Wren House Pattern and Instructions

This Wren House is so cute and easy to make. It will attract wrens to your yard or garden. Wrens are the gardener's friends. They eat harmful insects that are damaging to your flowers and vegetable plants.  They are entertaining to watch and have a melodious song.

They usually arrive in our area around the beginning of May, but this winter was so mild that they arrived by mid-March.

It's always fun to watch them filling their houses with grasses and twigs as they build their nests. Then it is so exciting when we hear their young nestlings start to chirp. Both parents get involved in the nesting and the feeding of their young.  Before long, we enjoy seeing the nestlings start to poke their heads out of the house and finally fly out as young fledglings. Following are the instructions and pattern pieces to build your own wren houses.

Instructions

Use 3/4" thick wood, and cut out all the pieces using the patterns.  Cut the arched perch out of 3/4" wood as well.

You can cut the door and three windows out of 1/8" wood, or paint them directly onto the house front and back. Use the drawings on the front as patterns.

Paint the wooden pieces prior to fastening them together.

The optional "smoke stack" on the back is made from pieces of a 3/4" dowel rod. Miter, glue and nail two ends  together to form a right angle.  Attach it to the back of the house with a screw from the inside.

Cut a 1" hole in the front of the house for the wrens to use as an entry.  (The front and back pieces are the same.  Take note from the pictures, you can determine which side you want the long slope of the roof to be on.)

Nail the front and back pieces of the house to the sides, using an air nailer if you have one. (Note: the top edge of the sides need to be cut at a 1/2" angle so they will fit against the slope of the roof.)

Nail the roof pieces onto the house. Nail (or paint) the door and windows onto the house./

Set the house on the base piece, but do not attach it.  Screw four eye screws into the base (two on the front and two on the back) so that the house will sit between them.  Insert screws through the eyes and screw them into the front and back of the house.  When you want to clean out the house for the next season, you can unscrew these screws and remove the base.

Drill a row of 1/4" holes on each side beneath the overhangs for ventilation.

To install the house, you can use on of the following methods:

To attach to a wooden post, screw long screws through a post base from underneath, as pictured.

To mount on a pole, screw a pole mount to the bottom of the house base.

To hang, screw an eye screw into the front and back of the roof at the peak; cut a wire coat hanger and twist the ends through the screw eyes.


Pattern Pieces

Note:  If you download the pattern images, you should be able to insert them into a Word document and stretch them to the actual size of the pattern.