Top 25 Modern Starter Houses for Minecraft

Feb 11, 2022

The first few days of Minecraft are the most stressful. Which means a good starter house is required to keep you safe from mobs and the elements (and have a place to spawn back to in the event of an unfortunate interaction with a skeleton or zombie).

What defines a good starter house?

Simplistic Design: Regardless of building skill level, large builds are realistic to starter houses. They should take a few days, at most, and even a new player should be able to build it.
Attainable Materials: The materials need to be easy to gather or find, which is why most builds are made of stone and wood.
Includes the Essentials: What good is a house if it doesn’t have a bed? It should also have space for farming and storage to help you survive long enough to get better tools and experience.

What makes up a modern style house?

In Minecraft, there are blocks for all types of builds. Modern starter house designs include a lot of concrete, quartz, and stone. They’re a little more difficult for early game in Minecraft, but they’re not impossible to build. Modern starter houses are perfect for those wishing to build their dream home, an entire city, or just want to try out a new style of building.

However, that doesn’t mean wood, terracotta, or even greenery are out of the running. The following builds vary in shape and location so that anyone looking for a modern starter base can build it!

From mountains to desert to the standard plains, this list features modern starter homes for all skill levels!

All houses were built in a 1.18.1 world using BSL Shaders, Motschen’s Better Leaves, and Terralith 2.0.

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Tutorial by FlyingCow
Biome: Any

This is a perfectly sized starter home with room to expand. While the tutorial video shows quartz blocks being used, we switched it out for white concrete. As you can see in the image below, we used spruce slabs and stairs to replace their quartz counterparts. While we love the look of quartz, it’s not always accessible early on.

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Tutorial by WiederDude Tutorials
Biome: Any

This tutorial doesn’t include interior, but it's a very beautiful build anyway! This modern home has lots of open space that you could even put a farm on the roof or upstairs balcony! WiederDude has been featured before in our lists of starter homes, and they knocked it out of the park with this modern starter house.

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Tutorial by A1MOSTADDICTED MINECRAFT
Biome: Any

This build is by no means a design for first day players. It requires quartz block and stairs, which are easy to replace, however we decided to keep the original when building this modern home. The design is unique, and the tutorial is entertaining to watch as they take you block-by-block through the building. The back of the build is what really caught our eye, as it resembles a more urban style, almost like an apartment building!

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Tutorial by Oladyshka
Biome: Any

We decided to title this build as an estate because of how advanced it is for a starter house. While the blocks required aren’t hard to gather, its size and detail makes this tutorial best for those looking for an upgrade to their starter shack! In our attempt at this tutorial, we stuck with the basic structure to match with the surrounding area.

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Tutorial by Rizzial
Biome: Any

This is a small, but practical house for those just entering the Overworld. While quartz isn’t the best block for the beginning, you can easily change the block palette to fit your capabilities! The interior includes a cute balcony that overlooks the first floor, leaving you plenty of space to begin your Minecraft adventures!

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Tutorial by Sim Simeni
Biome: Any

This is a perfect design for day-one-players or just someone looking to get a roof over their heads. We will admit, the tutorial video is hard to follow on normal speed (we had to go down to 0.25 at one point), but the build is small and quick to make!

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Tutorial by A1MOSTADDICTED MINECRAFT
Biome: Any

To say this house is easy to build is an understatement. Not only is the tutorial super easy to follow, but the design is simple, yet detailed. That’s a hard combo to come across in Minecraft. This house features a unique style provided by using carpets! Surprising, we know!

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Tutorial by TheNeoCubest
Biome: Snowy

The snow block is an underused and underestimated block when it comes to modern design. That’s why this build had to be included in this list. Perfect for snowy biomes, this house is made with cobblestone and snow, making it more cozy than other modern homes. It’s a simple house with a space for farm or storage, including a basement!

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Tutorial by Folli
Biome: Any

Once you’ve explored the world for a few days, acquired many resources and treasures, try building this medium-sized modern home! This design takes the standard blocky style of modern and adds some depth, without draining resources. We highly recommend using this design to build in a biome outside your comfort zone.

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Tutorial by SV Gravity
Biome: Any

If you’re living in a location with a beautiful view, we recommend giving this house a try. While it is small inside, it has enough room for the essentials and plenty of windows. If you’re looking to grow, this design is modular enough that you could add more cube spaces on any side!

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Tutorial by Smithers Boss
Biome: Any

Who says modern has to have straight lines? Certainly not this house! This home is great for beginners who want more than a square box house. Its design is unique and has plenty of features modern homes actually have (i.e. a pool and grill in the backyard).

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Tutorial by Fedo
Biome: Mountains

We’ll provide a disclaimer that there is a portion of this tutorial that is just a blank screen. Just know that you are to place 2 stairs and slabs in the middle (you’ll know what we mean when you get there). Overall, this build is a beautiful. Most mountain homes tend to be rounder, to contrast the harsh lines of the landscape. However, there’s nothing wrong with going along with the natural straight lines of the mountains!

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Tutorial by TheMythicalSausage
Biome: Any

TheMythicalSausage comes through again with his beautiful detailing! This modern home comes with a water feature and easy to gather resources for early game. You can choose to include the road and entrance shown in the tutorial, we thought it added a polished look to this rustic and modern home.

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Tutorial by Smithers Boss
Biome: Any

Who doesn’t love building with Minecraft hacks? This build includes a few features that utilize the strange, but helpful, ways to place carpets. Overall, the house is easy to build and detail and includes modern features of a swimming pool and fire pit!

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Tutorial by Fedo
Biome: Any

A typical styled modern house, this build is quick to put together and leaves you with enough space to grow. You can always switch out the block palette easily, and expand the design to be whatever you need!

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Tutorial by TSMC
Biome: Plains or Forest

This home will take you a few hours to build, but it’s so worth it! While suburban houses aren’t necessary considered modern, this house in particular includes modern-style design elements. The tutorial is in two parts: interior and exterior. We followed along with part 1 (exterior) and a bit of part 2 in order to learn the outdoor decorations and inside layout. This house is massive compared to the others on this list, meaning you won’t have to do any new buildings for a while.

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Tutorial by Rizzial
Biome: Any

What still amazes us is how so many modern Minecraft homes use the same blocks, but they’re all so different! This home is the exact image that pops into our heads when we hear “modern house”. It’s a super easy build, plus you can switch out the quartz for white concrete for a smoother (and less resource intensive) design.

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Tutorial by HexRegulus
Biome: Any

We just had to include a build that utilizes blocks from the Caves & Cliffs update! While this video is more of a speed build than a tutorial, you’re still able to follow along with the designer to create a modern home. It’s cozy but functional and since it's a quicker paced tutorial, it gives you the chance to decide how you’ll decorate it!

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Tutorial by Type Craft
Biome: Any cave

So, this video isn’t listed as modern, but it certainly has modern design details to it enough that it counts. The hardest part of this build was finding a cave that could work similarly to the video. In the end, we transformed a cave opening that looked similar to the video and closed off what we needed. As you can see based on the photo below, we turned this cave entrance into something beautiful! You can also try converting the side of a large hill or mountain!

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Tutorial by Julious
Biome: Beach

Capitalizing on a need for warmer weather, here’s a fantastic modern beach house tutorial! This home is super easy to build and features big windows to enjoy that ocean view! The light blue concrete really turns a typical modern style into a more laid-back, nautical vibe.

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Tutorial by Shock Frost
Biome: Desert

Who says a desert house can’t be modern? We certainly don’t and neither does this build which is stunning with plenty of balconies! A small note on the cut sandstone, however. The version that the tutorial is set in uses the blocks called “smooth sandstone”, however they look like cut sandstone. To keep with the integrity of the original build’s appearance, we built with the cut version, however, we did include a picture of what it looks like with the smooth version of sandstone!

Which is your favorite?

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Tutorial by GAMES
Biome: Any

As soon as we saw the thumbnail, we knew we have to build it. This home utilizes Flows HD Revival texture pack to add the modern textures. While the pack is meant for 1.14, it still works in 1.18 (there just aren’t any cute textures for anything added after 1.14). This design is a lot of fun to follow along with, and we highly recommend anyone looking to try out a modern texture pack to try this one out! We also included what the build looks like without the resource pack!

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Tutorial by Folli
Biome: Any

Your eyes do not deceive you! This is a dirt house, a house made out of dirt! It’s so unique that it needed to be included here, especially for its modular and modern design. This home is perfect for those either just starting out in a new world, or want to live in something unexpected. We even texturized the coarse dirt by adding in regular dirt!

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Tutorial by Folli
Biome: Any

Many modern builds include stone as an accent block, but this tiny house makes it the star. This is a great beginner build, or if you need a place for villagers to live! Texturize the build with cobblestone and andesite or any other type of stone! This design is versatile!

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Tutorial by Goldrobin
Biome: Any

There are many things to love about this house, and we certainly think it fits a few niches in the Minecraft builders community. Those who love tiny homes and/or modular homes need to give this house a go! Each section is a very small area to live in, but it still manages to be a house that works! You can always scale it up if needed, but we like how tiny it is!

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Britt (157)

Jan 20, 2022

The first few days of Minecraft are the most stressful, which means a good starter house is required to keep you safe from mobs and the elements (and have a place to spawn back to in the event of an unfortunate interaction with a skeleton or zombie). What defines a good starter house? Simplistic Design: Regardless of building skill level, large builds are realistic to starter houses. They should take a few days, at most, and even a new player should be able to build it. Attainable Materials: The materials need to be easy to gather or find, which is why most builds are made of stone and wood. Includes the Essentials: What good is a house if it doesn’t have a bed? It should also have space for farming and storage to help you survive long enough to get better tools and experience. What makes up a cottagecore style house? In Minecraft, there are blocks for all types of builds. Cottagecore starter house designs include a lot of stone, wood, and (of course) greenery. They’re great for early game in Minecraft because their resources are easily found in the Overworld. For those who have fallen down a TikTok cottagecore hole or simply just want a cozy cabin to escape to, cottagecore and fairycore Minecraft builds are meant for you. However, that doesn’t mean concrete, sandstone, or even terracotta are out of the running. The following builds vary in shape and location so that anyone looking for a cottagecore starter base can build it! From desert to flower forest (to even a mushroom), this list features cottagecore starter homes for all skill levels!