A gourd bird house will provide a warm place for small birds to nest, and is an attractive addition to any yard or garden. You can personalize your gourd bird house to match your personal interests or design it to match the season or holiday. In this article, you’ll learn how to make a gourd bird house that will last for several years.
Before you can make a gourd bird house, you will need to prepare the gourd. Read more about how to prepare a gourd for crafts HERE.
Supplies needed to make a gourd bird house include:
– Prepared gourd (instructions here)
– Dust mask
– Acrylic paints (colors of your choice)
– Soft bristled paint brushes
– Acrylic sealer
– Electric drill and ¾” hole saw
– Screw hook (Don’t know what this is? CLICK HERE)
– Dowel rod (optional)
How to make a gourd bird house:
NOTE – What you do to decorate your gourd bird house is completely up to you. If you are creative and a bit crafty, you can make your design as intricate as you’d like. If not, that’s okay too! You can paint your gourd bird house a solid color and then accent it with various colored polka dots or swirls. No matter what, your gourd bird house will look lovely in your yard or garden and the birds will definitely use it!
STEP 1 – Take care to thoroughly wash and prepare your gourd. This step cannot be overlooked. Learn more about how to prepare a gourd for crafts here.
STEP 2 – Wearing a dust mask, use your electric drill to drill a hole into the gourd. This will be the hole that the birds enter and exit the bird house through. If needed, sand down the edges of the hole.
STEP 3 – If desired, you can add a perch to your gourd bird house by drilling a small hole just below the entry hold and inserting a dowel rod. Make sure to paint your dowel rod beforehand!
STEP 4 – Paint the gourd bird house with the colors and design of your choice, using a soft bristled paint brush. If multiple layers of paint are used, allow the first to dry before applying the next. Again, you can get as detailed as you’d like with your design. In the photo shown, we used a variety of paint techniques to create our gourd bird house (we cheated and copied a similar design from a magazine – you can do the same!).
STEP 5 – Allow the paint to dry overnight in a well ventilated area.
STEP 6 – Take your finished gourd bird house outside and spray thoroughly with an acrylic sealer. The sealer will help to protect the gourd from outdoor elements including wind, rain, and extreme heat and cold. This will not make the bird house last forever, but it will extend its life.
STEP 7 – Allow the gourd to dry and spray on a second application of acrylic sealer.
STEP 8 – You’ll want to make a gourd bird house that will hang easily in the garden, thus you’ll want to add a hook. To do this, insert a screw hook at the top of the gourd. You can either hang the gourd directly from the hook, or tie a string or rope from the hook to drop hang it.
When you learn how to make a gourd bird house, you can turn your talent into a side job too. These little bird houses always get a lot of compliments, and people that see them often ask where they can buy one. Once you get good at making them, you can sell them for a little extra cash. Gourd bird houses make great gift ideas too!
