good building material to use.

To make the hospital more realistic, add some beacons which automatically “heal” any player that enters the building.

31. Courthouse

Build a courthouse to deal with rule-breaking players on your server, or just make one for fun. The inside should contain an area for people to watch the proceedings, and a front-area for the judge and the accused. Don’t forget to build a jail underground or attached to the courthouse.

Most courthouses today are traditional with wooden interiors (wall, ceiling, floor, benches), even if the exterior is made of something else like stone.

32. Prison

Prison servers are getting pretty popular on Minecraft, so why not build your own? Don’t forget the fence around the prison with the watch towers.

A prison can have so many things, as it needs to be mostly self-sustaining. You’ll need cell blocks, a cafeteria, security rooms, and anything else you can think of. You should definitely make use of redstone to create a full security system with lever-activated doors.

33. Pixel Art

2-Dimensional art can be made in Minecraft just by using colored wool or other colored blocks like concrete. Pixel art may look easy, but trust me, once you try it you may find it to be pretty challenging while still fun.

For pixel art ideas, people often make flags, slogans, minecraft items (like a diamond pickaxe), or other players.

34. Cottage

A cottage on lake or river is a nice and cozy place to call home. You could make one just as a vacation house and connect it to your base with a road or minecart rail system. If it’s on the water or at least has a lake, you’ll have a relaxing place to go fishing.

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And there you have it, 34 cool things to build in Minecraft! Do you have more suggestions to add? Leave a comment below.