Sea-worn Beach House - Distressed Cardboard House

Front view of the Sea-Worn Beach house showing the distressing and the "not-to-code" stairs.

This is my most recent cardboard house - the Sea-worn Beach House. The goals with this little house were to make a wraparound porch, add the siding BEFORE cutting out the windows and doors, add dormers, and use different colors. I did pretty well for the most part.

Update - The free pattern to make this house is available at this post - The Sea-Worn Beach House - Free Putz House Pattern - it's in the May 2019 section of the library - Design No. 53

The pattern is available as a printable PDF and in SVG form so you can use it with an automatic cutting machine like a Cricut or a Silhouette.

Angled view of the Sea-Worn Beach house

Details about Making the Sea-Worn Beach House

I added dormers to the roof which was a serious pain trying to get them to stick on with regular glue because they kept sliding up or down depending on how I was pushing on them while waiting for the glue to hold.

And I did ok with the colors. I chose blues primarily because I wanted to enter this month's Frilly and Funkie challenge "Winter Hues". I think these colors can have a spooky vibe without being out and out Halloweeny.

I did glue the siding on the house before cutting out the windows (an idea I learned from watching one of Tim Holtz' videos on making the Village Manor - great idea!) but I didn't do it for the tiny dormers. The dormers would have looked much better if I had done it like I did the house. It was so much easier than my "glue each tiny piece in place" technique after windows, etc. are already cut out.

Rusted roof close-up on Sea worn beach house

Close-up of rusted roof on Sea Worn beach house with texture paste to add more rust-like texture

But the wraparound porch?? I just couldn't get the angles right and my lopsided prototype looked funny with such a tall, narrow house with a steep roof. The front porch was the best I could do.

Overview of the Sea-Worn Beach House

Not to Code Stairs

My brother, the cabinet maker, helped me by cutting the stairs from scrap wood in his shop. Cutting tiny pieces of wood is probably more dangerous than cutting large sheets because your fingers are closer to the saw blade. We were debating about the steps being too tall and he said, "Nobody is going to use them. We don't have to build to code." I laughed.

Side view of the Sea-Worn Beach house showing how thin it is. I make them this way sometimes so I can get a full house out of one A4 piece of cardboard.

I noticed on this view that I didn't add a chimney. That will just have to be on the house punch list and done later. I just plain forgot. The painters need to do some touching up as well.

LED tea lights shining in the Beach house. This paper house is lined inside with some aluminum tape to help reflect more light since it is so tall.

Two LED tea lights make this house light up nicely. I made the base with a space for the two lights. I also lined the inside of the house with metallic tape to reflect the light better. It might actually be too much. What do you think?

It's more winter-like weather here again this week. I hope everybody is staying warm. Thank you for reading my blog.