DIY Birdhouse

Our lake community has a fence in the front of the community that hides the dumpsters. About 2 years ago, they came up with a great idea to make it have more personality. They asked residents to either make or bring a birdhouse to hang on the entrance side of the fence. It was a great community project and it really did make our entrance fun. I made a few for our community fence then. Just recently I’ve made a few more because some of the ones on the fence need replacing. Plus we have new residents that really haven’t been able to participate. My scrap wood pile has been haunting me. It is an eye sore from our driveway. What better than to purge my scrap wood pile and make a few birdhouses. I also thought that this easy project might be fun for some families to make their own.

We recently had a new 7′ fence installed. Since the contractor had to buy all 8′ boards… and I had to pay for 8′ boards, I told him to leave behind the 1′ sections that he cut off. I knew that I could make a few small crafts from 1′ fence board… and not just birdhouses. I have made a few different things. However, since I want to purge a good portion of my scrap wood and not everyone wants to go out and buy wood to make a birdhouse, I thought I would bundle together about 7 pieces of these remnants and offer them as a wood kit for families who want the joy and creativity of making their own birdhouse.

I was able to make both of my small versions from 6-7 boards of these remnants.

You basically just need a front, a back, 2 sides, a base and two pieces to make your roof. For some of these I also used a bigger back piece so that the installation on the fence would be a breeze.

I actually made both of these two birdhouses in about an hour. Of course, then I had about 30 minutes of cleaning up my mess because cedar boards leave a ton of sawdust behind when cutting and sanding them. That is the only downfall of cedar boards.

With these three versions I used some of the fence boards from my old 6′ fence. I kept a small portion of the good boards when the contractor removed my fence.

I’ve added a few other pictures of my birdhouses that I have made from my old 6′ fence. You can be as creative as you want with your woodcuts. Use different angles and dimensions to make it have a really pitched rood versus the typical 90-degree angle pitch on the common birdhouse.

Get creative with paint and accessories. I made a really tall ladder out of scrap fence wood just to make this tall birdhouse a little quirky. I accidentally got green paint on the roof when I was painting the birdhouse so I just embraced the mistake and made it seem purposeful.