Legend of Zelda Doghouse

With the addition of a new puppy at my parents farm, we wanted to build the new pup a doghouse. Around this same time I was deep into playing The Legend of Zelda, Link's Awakening, and inspired by the style of the buildings in the game, I decided to build a doghouse based on Ulriri's house in the game.

I started by gathering references from the game, and modeling the house in SketchUp.

Here are the materials I used to build the doghouse:

5 - 2x4x8 boards

3 - 1/2" 4x8 sheets

1 - 1/4" 4x8 sheet

1 - sheet bendyboard

Screws

Black paint

Grey paint

White paint

Purple paint

Maroon paint

(optional)

laminate flooring

Wood siding

Roofing underlayment

Caulking

I started by making a foundation for the doghouse. If you plan on putting the doghouse directly on the ground, you can forgo this step. With the amount of rain we get where I live, I felt it necessary, so put together a foundation out of 2x4s and a piece of the 1/2" plywood.

With the base done, I cut more 2x4 pieces to put together the main frame of the doghouse. After screwing the frame together I mounted it to the base.

I cut pieces of the 2x4 out for the back wall, side walls, and the front wall.

Measuring and cutting out the opening for the door in the front piece, I mounted it to the frame and then took a pull saw and cut away the piece of 2x4 that the door exposed.

Before adding accent pieces for the door frame, windows, and side pieces, a screwed in a mount in the top of the doghouse where the chimney piece will ultimately sit.

I then glued and clamped all of the accent pieces to the front and side of the doghouse.

I started by staining the door frame, making sure to stain the exposed parts of plywood to try and help seal it from warping later due to water or humidity.

I took the black paint and painted the window portions, then painted the rest of the outside of the doghouse grey.

Referencing the game as much as I could, I used black and white paint to paint stylized rocks on certain parts of the exterior of the doghouse. I also used the black and white to try and give parts of the house the weathered look - again referencing the game as much as possible.

This part is completely optional.

I had some flooring and wall pieces left from my Breath of the Wild Playhouse and so I decided to finish the interior of the doghouse. I started by laying down flooring pieces, starting from the back corning and working my way forward.

Once the floor was done, I started adding the wood siding pieces directly on top of the flooring to help secure it down.

To accomidate the the wall pieces by the door, I had to add two spare 2x4 pieces, to give me something to nail to.

After inserting the chimney piece into the mount I added to the initial frame, I started securing the front, back, and side roofing pieces onto the doghouse.

This next part is completely optional.

Wanting to seal the roof against the elements (and we have a lot of elements where I live), I tacked down some roofing underlayment on the roof. I also sealed the intersections of all the roof pieces with some caulking.

I took the 1/4" plywood, and started cutting out shingle pieces for the roof. Each shingle piece had a rounded bottom to try and match the overlapped look of the roof in the game.

I started with the bottom layer, and added shingle pieces overlapping the lower layer (to help maximize the effect). I repeated this process all the way up.

The corner pieces had to be custom cut to fit each layer of the corners, while still matching the flow of the rest of the roof.

After securing all the shingle pieces down, I painted them all purple.

To try and match the bamboo-looking corner pieces of the roof, I got some bendy board (bendable plywood), and kerfed the interior of each piece so that I could wrap the pieces around circular discs I cut out. Each piece was tapered, allowing each piece to overlap when placed on the roof.

I had to adjust each piece when placing it on the roof, marking out where I needed to cut or sand to allow each of the rounded pieces to fit against the roof as snug as possible.

To further weather seal the roof, I added caulking to every joint and intersection of each of the shingle pieces as well as the corner pieces. Again, this part is optional

I wanted to have a removable cap to the doghouse, that could be taken off on days when it is hot, and put back on on days when it is raining (or just to have the look of the cap on)

Measuring the opening I made a box, and painted it maroon. I used black paint to make it look like bricks. When it was all dry I fitted the cap on the roof.

After adding a dog bed, some Legend of Zelda decorations, and some dog toys on the inside of the doghouse, it was done!

Now to try and convince the dog to use it...

Now you know how it was made, see it being done!

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