Minecraft builder's guide: roofs, walls and arches

A good build has three things a plain box lacks: a frame, depth and a real roof. Frame the walls with logs, set the fill one block back, add stairs, slabs and trapdoors around the windows, and cover it with a stair roof that overhangs by one block. Minecraft 26.3 has 97 kinds of stairs, 101 slabs and 32 walls, wool and concrete included, so almost every palette has the shapes you need.

Choose one block for the wall fill, one for the frame and a darker one for the roof, and make sure the roof block exists as stairs and slabs. Two sets that work:

Ready-made houses with full block counts are in the Minecraft blueprints.

1. Put a vertical log at each corner and every 4 to 6 blocks along the walls.
2. Join the tops with a horizontal beam: a log lies along the axis of the face you click, so click the side of the post to lay it flat.
3. Fill the panels one block behind the frame. The step casts a shadow and the wall stops looking flat.

• Window sill: an upside-down stair under the window, sticking out of the wall.
• Shutters: open trapdoors on each side of the window.
• Ledge: a row of top slabs between floors. A slab goes on top when you aim at the upper half of a block's side.
• Railings and columns: wall blocks such as Cobblestone Wall. A straight run has no posts; ends, corners and junctions get one, and so does any spot topped with a torch, a sign, a banner or a pressure plate.

Stairs placed one block up for each block in give a 45-degree slope. A stair faces the way you look when you place it, so stand on the low side and look toward the ridge. Example for a house 7 blocks wide and 9 long, with a one-block overhang on every side, so every row is 11 blocks long:

Total: 88 Oak Stairs, 55 Oak Planks and 11 Oak Slabs. For another size, count one row of stairs per side for every block from the wall to the middle, plus one for the overhang.

• Shallow: alternate a bottom slab and a top slab at the same height, then go up one block and repeat. The roof rises half a block per block.
• Steep: under each stair put a full block of the same material, and go up two blocks for each block in.
• Mixed: steep at the bottom and shallow at the top gives the curved look of a barn roof.

• Corners: when two stairs on the same half meet at a right angle, the game turns them into an outer or inner corner piece by itself. That is how a hip roof, sloped on all four sides, closes cleanly.
• Eaves: a row of upside-down stairs or top slabs under the overhang hides the gap and thickens the edge.
• Ridge: cap it with slabs, or with a row of wall blocks for a thin line against the sky.

An arch is upside-down stairs placed in the top corners of an opening, thick side against the pillar. Look toward the pillar and aim at the upper half of the block to place each one.

• 3 wide: one upside-down stair in each top corner, the middle left open.
• 5 wide, 4 high: on the top row of the opening, a full block in each corner, an upside-down stair next to each, the middle open; one row lower, an upside-down stair in each corner.
• Wider: keep the same steps and add top slabs between them for a flatter curve.

For round towers and domes, draw the outline layer by layer with the circle generator.