Paintings are decorative blocks in Minecraft that come in different sizes and have different themes.
They are used to brighten up a build in Minecraft but it can be hard to predict which design you’ll get when you place one. Luckily, we have a trick on how to combat that using ladders.
In this tutorial we will show you how to make a painting in Minecraft and how to ensure that you always get the design you want.
Minecraft Painting Recipe
- 8 sticks
- 1 wool block (any color)
To make a painting you need some very basic and easy to get ingredients.
You can get wool from sheep and it does not matter which color the wool is. It can be a natural wool like white, brown, or black, but it can also be dyed wool.
The color of the wool does not affect the final product or what painting you will get.
Simply arrange the items on the crafting table like this:
Finding Paintings
Paintings do not naturally spawn in the world. Instead they can only be found as part of a trade with villagers.
A master level shepherd villager will trade a painting for 3 emeralds.
How to Place a Painting
To place a painting on a wall, you just have to hold it and press the use button.
Paintings can come in different sizes. Each size will have different versions, which have unique designs.
Usually, when placed the painting will try to spawn as the biggest possible version.
The smallest painting takes up a single block of space, while the biggest one takes up an area of 4 by 4 blocks. Each size of painting also has several different designs it can appear as.
These are the painting sizes that you can see in Minecraft:
- 1×1
- 2×1
- 1×2
- 2×2
- 4×2
- 4×3
- 4×4
The smallest size has about 7 designs. In total there are 26 entirely unique designs.
In the image below you can see some of the painting sizes and some of their different designs. However, there are many more.
Knowing what design will come up is hard, because they are purely random.
However, you can control which size of painting you will get on the wall by using ladders or other wall items.
When you know which size painting you want, simply use the ladders to make a frame. This stops the painting from spawning as a bigger size than the one you want and it can help you get the design you’re after quickly.
Using Paintings for Secret Doorways
Paintings can hang in the same space as water blocks and torches. The player and other mobs can also walk right through them.
A painting doesn’t have to have a full solid wall behind it. You can create a doorway behind it that you can easily walk through, without destroying the painting.
This is a very common way to make secret doorways.
It is a good way to hide some secret rooms in your base without being suspicious.
