Balsa Wood House

INSIDE : Learn how to make a simple and easy Balsa Wood House!  Not only does it look modern in your home but it is the perfect balsa wood project to start off with as a beginner.

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This post has been updated since it’s original publish date of April 2015.

Sometimes simple is the best way to go and today’s project honestly could not be more simple.  A few years ago, I made a handful of Nativity’s for Christmas and had a decent sized stash of balsa wood sitting around afterwards.  

I have been wanting to make a Balsa Wood House ever since and finally was able to this past weekend.

What supplies do I need to make a Balsa Wood House?

• Five pieces of Balsa Wood
• Spray Paint (Rust-Oleum Gold Spray paint is my favorite)
• Utility Knife + Cutting Pad
• Ruler
• Hot Glue
• Scrapbook Paper

Is Balsa wood the softest wood?

Yes, Balsa wood is indeed the softest and lightest of all commercially available woods. It’s so soft that you can even cut it with a sharp knife or scissors! This unique property makes it perfect for a variety of applications, including:

• Model airplanes and boats: 
  Due to its lightness, balsa is ideal for building lightweight structures that need to stay afloat.
• Crafts and hobbies: 
  It’s ease of use makes it popular for carving, whittling, and other craft projects.
• Musical instruments: 
  Some parts of instruments like violins and cellos use balsa for their sound dampening properties.
• Buoys and life rafts: 
  Balsa’s buoyancy makes it ideal for these applications.
• Insulation: 
  It’s lightweight and insulating properties make it useful for applications like packaging and construction.

While technically classified as a hardwood due to its broad leaves, balsa is significantly softer than other commercial hardwoods. When comparing it’s Janka hardness, a measure of wood’s resistance to indentation, balsa scores around 20-35 lbf, far lower than other common hardwoods like oak (1360 lbf) or mahogany (860 lbf).

For all practical purposes, balsa remains the champion of softness in the wood world!

How to make a house made out of Balsa Wood

The first task to making a Balsa Wood house is cutting down the balsa wood slats to size. Select your base piece size.  The two side pieces I left the height they came, but the top pieces for the roof will need to be cut down.  Play around with them until you find the desired pitch to your roof.

The best way to cut balsa wood is scoring it with a utility knife a few times and it cuts in two.

Next, I gave the interior an even coat of gold spray paint. Rust-Oleum Gold Spray paint is my favorite, hands down.

Simply using hot glue, start on one side and glue your balsa wood house together.

My last step was adding scrapbook paper to the back of the wood.

I traced the outline of the house and cut out the paper.  Using hot glue I applied the paper to the wood and it was complete!

Decorative Wood House

For being such a simple decorative project, I am thrilled with how it turned out.  I love the gold, natural wood and the green paper back.

Looking for other simple wood projects like this?  You might like my Wood Cutout Frame project.

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