A chest is the first storage block every player needs. Your inventory fills up fast, and a chest keeps your blocks, tools and loot safe while you explore. Chests are cheap, can be joined into large chests, and lead to trapped chests, ender chests, chest boats and minecarts with chests. This guide explains how to make a chest in Minecraft, how to make each chest variant, why a chest sometimes will not open, and how to organize a storage room.
Quick answer: chest recipe
| Plank | Plank | Plank |
| Plank | Empty | Plank |
| Plank | Plank | Plank |
8 wooden planks around an empty center make 1 chest. Any wood works, including bamboo, crimson and warped planks, and you can mix different types in the same recipe. The recipe is the same on Java, Bedrock and consoles.
How to get planks
Punch or chop a tree to get logs. Put one log in your crafting grid and you get 4 planks. Two logs give you 8 planks, which is exactly one chest. You do not even need a crafting table for planks, but you do for the chest, since it uses the full 3 by 3 grid. See how to make a crafting table.
How to make a large chest
Place a second chest directly next to the first one, on its left or right side. They join into a large chest (also called a double chest) with 54 slots instead of 27. Two chests cannot join if there is already a chest on the other side, and chests placed in front of or behind each other do not join. On Java Edition, sneak while placing the second chest if you want two separate single chests next to each other.
Every kind of chest
| Chest | Recipe | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Chest | 8 planks | 27 slots of storage |
| Large chest | 2 chests side by side | 54 slots |
| Trapped chest | 1 chest and 1 tripwire hook | Gives a redstone signal when opened |
| Ender chest | 8 obsidian around an eye of ender | Personal storage shared between every ender chest |
| Shulker box | 2 shulker shells and 1 chest | Portable storage that keeps its items when broken |
| Barrel | 6 planks and 2 wooden slabs | 27 slots, opens even with a block on top |
| Copper chest | Made when you build a copper golem, and used by golems | Source chest for copper golem sorting |
Trapped chest
Combine a chest with a tripwire hook in the crafting grid. A trapped chest looks almost the same but has a red tint on the latch. When a player opens it, it sends a redstone signal, which you can use for alarms, secret doors or traps.
Ender chest
Surround an eye of ender with 8 obsidian. Every ender chest in the world opens the same personal 27-slot inventory, unique to each player. Put items in one ender chest at home and take them out of another at the other end of the world, or in the Nether or End. Breaking an ender chest without Silk Touch drops 8 obsidian, but your items stay safe in your ender storage.
Shulker box
Shulker shells drop from shulkers in end cities. Two shells and a chest make a shulker box, which keeps everything inside when you break it, so you can carry 27 stacks in one inventory slot.
Copper chests and copper golems
When you build a copper golem from a copper block and a carved pumpkin, the copper block becomes a copper chest. Copper golems take items from copper chests and sort them into regular chests that already contain the same item. See how to make a copper golem.
Chests on the move
- Minecart with chest: a chest combined with a minecart, used to move items on rails.
- Boat with chest: a chest combined with a boat. It carries one passenger plus 27 slots of storage, perfect for long exploration trips. See how to make a boat.
- Llamas, donkeys and mules: use a chest on a tamed one to give it saddlebags.
Why won’t my chest open?
- A solid block is on top: a chest cannot open if a solid block sits directly above it. Transparent blocks such as glass, slabs placed in the top half, and stairs may still block it, so keep the space above clear or use a barrel, which opens even with a block on top.
- A cat is sitting on it: cats love to sit on chests, and a chest with a cat on top cannot open. Move the cat or tell it to stand.
- Server protection: on some servers, chests in claimed land are locked to their owner.
Where to find chests with loot
Structure chests are full of useful items: villages, dungeons, mineshafts, desert and jungle temples, shipwrecks, buried treasure, pillager outposts, strongholds, woodland mansions, bastions, nether fortresses, ancient cities, trial chambers and end cities. Many of them hold enchanted books, diamonds, golden apples and armor trims. See how to find buried treasure and how to find an ancient city.
How to organize chest storage
- Sort by type: one chest for wood, one for stone, one for ores, one for food, one for mob drops.
- Label chests: put an item frame or a sign on the front of each chest. See how to make an item frame.
- Use hoppers: hoppers feeding into chests let farms deposit items automatically.
- Automate sorting: a hopper item sorter with comparators, or copper golems, sorts items into the right chests for you.
- Keep the top clear: leave the block above each chest empty so they always open.
Chests in Java vs Bedrock
The recipes and slot counts are the same in both editions. On Java, sneaking while placing a chest next to another one keeps them separate; on Bedrock the easiest way to keep two chests apart is to leave a one-block gap. Hopper speeds and the redstone behavior of trapped chests also differ slightly between editions, so test storage and redstone designs in your own edition.
FAQ
How many planks do you need for a chest?
8 wooden planks, placed around the edge of a crafting table grid.
How do you make a double chest?
Place two chests directly next to each other, side by side. They join into one large chest with 54 slots.
Why can't I open my chest?
A solid block or a cat is on top of it. Clear the space above the chest, or use a barrel, which opens even with a block on top.
How do you make a trapped chest?
Combine 1 chest with 1 tripwire hook in a crafting grid.
How do you make an ender chest?
Surround an eye of ender with 8 obsidian on a crafting table.
Checked by the Game Respawned editorial team against the current Java and Bedrock versions. Spotted something out of date? Tell us.