Did you finally collect the Ender Dragon egg in Minecraft or do you have too many rare items in your inventory? Well, if that’s the case, you can safely keep them inside an Ender chest, but it would be a waste if you can’t show off your valuable loot. It becomes even more vital when you are trying to make a name for yourself on the best Minecraft survival servers. That’s where the item frame comes into the picture. This simple yet efficient decorative block is the best solution to showcase your most glorious items. With that, let’s roll away the curtain and learn how to make and use an item frame in Minecraft.
We will first go over the basics of item frames in Minecraft, followed by its crafting recipe. Use the table below to easily navigate to your desired section.
What is an Item Frame in Minecraft
An item frame is a decorative item in Minecraft that allows you to display any in-game item or block. It more or less works like a picture frame for your items and can be placed on the surface of other blocks. Interestingly, the item frame acts like an entity in the Java edition, which makes the game treat it as a moveable item and also a candidate for the ride command in Minecraft.
Meanwhile, it’s considered a block entity in the Bedrock edition, which refers to blocks with additional data attached to them. Though, unless you plan on using commands involving the item frame, this difference won’t affect your gameplay.
How to Find Item Frames in Minecraft
Other than crafting, which we will discuss below, there are two ways to get an item frame in Minecraft – looting and trading. So, let’s explore the alternatives first.
Looting
Item frames naturally spawn only in End Ships of The End dimension. There, it holds and displays Elytra in Minecraft. You can break the item frame to pick both of these items. But, since each End Ship only has one Elytra, you also only get one item frame. This makes looting a rather unproductive option for collecting item frames.
Trading
If your trip to The End doesn’t go as planned, you can also get an item frame by trading 7 emeralds with a cartographer villager. However, this trade is only available once the villager reaches the “expert” trading level. While this might seem a bit complex, you can get emeralds fairly easily by trading with other villagers.
Explore our guide to Minecraft villager jobs to find out how. It’s only a matter of time before you get the right trades. Once that happens, you can easily collect huge amounts of item frames at once.
Items Required to Make an Item Frame
While looting and trading are viable methods, we suggest you stick with crafting. It’s thanks to the simple materials and ease of use. You need to collect the following items to make an item frame in Minecraft:
- 8 Sticks
- 1 Leather
- Crafting Table
Sticks are one of the easiest items to craft in Minecraft. You just need to place two wooden planks vertically next to each other in the crafting area to turn them into sticks. Moreover, since each plank gives out two sticks, you only need 4 planks to get enough of them for an item frame.
Meanwhile, there is a variety of ways to obtain leather in Minecraft. But we suggest you kill Mooshrooms, cows horses, donkeys, mules, llamas, or trader llamas, to obtain leather. Each one of these Minecraft mobs has a fair chance of dropping up to 2 leather upon death.
If you are visiting the Nether, you can also get leather by killing Hoglins but they only drop 0-1 piece of leather. Not to forget, you can also make a cow farm in Minecraft to quickly collect a huge amount of leather.
Minecraft Item Frame: Crafting Recipe
Follow these steps to make an item frame in Minecraft:
1. First, open a crafting table by right-clicking or using a secondary action key on it.
2. Then, place a piece of leather in the middle cell of the second row in the crafting area. This cell is also the overall center of the crafting table.
3. Lastly, fill the rest of the crafting area with sticks and your item frame is ready.
How to Make Glow Item Frame
Item frames are a great option for displaying your in-game items, but they of an Item Frame to do their job. If your base is underground or you are presenting items at night, you will need to add an additional light source to properly highlight the frame. Luckily, there is an alternative available in the form of glow item frames.
As the name suggests, this variant of item frames have built-in glowing capabilities that highlight your framed items even in low or no-light areas. Though, in terms of usage and appearance, it’s not too different from the regular item frames. With that said, here’s how to make a glow item frame:
1. First, find and kill a Glow Squid to obtain Glow Ink Sac.
2. Then, combine your existing item frame with the Glow Ink Sac on the crafting table. Since there is no fixed arrangement for the glow item frame’s crafting recipe, you can place both items anywhere.
How to Use Item Frame in Minecraft
Once you have an item frame in Minecraft, the process of putting it to use is simple. So, let’s figure out how to use an item frame in Minecraft:
1. First, equip an item frame or glow item frame in your hand.
2. Then, stand next to a solid block and right-click or use the secondary action key on the block’s surface. You can also place the frame on any side of the block, including its top and bottom.
3. Then, equip the item you want to display and right-click or use your secondary action key while aiming at the item frame. The item will take a smaller form and fit itself into the item frame.
4. Next, if you want, you can again right-click or use the secondary action key on the frame to rotate the item.
5. Lastly, if you want to get your item back, you just have to break the item while it’s on the frame. Similarly, breaking the item frame will make it drop itself alongside the item.
Just like that, you are ready to put your best loot on display in Minecraft, whether it’s the Minecraft map of your entire base or just the mob heads of various in-game creatures. But this is not the only decorative display in the game. You can also create an armor stand in Minecraft to show your armor collection. Now that we have armor customization in Minecraft, displaying the best-looking armor is a must-have for any good base. Having said that, which item are you going to showcase in your item frame? Tell us in the comments below!
Sanmay Chakrabarti
