Trevor Corlett’s teardrop shape. Rain runs straight off it and the wind slides around it — no spinning, no knocking, even in a nor’wester.
Final run from Gaylenes workshop • In 9 active carts • 18 left
Gaylene's Handmade Butterfly House
Gaylene's Handmade Butterfly House
Ships within 2–3 days
30-day money-back guarantee
Free shipping NZ-wide with tracking
Hand-built by Gaylene Corlett
★★★★★
4.8 (310+)
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Gaylene's Handmade Butterfly House
Regular price
€36,95
Regular price
€36,95
Sale price
€61,95
Unit price
per
Hand-built in an old garage workshop — Ōtaki, Kāpiti Coast
Gaylene Corlett, 74. Twenty-eight springs at the bench, more than 2,200 houses. This is the last collection — 63 left, and no more will be made.
“People buy a butterfly house, hang it up, and nothing ever comes. It’s nearly always the house.”
— Gaylene Corlett, ŌtakiWhat arrives in the box
🏠The HouseTeardrop, scorched pine
💧The Sand DishMetal dish on a curved ledge
🧵Jute RopeWith steel clip, ready to hang
✍Gaylene’s NoteHandwritten, every order
Why this one gets used when the rest hang empty
Slots cut just under 2 cm wide. A red admiral crawls in with its wings folded. A sparrow can’t.
Butterflies drink water and minerals from damp sand. Almost no butterfly house sold in New Zealand has one.
Plain natural timber. No paint, no stain, no varnish. Butterflies stay away from a chemical smell.
The kahukura spends the winter as a grown butterfly and needs somewhere narrow and dry when the southerly comes through.
The back opens by hand. Brush it out once a year, top up the sand, hang it back up.
“The kahukura is found nowhere else in the world, and on the mainland it faces a lot more than it did fifty years ago. Most gardens have lost the rough, sheltered corners butterflies used to rest in. A shelter with a narrow slot, untreated timber and a damp spot of sand gives them one more safe place in an ordinary section.”
Dr Helen Marsden Entomologist, Massey UniversityWell suited to
🌳 Back sections
🍋 Fruit trees & feijoas
🌿 Nettle & swan plant patches
🎁 Gifts for gardeners
👥 Nana & the grandkids
🎓 School nature projects
🏡 Verandas & fence posts
🏖 Baches & coastal gardens
What you are actually getting
- Hand-built, not moulded. Every house cut, sanded and fitted by one pair of hands in Ōtaki.
- Measured, not decorative. Slot width, dish and timber all come from twenty-eight springs of watching what works.
- Made for Kiwi weather. Solid timber walls and a teardrop shape that sheds the rain and sits still in the wind.
- Easy to clean. Tool-free back — the reason these last for decades, not one season.
- The last of them. 63 houses remain. Trevor’s templates are staying in Ōtaki. No reorder.
30-day returns, no questions
Hang it up and see what happens. If you are not happy, send it back — no fuss, no questions asked.
A note on handmade: grain, scorch pattern and colour vary from house to house. No two come out the same, and yours won’t look exactly like the photos. That’s the point.
Product details
| Material | Untreated natural pine, lightly scorched surface |
| Finish | No stain, no varnish, no paint |
| Shape | Teardrop “raindrop line” profile (stable in wind) |
| Dimensions | Approx. 21 cm high × 14 cm wide |
| Entry slots | Three vertical slots, just under 2 cm wide |
| Sand dish | Round metal dish on a curved ledge — fill with damp sand |
| Mounting | Jute rope with steel clip included |
| Best time to hang | Spring, out of the prevailing wind, near nettles or a swan plant |
| Care | Brush out once a year, top up the sand |
| Made by | Gaylene Corlett, Ōtaki, Kāpiti Coast |
| Remaining stock | 63 houses — final collection |
The Last Winter
The Last Winter
A note from the workshop:
Gaylene Corlett has built butterfly houses in an old garage behind her weatherboard house in Ōtaki since 1998, with templates her late husband Trevor, a joiner, cut for her. Behind the garage she has left a patch of stinging nettle alone since 1995 — the only plant the caterpillars of the kahukura, New Zealand’s own red admiral, will eat. In 1997 she counted thirty-one red admirals there in one afternoon. Last summer, not one. More than 2,200 houses later, torn tendons in both shoulders mean she can no longer hold her arms steady for the last cut on a slot. In January she moves to her daughter in Rolleston. These 63 are the last houses from her workshop.
Free Shipping NZ-Wide
Free Shipping NZ-Wide
Free shipping NZ-wide
- Every house is wrapped by hand in brown paper, with a handwritten note from Gaylene, and sent with tracking
- Size: approx. 21 cm high × 14 cm wide
- Untreated natural pine, three slots just under 2 cm wide, metal sand dish on a curved ledge
- Jute rope with steel clip included — hang it in spring, out of the prevailing wind
- 30-day money-back guarantee — just email info@craft-folk.com
Frequently Asked Questions
Got a question? Here’s how to reach us.
Got a question? Here’s how to reach us.
Email us anytime at info@craft-folk.com. We answer Monday–Friday 9am–5pm and Saturday 10am–3pm (New Zealand time). Whether it’s about your order, where in the garden to hang it, or just to say hello — a real person writes back.
Can I return it if it’s not for me?
Can I return it if it’s not for me?
Of course. 30-day money-back guarantee. Hang it up and see what happens, and if you are not happy, email info@craft-folk.com within 30 days for a full refund. No questions asked.
How is it made?
How is it made?
Gaylene cuts every house from plain pine with the plywood templates her husband Trevor made in 1998. The three slots are cut just under 2 cm wide — wide enough for a butterfly with folded wings, too narrow for a sparrow. She sands the teardrop edge by hand, fits the curved ledge with its metal sand dish and leaves the timber bare: no paint, no stain, no varnish. Each house is wrapped in brown paper with a handwritten note.