Quick and Easy to Build Doghouse

This is a simple, easy to build doghouse. The basic box consists of five pieces of wood of equal size, cut from half a standard sheet of shutterply (cheap, low quality pine plywood). It is very easy and fast to screw together, and the most difficult part to make is the removable front with the door opening.

Please note that the design is for use on a covered porch, as it is not weatherproof, and the flat roof has no run off for rain water. Of course you are free to weatherproof the design yourself.

Step 1: Construction: Cutting the Pieces

A full plywood sheet (2440 x 1440 mm) is cut lengthwise in two, to produce two halves, each 2440 x 610 mm. One of the halves (first picture) is then cut in five equal sized pieces of 470 x 610 mm each (second picture). You can push for 480 mm, but I've found 470 mm leaves a safe margin. One of the pieces must be cut down from its 610 mm length to about 506 mm to form the back panel (the precise measurement will depend on the thickness of the the wood you use -- in my case it was 18 mm. Thus 470 (height of side panels) +18 (thickness of bottom panel) + 18 (thickness of top panel) = 506 mm.

Step 2: Screwing the Basic Box Together

The first picture shows which ends is screwed to which to produce the box in die second picture.

I used three 45 mm wood screws along each edge.

First the sides, top and bottom is glued and screwed together, and then the backside is also glued and screwed on, to form the box with an open front. I found it easier to first drill the holes in each edge and screw everything together without glue, and then unscrew a panel, glue it, and screw it back again and move on to the next panel, ending with the back panel.

Step 3: Front Panel With Door Opening

I've made the front panel removable (first picture) for ease of cleaning the inside of the doghouse, but of course you can just screw it on if it suits you.

The front piece with the door opening is made up of three pieces of wood as shown in the second picture: the top piece of approximately 434 mm long (the precise length will depend on the thickness of the side pieces, which in my case was 18 mm) by 90 mm wide; and two pieces of 100 mm wide by approximately 320 mm long which form the sides of the door opening.

An arch is then cut into the top piece for the top of the door opening. The radius in my case was approximately 132 mm with the top of the arch 90 mm from the top of the plank, but it is easy to determine a suitable radius using a compass tool.

I joined the three pieces together with biscuits, with a piece of wood screwed across the back of each joint for added strength. The front of the doghouse is set back about 10 mm to prevent breakout of the front edges of the box.

Five small blocks of wood is then screwed and glued onto the insides as stops for the front panel (third picture), and the panel is held in place with five nails which fit loosely into holes drilled from outside through the sidewalls and into the front panel as shown in the fourth picture. The front can then be easily removed for cleaning of the inside of the doghouse by just pulling out the five nails.

The nails I used (fifth picture) is 52 mm long and 2.5 mm thick. The last picture shows the nail on the roof partly pushed in.

If you live in a cold climate, you can of course insulate the inside of the doghouse with sheets of styrofoam or something similar.

To lift the doghouse a little bit off the ground, I glued thin strips of wood to the bottom edges, as can be seen on the first picture.

Step 4: Finishing Touches

Of course the doghouse does not have to look drab just because it is a simple design. A dab of paint does wonders.