Minecraft finally has a real chair. The Cushion is a new craftable item that lets your character sit down by placing it on a block and interacting with it, no mods, boats, or minecarts required. It arrives alongside the Straw Bed in a test build for the third Game Drop of 2026, and both are already playable in the preview versions right now.
Quick answer: Craft a Cushion from three Wool Slabs of the same color placed in a horizontal row, drop it on any flat block, then interact with it to sit. To try it today, switch to Minecraft Java 26.3 Snapshot 3 or Bedrock Preview 26.40.30 through the Minecraft launcher.
How to craft and use the Cushion
The Cushion depends on a second new block, the Wool Slab. Both are being introduced in the same update, so you’ll make the slabs first and then turn them into a seat. The recipe is simple and cheap, which fits its role as a decorative sitting item.
Cushion placement rules and build tricks
The Cushion needs a block beneath it to sit on, but it has no collision. That single detail is what makes it so useful for building. Because it doesn’t collide, it can overlap with most objects, and the game deliberately avoids clipping when you combine it with stairs.
Place a Cushion on the lower part of a set of Wood Stairs and you get an instant chair with a proper backrest. It also works on carpets and rugs for floor seating, or on top of an object to finish off a design. A few surfaces behave differently, so it helps to know the edge cases before you build a whole lounge.
| Placement surface | Result |
|---|---|
| Flat block, carpet, or rug | Sits cleanly on top; works as chair, floor seat, or decoration |
| Lower part of Wood Stairs | Forms a chair with a backrest, no clipping |
| Trapdoor | Supports the Cushion for seat designs without breaking |
| Button or Pressure Plate | The surface depresses and breaks the Cushion when you sit |
| Block below is broken | The Cushion pops off and drops too |
The Cushion is one of several building additions in this Game Drop. The update also brings the Poplar Wood set, Wool Stairs, Wood Slabs, and bouncy Shelf Mushroom blocks, giving builders far more decorative pieces to work with.
Straw Bed: Skip the night without changing spawn
The Straw Bed is the second rest item in this update, and it solves a different problem. A normal bed resets your spawn point when you sleep, which is a nuisance when you’re exploring far from home. The Straw Bed lets you sleep through the night without touching your spawn.
Craft it by placing three Hay Bales in a horizontal row, which yields four Straw Beds. They stack up to 16, so it’s easy to carry several on a long trip. Each one is single-use and breaks the moment you wake up, which keeps it useful for travel rather than permanent bases. A new statistic even tracks how many times you’ve used one.
Note: Beds explode in the Nether and the End, and the Straw Bed is no exception. Only use it in the Overworld unless you want a very sudden end to your rest.
| Detail | Cushion | Straw Bed |
|---|---|---|
| Recipe | 3 Wool Slabs (same color) in a row | 3 Hay Bales in a row |
| Yield | 1 Cushion | 4 Straw Beds |
| Function | Sit down on a placed block | Skip the night |
| Spawn point | Unaffected | Not reset |
| Durability | Reusable; breaks if its block is removed | Single-use; breaks on waking |
| Variants | 16 wool colors | Stacks up to 16 |
How to try the Cushion and Straw Bed now
Both items are already live in test builds ahead of the full Q3 2026 release. On Java, that’s the 26.3 Snapshot 3 build, and on Bedrock it’s Preview 26.40.30. You don’t have to wait for the finished Game Drop to experiment with seating.
The test snapshot also folds in several technical changes, including data-driven potion brewing, post-effect commands, resource pack updates, and world generation tweaks. Alongside the seating items, you can explore the new Dappled Forest biome and its Abandoned Camp point of interest, where Mojang suggests resting your blocky bones on a Cushion after a long hike.
