Minecraft wiki entry for Beginner%27s_guide, associated text: A bed is a special block with an unusual shape: It takes up two blocks of floor space, but is only about half a block tall. When crafting a bed, the three wool must be the same color, which becomes the color of the bed. However, the planks need not match. Wool is obtained from sheep; for now you need to kill them for it, but later in the game you can shear sheep to get the wool without harming them. Sometimes you may find wool lying on the ground, especially in a forest; this wool comes from sheep that were killed by wolves (or in multiplayer, by other players). If there are no sheep to be found at all, you can eventually collect string from killed spiders, and craft wool from the string.