A DIY Butterfly House is the perfect addition to your garden!
Learn how to build an easy DIY Butterfly House for your garden! Butterfly houses provide shelter from the elements and predators. They can also be painted and decorated to be beautiful additions to your gardens!
This tutorial will guide you through the process of building a Butterfly House. There is even a video to help show you the process We will be using pallet lumber to build a butterfly house. The face and back of the house will be 18 inches tall, the sides are 13 inches tall. These make great gifts, you may even want to build two!
Materials needed for this project:
- Boards: I used pallet wood
- Screws
- Speed square
- Circular saw
- Glue
- Pencil
- Jigsaw
- Tape measure
- Wood clamps
- Drill and bits
How do I build a Butterfly House?
- The pallet boards are 36 inches long, so I have decided that the butterfly house will be 18 inches tall. The front and back of the house will have a 30-degree pitch for the roof.
- The sidewalls will be 13 inches tall, this will allow for ¼ of ventilation between the roof and the sidewall.
- The front of the butterfly house will have 3 entryways. Each entry will be 5 inches tall and ½ inches wide on the front panel.
- Mark the top and bottom for each entry and connect the top and bottom marks with two vertical lines ½ inch apart. Using a ⅜ inch drill bit drill a hole at both the top and bottom of each entry, centered between the lines and inside the top and bottom marks.
- Use a jigsaw cut along each vertical line to create each of the three entries.
- I used wood clamps to hold the back and side in place while I drilled guide holes in three equally spaced locations. Wood screws will be installed in each of these three holes.
- Repeat step 6 to connect the front to the side just installed.
- The second side will only be attached at the top of both the front and back panel. Do not tighten the screw or nails so tight as to prevent the side from being swung open to facilitate cleaning or replacing the perch as necessary.
- Now we are ready to install the bottom. I would suggest measuring the area to make sure everything fits. I have found that pallet wood isn’t always flat or straight.
- Now it’s time to install the perch. I am going to use some bark from shagbark hickory but small branches or limbs can be us
- The roof can be made using a #10 can or wood, each material will serve you well.
- Painting the house light bright colors helps attract the butterflies and keeps the house cool by reflecting the light of the sun.
More Pallet Wood Projects
If you have pallets laying around there are so many uses for them! You can see how to easily disassemble a pallet without breaking the wood in this tutorial. Some other pallet related projects are: