Future Home for My Fine Feathered Friends

by ScavengerChic

Last Christmas my brother-in-law gave me this great teapot planted with a beautiful green plant. Unfortunately, it didn't take long for me to kill the beautiful green plant. The leaves started dropping like it was fall and soon it was an ugly brown plant. I swear it was an accident and I assure you it wasn't so I could make a cute birdhouse from the teapot.

future home for my fine feathered friends, homesteading, outdoor furniture, woodworking projects

I could have easily just nailed the teapot to the nearest tree but that would have been the shortest tutorial ever, so I decided to add a little oomph to my otherwise plain teapot.

First step was to get holes into the bottom of the pot. I'm assuming that none of my drill bits are for metal because they didn't even dent the bottom. Had to resort to a more caveman effort of hammer and nail. Hey, whatever works.

My teapot needed a little house and what better house than wood salvaged from an old farm's fence. I had tried to use these pieces before for the top of a stool but the wood was so warped that it made my stool wobbly (that's why this side of the wood has a finish).

The fencing pieces were attached with a couple of L brackets screwed on the back.

This is the front of those wobbly pieces. Through the holes, I've marked where the screws are going to go and predrilled the holes.

Side pieces were cut from another piece of fencing, sawed in half with a 30 degree cut at the end. The length of the side pieces is about 1 1/2 inches longer than the back.

A roof piece was cut 2 inches wider than the whole little house. The roof piece is the full width of the fence board so that it overhangs the side pieces.

Attached all the pieces with a nail gun to hold everything together, then followed up with wood screws.

At the last minute I decided the house needed a base and tacked on a piece of pallet wood.

A couple of notes to make with this type of birdhouse. Since metal gets really hot in the sun put your house in a very shady spot high enough to keep predators away. And, if you have the lid to your teapot, attach the lid and drill a smaller hole. The smaller songbirds like a hole 1 1/4 - 1 1/2 inches. If none of the nesting birds like my house it may have to turn into a birdfeeder.

All ready for my first visitor. I figure if my little bird friends will make a nest in my stove exhaust pipe they'll make a nest anywhere.

If you'd like to see more pictures of the finished birdhouse make sure you click on the link below and you can find another of my junky birdhouses here.

http://scavengerchic.com/2015/12/21/junky-pallet-wood-birdhouse/

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3 of 4 questions

Daw3000588 on Feb 21, 2016
Why not hang it sideways so the birds have a perch and make it a feeder?

1
Anne f on Mar 10, 2016
Did u punch in any vents as heat rises and the chicks will cook and if u use it for seeds; they will germinate or rot . Lots of upper holes is needed when using metal. They will come but they will die. Its not what u want its what is needed. Get info on this stuff.

2
B.I.Green on Jul 06, 2017

Lovely idea! And it looks so cool! Do you put little blankie bits inside for comfort?

2

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4 of 48 comments

DORLIS on Jul 06, 2017

Only 1 problem if you use it as a birdhouse, the hole is too large and predators can get to the eggs.

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- Karen Guthrie on Jul 06, 2017
  No more so than a nest in a tree. Great idea!
  
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Johanna on Aug 18, 2019

This looks cute and all but I promise you from experience that metal is a death oven for baby birds. We have metal sculpture giraffe in our yard that birds build nests in every year and the babies die. Yes we have finally been able to shut them out but it took a while to find a way to do that. Birds are insistent and once they build in a place they keep coming back no matter what. Also, your plant likely died because it was a copper container with no drainage holes. Plant either drowned in hot water or died of copper overload or just the heat itself. Cute teakettles can be used but plant the plant in a smaller pot with drainage and a saucer and insert that into the teapot. But only indoors and not in a hot window. I appreciate your honesty when you said you did the other stuff because just nailing it to a tree would have made your tutorial too short!

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- ScavengerChic on Aug 18, 2019
  
  I took everybody's comments to heart, it's now purely decorative
  
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