Scavenger Chic

Simple DIY Birdhouses

• By Joan
• October 25, 2023
• 2 Comments

Simple DIY Birdhouses

A few years ago I shared with you the side wall of this garage with brightly painted birdhouses that I caught a glimpse of outside of Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

Well, I inspired myself, because now I have my own little shed wall that is dire need of some decoration and a wall of birdhouses immediately came to mind.

Birdhouse Walls

Before I begin my own DIY birdhouses, first, a little birdhouse wall inspiration.

These photos are all from Pinterest, but you get the idea.  If you click on the photo, you’ll be taken back to the original Pinterest post.

DIY Birdhouse

Time to build our own simple birdhouse.  I’m  keeping mine to just one easy design, but as you can see, the sky is the limit.  You’re only limited by your imagination.

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You’ll first need to draw your pattern and transfer your pattern to a 1″ piece of scrap wood. 

You’ll need to cut 2 of the front pieces, 2 of each of the side pieces and 1 bottom piece for each birdhouse.

Since I am making 5 birdhouses, I’m cutting all the pieces out with a table saw.  For smaller quantities you could easily use a jigsaw, scroll saw or circular saw as all the lines are straight cuts.

Twenty five pieces later, all my cuts are done.

Lightly sand all the edges of your wood.

I used a nail gun with 1 1/2″ nails to attach all the pieces.  If you don’t have a nail gun, use finish nails and a hammer.

On the front of your birdhouse use a 1″ spade drill bit to drill a hole for all your birdy friends.  Bird house holes should be between 1 and  1  1/4″.   The hole could be larger if you want to welcome the larger sized bird.

If you’re going to include a perch, from what I’ve read it’s optional, it should be about 1  to 2″ below your hole and be about 1 1/2 to 2″ in length.

Predrill a hole that will fit your perch snugly and attach.   My perch is a cutoff pencil. A dab of E6000 adhesive  holds the perch securely.  

I’m finishing the birdhouses with the same paint  techniques I used for the barn quilt, which means I’m beginning with 2 coats of an exterior primer.

The primer is followed by 3 coats of an exterior grade acrylic paint.

For the roof, I’m using old roofing tin shingles.  I had to cut off about an inch in width with a metal cutting grinder then folded the tin in half.

If you don’t have roofing tins, check out my 2 other diy birdhouses at the end of this post for a couple more ideas.

Attach the roofing tin with 2 screws to the birdhouse.  If you ever need to clean out the birdhouse you only need to remove the 2 screws for easy access.

All ready for their installation.  The shed I’m installing them on is 2 1/2 hours away, so for now you’ll just have to use your imagination as to how colorful they’ll be when installed,  but I will be sure to update when I get the final pics.

As always, stay inspired.

Update, the birdhouses have been hung!

Shutter Birdhouse  with shutter slat roof

Pallet Wood birdhouse with a pallet wood roof

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