Hello world! Look at my bird feeder!

Great that you have found your way to my blog! 
As an university student, I am an ardent DIYselver because a) it is a great balance to studying all day and b) it allows me to turn my shared flat more cozy and personal without breaking the bank. 

I love looking for inspirations online and am always overwhelmed by the fact that so many people share great ideas in their free time. Now, after profiting for years, I decided to contribute something as well. 

So here is my first project: 

I love my surfer-style bird feeder!

I will admit that the attraction is more in the artwork than the architecture. But that makes it quite easy to build. So this is actually a nice project to do with your kids, too.

Cost *

Difficulty: **

You need: 

- Three sheets of plywood (two times 15 x 22 cm, once 18x22 cm). Because I am lazy when it comes to sawing, I had them cut to the right size at the hardware store

- A strap of wood that is about 1 x 3 cm, with a lenght of 135 cm

- Wood glue, a saw, a couple of brushes and acrylic paint

1. Cut the strap into seven pieces: four 22 cm, two 16 cm, one 11 cm.

2. Glue two 22 cm and two 16 cm straps to the larger sheet to form a border that will keep the food from falling out.  You could cut them to a bevel (than you should start with 18cm instead of 16 cm). I just let the longer straps overlap

3. Next the roof. Glue the 11 cm strap of wood to one of the sheets of plywood so it sits right on the edge.

4. Once this part is dry (about an hour with my glue) you can glue the other sheet to the strap and your sheets will form a perfect 90 ° angle.

5. Once the roof is dry, it is time to  put it up. The last two wooden straps will form pillars to hold the house up.

Hold each strap to the edge of the roof and mark the angle it  is forming. Saw the edges you marked off.

First glue the straps to the bottom. The difficult part in this ist stabilizing the whole thing while it dries. I did it with  ton of books I build around and between the straps.

6. Once it is dry, you might consider painting the inside of the roof and the bottom of the feeder because they won´t be as easy to reach later on. I chose a contrasting color for the inside of the roof and the rims.

Then you glue your roof onto your pillars. Again, stabilize with books if necessary.

7. And now... get creative with your colours!

I did a brainstorm and a few preliminary sketches first.
 I wanted a caribbean surfer style beachhouse feeling.  For details, you might look for examples online. It´s what I did for the flowers. 
This is not about being a great artist and more about letting your ideas flow. 

 
For example, I painted a tin-sheet roof, which ist really easy to do and fills up the whole roof so the parts with no details do not look empty. I also wanted to add a few words so I painted a few signs. 


 The best thing is: if part of your painting does not turn out like you imagined, just cover it up with a layer of white acrylic paint and start again.

I really like the summer-like feeling this bird feeder gives me, even if it is cold and rainy outside. 

 

There are just so many possibilities of decorating your bird feeder! 


I hope you have fun with this project,


Yana