Rustic Birdhouse

I like to build projects from recyled materials, especially wood. In the past, I have built many bird houses, outdoor games like Molkky and Kubb, planters, willow benches and others.

For this project, I used a table saw, miter saw, drill with a variety of bits, an air nailer and a variety of hand tools.

For this project, I made my rustic bird house from salvaged wood and a variety of rusted metal materials. The wood was saved from an old barn and a pallet. The metal includes rusty gears, old ceiling panels and rusty shelving brackets, which I salvage from whereever I can find them.

I have built many styles of bird houses in the past. I try to make each one unique. I begin each bird house by sketching what I hope it will look like. Often, by the time the bird house is done, I've made numerous edits to the design.

I started with the front and back panels. I used pallet wood for this since the pallet boards were 5.5" wide, which is the width I wanted. As the second picture shows, the back is much longer and a different shape than the front panel. I cut a fairly steep pitch for the roof gable as shown on the peaks of the front and back.

For the sides I used the reddish barn wood. I did have to cut for width this time. The two side panels were not matching because of the way the front panel was designed.

In order to be able to clean out the bird house each season, I designed it so that the front panel sides down to open. To allow this, I cut and nailed stopper strips near the front of each side wall of the bird house (Image 5).

I then air nailed the back panel to the side panels as shown in Image 6.

The floor of the bird house was cut to fit between the side walls. Notice the notches I cut to allow for the stopper strips I had installed on each side. I air nailed the floor on three sides. I then laid the front panel in place as shown in the third picture to ensure that it was quite loose fitting to allow it to slide up and down for opening.

Next, I cut a diamond shape from the rusty meatl ceiling panel and attached it to the front panel near the top. Using a 1 1/8" hole bit I drilled the opening hole through the front panel as shown in the fifth image.

In order to hold the front panel in place, I used the rusted shelving brackets which are slightly wider than thickness of the side walls.(Image 6) This overlap holds the front panel in place. In order to keep the front panel from sliding down, I drilled a 1/4" hole through the side panel into the front panel. I use an old style square head nail as a pin that slides into the hole to keep the front panel up.

The roof of the bird house was next. To get the jagged rough edge appearance I was looking for I chose the long board shown in the first picture. I used the ends of this board in order to keep that jagged look. I cut the two roof boards different lengths to add a unique look to the roof (see second picture). The third picture shows the roof assembled.

I then attached the roof to the frame of the bird house. Picture 4 and 5 show the roof attached without and with the front panel.

I like to add unique features to my bird houses. Using another diamond shape from the rusty ceiling panel and a rusty gear that I collected, I attached these as a decorative enhancement at the bottom of birdhouse. I later added a small triangular metal piece at the top of the roof as shown in the third picture.

I installed the bird house in my yard, and took several more pictures. The tree symbol on the front is my "logo" that I like to add to all my projects.

I really enjoyed making this bird house. My orginal design did change as I was building it. This often happens as I build my projects, but that is what makes building with wood so enjoyable.