Wooden House Night Light

Hey there, kids.  Did you survive the holidays?  I'm enjoying a lazy week with the monsters home from school, and my goal is to sit down with a new book for the first time in I don't know how long.

I saw the cutest house night lights on Etsy several years ago, and tucked the idea away for future gifts. When I was trying to come up with a homemade present for my niece this year, I came across them again and asked The Dad if he wanted to try to recreate one.  We dug through the garage for wood and over the course of several weekends, and a few weeknights after work, he was able to get it finished in time for me to paint and add a couple fun finishing touches.

There's no tutorial to be had, but I did take a few pictures before it was painted and the roof went on, in case anyone wants to figure out how to build one on their own.

I did end up making a run to Home Depot for the corner and roof top trim.  We had a piece, but not quite enough.  I also grabbed another piece of trim while I was there, that went under three of the windows.

The rest was wood we already had, including balsa wood from my craft stash, that we used for the window panes, door, shutters, and window box.

Once the frame was put together, and the window and door trim was on, The Dad cut each piece of siding and glued it on.

I got the whole thing primed and painted, inside and out, installed screen on the door and windows, then he put on the roof.

The last thing to figure out was the roofing.

We went back and forth, and I ended up finding sheets of black sandpaper, that he hand cut into a scalloped pattern. 

I think that was the part of the whole thing that took the longest and was the most tedious.

He worked on that damn roof for a whole stinkin' day.

The back has a hole where you slip the night light bulb into.

We used one of the single bulb cords, like the type that would go into a Halloween pumpkin.

Sometimes you can find them in with the village stuff at Christmas.

We found ours in the lighting section at Home Depot.

And you know me, I had to add flowers.

I just cut up some things I had in my stash and hot glued them into a little piece of floral foam, that I stuck down into the balsa window box.

And here it is, all ready to wrap.

I did consider painting the body of the house pink, but I didn't want to make it too girly, 'cause I wanted it to grow with her.

So I compromised and gave it a pink door.

I think it turned out pretty stinkin' cute.

Here it is lit up.

I'm thinkin' she might have fairies move in.

And there ya have it.

Another DIY gift for the books.

This is the Etsy shop the inspiration came from:

Casita Night Lights