Intricate designs

Practice. Lots of it. None of us got our skills the moment we were born; we kept practicing and learning in order to improve them. Keep doing your best, and then go beyond that.

Some things you should definitely do or keep in mind;

  • Ask for feedback. It's hard to improve when you don't know what you're doing wrong. By getting other people's opinions on what you built, you can tell which parts are good or need improving. The people you ask might even give you some more tips or ideas as well!. You can ask for feedback in this subreddit if you want to.
  • If your buildings are made of just one type of block (everything out of stone bricks, for example), they're not going to be very interesting to look at. They'll look bland, and it'll be more difficult to tell which part is what. To prevent that; use multiple types of blocks in your building. For example, make your walls out of stone bricks, make your floors and roofs out of wood (make sure to use different types of wood as well), make pillars/supports out of logs, etc.
  • Look at each block and see what it can be used for in a building. Is it suitable for creating roofs? floors? both?. What about pillars/supports or walls? Some types of blocks simply look better when they're used for a certain purpose. A wall made entirely out of Jack-o-Lanterns is going to look a bit weird, but they're great for decoration. Wooden walls look just fine, but so do wooden floors and roofs. Experiment with each block, and you'll eventually understand what everything should or shouldn't be used for.
  • Adding some detail is a must, but overdoing it is bad. Apparently, some people believe that the more detail they add to their buildings, the better it'll look. I've seen some people add detail work to their walls to the point where the entire wall was made of it. These walls looked like they could collapse at any moment, because they had all these bits sticking out of it that made them look like the most unstable things ever. You definitely want to add some detail, but make sure your things still look structurally sound. Though keep in mind that this varies depending on what you're actually building; sometimes people do this intentionally to get that unstable look.
/r/Minecraft Thread