Hey guys, I wanted to put together an indoor doghouse for my little guy Diesel. This was a fun process, started with finding a design that I liked online. I next purchased a doggie bed off Amazon that would work for his size, this gave me the starting dimensions for SketchUp.

I also did a full video on my YouTube.

www.youtube.com/southernginger

Thanks for checking us out!

-Zach & Diesel

Step 1: Create Design/plans

I wanted this to be accurate, I went ahead and designed it out in SketchUp. SketchUp isn't that hard to work in. Once I was happy with the design, I exploded all the parts and laid them out on a 4x8 rectangle in SketchUp. This allows me to come up with a cut list.

Step 2: Rough Cut the Wood

I started with a full sheet of plywood, it's always best to rough cut the wood, maybe an 1/8" over so that you can "walk" in for a perfect fit. On a side note, this was the first time I cut a full 52" sheet on my tablesaw. Woot!

Step 3: Creating a Template/sled for 45˚ Cuts

Yes you can use a miter gauge but I like using a sled that shows exactly where the cut will be. I used hot glue to glue down a 45˚ fence so I could make repeatable cuts. This was used to cut the unique front and back of the dog house. Using the same template for both will assure the same dimensions on both.

Step 4: Drawing Out the Opening / Door

This actually worked out pretty well, I was able to use my t-square which is exactly 2" wide to draw out the opening. Lining the t-square to the edge, I struck a line alone all the sides.

Step 5: Drill Holes

I wanted to make the edges around the opening rounded so I went with a 1" hole. You can choose any size you want but this worked out well for me. Note if you are going to use edge-banding in this area you will want it to be squared off.

Step 6: Cutting Out the Opening

Using my t-square again, I setup a temp fence that my jigsaw can ride on to make straight cuts. You could use a circular saw here too.

Step 7: Trimming Up the Bottom

All the remaining plywood cuts should be at 45˚, I set my table saw to 45˚ and trimmed up the bottom. This took me a couple tries as I was walking it in the the exact size. Measure once, cut 3 times right?

Step 8: Pocket Holes

Pocket holes should be strong enough to hold this doghouse together. I also used glue on all the top & bottom joints. Note that I left the top and the bottom in two different pieces, this is completely optional but I wanted to stain them differently so I kept them apart.

Step 9: Assemble the Bottom

This was a little tricky but I found the best way is to have your clamps down first and add glue to the sides and clamp down. I then flipped over the piece and screwed in from the bottom, using the pocket holes from before. The only pocket holes exposed are the 4 that hold the top in place and they're inside of the dog house.

Step 10: Fitting the Top

Now that the bottom is done, I started making marks to fit in the top, take your time and make multiple cuts if you need to.

Step 11: Optional Edge-banding

I don't like seeing the edges of the plywood so I added some edge-banding. This is completely optional. I wish I could have used this in the opening as well but I was worried about the rounded corners so I only did the outsides.