Butterfly House

My wife has been wanting a butterfly house for a while now, and she’s had it on my project list since last winter. Butterfly houses provide a cozy, sheltered space for butterflies to rest during bad weather or cold nights, which can help attract more of these beautiful pollinators to your garden. In this post, I’ll go over how to build a butterfly house and what a fun, straightforward project it turned out to be.

It’s a relatively simple build with vertical slits for butterflies to enter, and you can add small perches inside to make it more inviting. I completed it over a weekend, and my wife was definitely pleased with how it turned out. I still think my jigsaw skills need improvement, though—some of the cuts were a bit uneven. I probably should have used a straight edge to guide the cuts, but I tend to get a little hardheaded when it comes to trying things freehand!

The plan I followed for this came from a book that I picked up, Easy to Build Birdhouses- A natural approach.  I reviewed this book in a previous post.

If you make one of these be sure to post it over on the Woodlogger Facebook Page.  I’d love to see how yours turns out.

Materials

For lumber, I purchased everything I needed at Lowe’s.  Not a lot to this.  All of this is 1/2″ pine, but you could use anything you want provided you protect it for out-door weather.  This one will be painted from top to bottom so it should be okay.  I only used (1) – 1/2″ x 4′ x 8′ Pine

Milling & Assembly

	Doing the rough cuts for this, I was able to use my tablesaw for all of the pieces.  No tricky cuts on this one
	After I cut the sides of the house down, the author recommends that you attach a branch inside for the butterflies to grab onto.  Apparently they like that.  I used a small branch that I got from a tree in my backyard, and just attached it with a brad.
	To make the entrance of the butterfly house, I first drilled two holes on both sides of each slot and then connected them by using my jigsaw to connect them.  The boards are only 1/2″ thick so I guess I could have used a scroll saw too.  I’m not over thrilled with my freehand jigsaw skills.  I should have probably used a guide.  I’ll definitely do that next time.
	I started assembly by attaching the sides to the back of the house.  I used exterior wood glue and nails to hold them in place.
	Next I attached the front of the house using exterior glue, and brad nails.

Finishing

When it came to finishing this one up.  My wife is going to paint the entire thing with exterior paint.  You could finish it up with exterior stain, but I think butterflies like colorful things…!