When your siding is dry and finished, choose the details (doors, windows, porches, roofs) you want to add to your structure and test fit them in place. The simplest house facade, a mansard roof which covers the top of the cereal box, is shown here. This is an easy style for a child to build and finish for a home or school project.
The same box could have a porch roof and floor installed by gluing the roof across the house and supporting the ends with posts cut to length. The posts supplied in the parts can be folded and glued to make simple square posts, or a slightly larger base can be folded and placed over the post at the bottom for more detail.A simple box for a child can be left without see through windows. An adult may wish to cut out individual window panes and line the window with colored tissue or clear acetate, then place a flickering battery operated tea light in the back of the box to create a safe glow. Real candles are not safe to use in cardboard boxes!
A more detailed house can be built from a single cereal box by working out where the porch roof will be attached to the front wall, then cutting across the front of the box above the roof to form a tower on one side of the house, folding the pieces you cut above the roofline back towards the back of the box to make the outer wall of the tower. Two different sizes of mansard roof are provided to make either a rectangular roof that will fit most boxes in one piece, or a smaller square roof for towers.
Have fun, the materials are inexpensive, and you can give your imagination free rein.
Please consider submitting a photo of any haunted house projects built with these parts to share with other readers. We all love to see what others build!
