I figured there should be a thread like this, but I didn't find anything when searching, so here we go. Let's share our results of failing and winning in building.
Inspiration
Google what you want to build
Look at other people's Minecraft creations.
Search for JamziboyMinecraft on YouTube.
Detail
Use stairs, slabs, doors, hatches, ladders, pressure plates and fences creatively.
The pack makes the building. Use a good texture pack that adds the materials you need. You can always edit one to your likings.
Expensive blocks such as solid gold, iron or diamond can look very pretty, but don't fall into the show-off trap: use them to make things look good, not to prance around with how much they cost to make.
Make wardrobes with four stairs (Or slabs, depending on whether it's indented in a wall or not) placed in a 2x2 square vertically, with the butts ends facing outwards, and two doors on the front of it.
Major structure
Try not to make your building absolutely square. Vary shapes and stuff. Floors can be different sizes.
Vary your room sizes. This prevents every room looking the same.
Adjust the heights of rooms to your liking. An average realistic room should be 3 blocks tall. 4 blocks are good for mansions and give a sense of openness. 2 blocks causes a cramped atmosphere: works well for basements, closets and other small rooms. 2.5 blocks tall, accomplished with slabs, is a nice format for poor villager's houses.
Cities
When building cities, don't start out with a specific plan, just build it as you go along, this will give it a more, modern, random look, like most cities in real life have. When building MODERN cities, anyway. Might work with older ones too.
Buildings in cities can be set on different heights depending on its functions: lowest are harbours, then slums, then general houses, then shops and castles could go on hills. Time consuming to do, but looks awesome.
Roads are important. Gravel roads work fine for small villages, such as the automatically spawned ones. Medieval/small towns fit cobblestone, slightly larger towns can use smoothstone. Wooden walkways are especially classy and don't always fit the theme well, but fences look nice to make adornments and lanterns along the road.
Motivation
Specifically
Medieval:
Consider making the entire building before adding floors.
Perhaps use a lot of slabs on top of each other in castles by starting at the top and place a slab under another one each time.
Nordic:
Roof shapes can be different. Jorrvaskr-style upside-down-boats in example.
Have one big room in the building and other rooms out of the sides.
-Vary your room sizes. This prevents every room looking the same.
-Adjust the heights of rooms to your liking. An average realistic room should be 3 blocks tall. 4 blocks are good for mansions and give a sense of openness. 2 blocks causes a cramped atmosphere: works well for basements, closets and other small rooms. 2.5 blocks tall, accomplished with slabs, is a nice format for poor villager's houses.
-Buildings in cities can be set on different heights depending on its functions: lowest are harbours, then slums, then general houses, then shops and castles could go on hills. Time consuming to do, but looks awesome.
-Expensive blocks such as solid gold, iron or diamond can look very pretty, but don't fall into the show-off trap: use them to make things look good, not to prance around with how much they cost to make.
-Roads are important. Gravel roads work fine for small villages, such as the automatically spawned ones. Medieval/small towns fit cobblestone, slightly larger towns can use smoothstone. Wooden walkways are especially classy and don't always fit the theme well, but fences look nice to make adornments and lanterns along the road.
Inspiration
Detail
Major structure
Cities
Motivation
Specifically
Medieval:
Nordic:
-Adjust the heights of rooms to your liking. An average realistic room should be 3 blocks tall. 4 blocks are good for mansions and give a sense of openness. 2 blocks causes a cramped atmosphere: works well for basements, closets and other small rooms. 2.5 blocks tall, accomplished with slabs, is a nice format for poor villager's houses.
-Buildings in cities can be set on different heights depending on its functions: lowest are harbours, then slums, then general houses, then shops and castles could go on hills. Time consuming to do, but looks awesome.
-Expensive blocks such as solid gold, iron or diamond can look very pretty, but don't fall into the show-off trap: use them to make things look good, not to prance around with how much they cost to make.
-Roads are important. Gravel roads work fine for small villages, such as the automatically spawned ones. Medieval/small towns fit cobblestone, slightly larger towns can use smoothstone. Wooden walkways are especially classy and don't always fit the theme well, but fences look nice to make adornments and lanterns along the road.