I designed a miniature green house with two different types of shelves to go inside. I made grooves in the pieces to make them easy to assemble. In my pictures you may see the two brown shelves are slightly different. After making the first brown shelf I made some modifications to my design to make the assemble of the shelf easier. It will also help in keeping the shelves even and straight. If you are interested in purchasing my designs to make your own greenhouse, then please head to my shop, which you can find here:
I started out by cutting the pieces for the frame of the green house. I used my Glowforge to cut each of my pieces out of basswood I purchased from Menards. Cricut machines can also cut wood. My wood was 3mm thick. If you make these items with a different thickness of wood or other material, then you may need to make adjustments to some of the grooves and joints.
I used wood glue to glue each piece in place. I also used tape and small clips I got from Dollar Tree to help hold things in place as the pieces dried. I recommend constantly checking to ensure your pieces are straight as you glue each piece. I recommend waiting to glue your finished frame of the green house to the base till the end.
I placed the green house frame on the base and marketed with a pencil where the green house ends and the outside strip starts. I wanted the floor of the greenhouse to have a stone floor look. I painted the floor gray, but it ended up being a little dark for my liking. I then made a lighter gray and dabbed on sections of the floor. I also flicked my paint brush to get smaller splashes of the lighter gray on the floor. Now looking back at it, placing a piece of cardstock that had a small stone pattern on it would probably been better. Feel free to paint the little strip of wood outside of the green house. I decided to leave this the natural wood color.
Next, I painted the shelves, and glued them together. For the brown shelf I used brown acrylic paint to paint the wood. I then whipped off the paint before it dried to give it the stain look. Feel free to paint things in different colors or to use real stain. Once everything was dry I glued each piece together with wood glue. I used a toothpick to apply the glue, to prevent using to much glue and having it seep out everywhere.
The one on the left is the old style. The one on the right is my new modified file.
For the yellow bench the bottom shelf is the one with the grove in the corners so the legs can sit. the skinny strips are the legs. I also made a lip to go around each shelf to make it look more sturdy and more like a work bench. So, for the other strips they go around the bottom of the shelf pieces. After I painted all the pieces I glued the legs to the shelves first. As that was gluing I glued in the side pieces along the bottom of the shelves. This allowed a little wiggle room if needed to fit these pieces in.
If you want the door to the green house to be able to open and close, then do not glue the door to the door frame. I cut small pieces of paper to act like hinges that were then glued to the door and the door frame. If you do not like the wood piece on the front of the door, then you can leave that off.
with frame 
Silver cardstock was used to make the hinges for the door.
I then used an old clear plastic container to make the sides of the green house. I do not have a templet for you for this part. It will depend on the thickness of the material you use to build your greenhouse and the plastic material you use, as well as if you change the size of your greenhouse. The thick plastic was nice and sturdy, but a bit difficult to work with. You could use other materials like vellum to make your sides. This may be easier than the thick clear plastic I used. I did not want my glue to show, so for this part I used clear gorilla glue. I wrapped the clear plastic around the green house and glued it in place as I went. This plastic was cut with scissors. For the roof I only glued part of the roof down. I wanted to be able to open the top up to rearrange the pieces inside, and to be able to take pictures for you. I used scotch tape and the small clips to help hold the pieces as they dried.
Do not forget to glue the door frame to the clear plastic along with the door. I did this while it was lying flat on my work table. I thought the green house still needed something. I then realized greenhouse have lots of lines for the glass panels. I used black construction paper to make these. I have a paper trimmer that I used to cut the thin strips. I then used the gorilla glue, since that is what I had out already, to glue each strip in place. My strips were not all straight and did not line up as nicely as I would have liked them too, but it’s okay.
I then glued the wood supports of the green house frame to the base. It may be easier to not glue the green house to the frame so it is easier to arrange the items inside, then just put the green house back onto when you are finished. Now that the green house and shelving is finished, it is time to decorate the inside, and make plants and things for the inside. If you are interested in purchasing my designs for this greenhouse, then please head to my shop by clicking here.
I have another post that will tell you how I made the paper quilled items I put inside my greenhouse. You can check that out here. I would love to see how you decorated your greenhouse.
