Faux Patina Birdhouse

 

We chose Gorilla Wood Glue to use for our project.

 We have never tried it before and I do have to say...we are pleased!

The set time is so incredibly fast!

 

We decided to "embellish" a small birdhouse into a super duper mansion birdhouse

....fit for a king....well bird, and maybe a couple of his buddies....

Our inspiration came from a picture of a copper coin with great patina that I found on 

Wikipedia.

 ( my source for all of my unanswered questions! :) 

I wanted to see what true patina looks like and this is the example they gave.

  The colors are gorgeous!

We thought it would be cool to give a simple birdhouse the same colors,

 and add some bold color to my backyard. 

Real copper would have been SWEET....but......

have you seen how much that stuff costs?

Faux will have to do.

We started with this fancy unfinished birdhouse.

It's made to hang on a tree, but we've been a little obsessed with perches lately....

Although it looked large in the store- it looked

like an itsy bitsy birdhouse on our intended perch. 

So here's how we enlarged it!

We started by mimicking the base of the birdhouse by cutting 1x2's at 30 degree angles.

We always have a couple of 1x2's lying around....you never know when you'll need them!

Plus they're super cheap!

Then we built up and out.

 Each piece was glued together with Gorilla wood glue. 

  The set time was SOOOOOO fast!

This is the third layer of 1x2's to give it extra height.

Yes.....ADMIRE my fine tools.......

Here is my frying pan "clamping" system.

Did you know frying pans can be used for things other than cooking???

We covered the holes so birdseed couldn't seep down into the inside.

Now we let it sit overnight and I have to say...it was solid!

We added the perch with more

 Gorilla glue

and wood screws,

filled the gaps with some filler and sanded.

We gave everything a coat of durable outdoor paint and

cut a few triangular wedges to add under the perch.

The roof got a "faux" copper roof. 

Pretty ain't it!!!

The base is a post in the ground.  I've never done this before.

Thank goodness for our Dad!  

He said to bury it at least 2 1/2 feet into the ground. 

We probably should have used cement. 

But hey,

I'm always wanting to move things around and redecorate!

Next came the faux finish.

  We mixed turquoise, dark green,  navy blue and copper

and used the dry brush technique to paint the faux patina.   

We just dabbed and dabbed until we found the color we liked.

Wood screws attach the triangle wood pieces to the post.

There you go! 

A little far out for a birdhouse, but it got the "cool" approval from my boys. 

 That's all that matters! :)

Now all it needs are a couple coats of polyurethane,

and maybe some birdseed....