Repurposed Wood Bug Hotel

For some time now, I've wanted to make a bug hotel. But I could never quite get my hands on the right materials. Though I could have quite easily gone out and bought wood to make one (or bought a ready made one), I wanted to go the upcycled route and use something that had outlived its original purpose.

So this rather worn-out little wooden sleeve ironing board, which I found at the charity shop, was perfect!

I started off by pulling off the old covering. Originally I was going to undo all the staples that held the fabric on, but that proved nearly impossible, so I just ripped it all off in the end.
Then I took out the little insert from the middle, which was held in by two screws.

After pestering Dad for use of his tools (thanks Dad!), I chopped the board and the little wooden insert down to the size I needed.

I reattched the wooden insert a little further out, so that it would act like a 'shelf', and added a roof made from one of the offcuts.
I pre-drilled the holes that I put the nails into, as Dad advised that the wood might split otherwise.

I then took a timber offcut and drilled holes of several different sizes into it (I added some even smaller ones after taking this picture)
Fortunately this offcut fit in the space allowed by the bug hotel frame, hurrah!

Added two nails in the back for attaching the hanging wire...

Then I attached some wire. ...Okay, I asked Dad 'do you have some wire I can use for this please?' and he attached it for me. Yay Dad!

The top half of the bug hotel is stuffed with dried, broken cow parsley stalks and some chopped-up bamboo (Dad helped with the cutting again...don't think he trusted me with his electric saw, which is just as well because I don't trust me with it either)

All that was left to do after that was to hang it up!
I put my bug hotel in a place near where lots of bugs like to hang out - in the flight path of bees and near a bunch of spiders - so hopefully they'll get nice and cosy here!