This Junk Store Birdhouse from the O'Neil Sisters is cheap garden decor you'll be proud to show off! This handmade birdhouse is made with various odds and ends, giving it a unique look and a whimsical feel. Aren't those little button flowers the cutest?
Materials:
- Unfinished wood birdhouse, 9” tall
- RIT dye, Kelly Green
- Clear topcoat spray paint
- Screws, ½”, 2
- Little nails, ½”, 38
- Big nail, 2”
- Eye screw, 1 5/8”
- S-hook
- License plate
- Big washer, ¾”
- Small washers, ½”, 8
- Small nuts, ¼”, 9
- Sawtooth picture hangers, 6
- Wooden yardstick
- Bottle caps, 6
- Small buttons, various colors, 6
- Medium buttons, various colors, 6
- Keys, 6
- Post office box number plate
- Old jewelry chain, 12”
- Pyrex measuring cup
- Sponge paintbrush
- Light-duty hand saw
- Liquid Nails glue
- Teaspoon
- Chopstick
Instructions:
- Use a chopstick to stir 1½ teaspoons of the Kelly Green RIT dye into 1 cup of steaming hot water. Over a drop cloth, use the sponge paintbrush to stain the wooden birdhouse with the green dye. Let dry. Seal the birdhouse with a coat of clear spray paint.
- Start adding gingerbread trim by gluing one nut to the peak of the eaves. Using the small nails and a hammer, attach the saw tooth picture hangers to the eaves of the birdhouse. Then glue the rest of the nuts and washers in a row beneath the eaves, alternating the nuts and washers.
- To make short flowers, glue a small button onto each key. Glue the short flowers onto the sides of the birdhouse.
- To make taller flowers, glue a medium button inside each bottlecap. Snip pieces of the chain into two-inch lengths. Using the small nails and a hammer, attach the ends of the chain lengths to the sides of the house, stretching the chain out to form the flower stems. Glue a bottle cap to the top of each chain-stem.
- Create a fence by sawing the yardstick into 4 pieces that fit around the bottom of the birdhouse. Using the small nails and a hammer, attach the ruler pieces to the base of the birdhouse.
- To make the roof, punch a hole in the center of the license plate using the big nail and a hammer. Bend the license plate in half over the edge of a table to form a peaked roof shape. Place the license plate on the roof of the birdhouse, then screw the eye screw through the hole in the license plate and into the birdhouse. Use small nails to nail through the sides of the license plate securing it to the roof.
- To finish it off, use the screws and a screwdriver to attach the post office box number plate onto the birdhouse over the door.
