DIY Cardboard House

This DIY Cardboard House is simple and easy to make. It's a fun craft for kids to make using cardboard boxes.

A Simple and Easy DIY Cardboard House

This is a special post that I wrote together with my third grader. He made this simple easy cardboard box house for a school project. Afterwards, he asked to show it here to give other kids a fun cardboard box craft idea.

Lately, his teacher is doing a lot of pumpkin activities at school. One of their optional projects is to create a DIY cardboard house for an adopted pumpkino. It's such a cute idea, and my kid really got into it over the weekend.

Here he is to tell you about how to make this cardboard box house.

How to Make A Cardboard House

Hi! I made this cardboard house for my pumpkino, Bob. Bob is a pumpkin about the size of my Rubik's cube. You can see him in some of the photos.

This DIY cardboard house is super fun to make. It's so cool and Bob loves it. First I'll tell you about the shape and structure of the house. Then, I'll explain how I decorated the outside of it. Last, I'll show you how I designed the inside of the house.

Making the Cardboard House Structure

Bob's small cardboard house is made from two boxes we collected from Costco, and a big cut up Amazon box (for the patio). The boxes from Costco are perfect because they already have cut out windows in them. To get the main structure of the house, I stacked two boxes together.

For the first floor of the cardboard house, I put the big open part of the box in the back. That way, I could see and play with the inside of the house. I cut open a door in the front, and a window on the side.

Then, my mom glued on a big flat piece of cardboard to make a patio.

The second story of the house is a smaller box from Costco. I put the window in the front, and cut out a hole on the bottom to hang the rope ladder.

Coloring and Decorating the Cardboard Box House

To decorate the cardboard house, I cut this color paper and glued it on with my glue stick. The color paper covers the ugly writing on the boxes.

It's easier to glue color paper to decorate, than to paint the house. The color paper completely covered the original writing on the box. Plus, it doesn't flake off or need time to dry.

Next, I glued some fake grass to the side of the house. The fake grass came from a tray of sushi. We saved it a while ago to use on a craft project.

Because I use paper on the outside of the cardboard house, it's easy to draw decorations and write on it. For example, you can see Bob lives at 1254 Ex Pump Drive.

A 2-Story Cardboard House

I love that the house is 2 stories tall and has a patio. Bob can even climb to the rooftop.

Pipe Cleaner Rope Ladder

To get from the bottom story to the second floor, my friend helped me make a rope ladder. The ladder is made out of pipe cleaners. There are 2 long pipe cleaners on the side. Then, my friend made rungs with shorter pieces of pipe cleaner.

Popsicle Stick Fence

For the patio, we made a popsicle stick fence. First, we laid out two popsicle sticks and used hot glue to connect the match sticks. Next, we used hot glue to stand the match sticks up on the balcony.

See the grill on the balcony? I made it at Home Depot. Every first Saturday of the month, I enjoy going there to build a kids workshop project. This grill opens and closes too.

Simple Cardboard Stairs

To get to the rooftop of the house, you climb the stairs to get to the top. To make these stairs, my friend cut small pieces of cardboard and hot glued them directly on to the side of the house.

On the rooftop of the house, I added a catapult. I made this catapult from a craft set. Bob can use the catapult and fly to his friends' houses.

Inside of the Cardboard House

The inside of the house is decorated with some small toys, duplo, and random stuff I found at home.

Making a Mini Cardboard Bookshelf

My favorite part of the cardboard house is the bookshelf in the corner. I chose these books because my teacher has read all of them to us in class (except Endurance), and I really like them.

• Because of Winn-Dixie
• Diary of a Fly
• Diary of a Worm
• Diary of a Spider
• The One and Only Ivan
• Endurance

Endurance is my favorite book so I also put it on the shelf. The book is by Scott Kelly, who lived in space for an entire year. It's a cool non-fiction book.

To make the mini books, we printed out small pictures of the book cover. Then, I cut them out and glued them to a piece of cardboard. Also, the books are glued directly on to the bookshelf so they don't fall.

My sister helped out and made me some lego flowers to add to Bob's bookshelf as decoration. She made little cute candle too.

A Simple Easy Cardboard House

I loved making this simple easy cardboard house. My friend came over for a playdate and helped me with it too.

Sometimes thick cardboard is hard to cut, so my mom helped me with it. She also did a lot of the hot glue parts.

The hardest part about making this cardboard house was putting the color paper on the outside. It was hard because we had to cut the paper precisely. Using a paper cutter made it easier.

This is the paper cutter that the kids use. It has a sliding blade so it's safer for little hands.

That's the end of Bob's house tour. Bye!

I hope you enjoyed learning how to make our DIY Cardboard House! If you can, please leave my third-grader some loving feedback so he'll want to share more. I love getting the kids involved to show off the fun activities and crafts we do at home.