DIY Beach Inspired Birdhouse Project With A Coastal Vibe

Birdhouse That's Just Beachy

You can make this  DIY beach inspired birdhouse project. It's easy to put together and you can always use your favorite things. You’ll be thinking Summer when you work on this project. I’m calling the colorful birdhouse “The Starfish Cottage”.

Beach Inspired Birdhouse

You guys know I love the beach. I talk about Florida a lot (too much?). The pretty houses lining the beach always make me smile and they were the inspiration for this project.

I started with an unfinished wood birdhouse from the local home décor/craft store.

The paint for the project today is FolkArt Coastal™. I LOVE it. You may remember I used the paint on my Sisal Rope Planter last month. The plaster/ textured finish gave the planter the perfect beachy look.

The paint is sooooo fun to work with. It can be layered, distressed, textured, etc. The paint comes in 10 colors and can be mixed to create custom colors. Not that I would ever mix paints(insert Kathy winky face).

I grabbed a bunch of  FolkArt paint brushes because I planned to use several colors on the birdhouse.

The first thing I did was tape off areas of the birdhouse to prevent overlapping the paint. I’m a tad messy. I also used popsicle sticks to transfer a bit of each color to a paper plate. I planned to blend the paints and I didn’t want to get white paint in the blue paint jar, etc.

I started out with the Sea Mist on the roof. The paints are thick and you can layer it on or apply a thin coat. For this project I applied the paint pretty heavily.

While the Sea Mist was still wet I brushed Seas Salt over the top of it. The paints colors blended together to give the roof a pretty washed/weathered look.

I selected Ocean for the body of the house. The color is so vibrant ……and does remind me of the ocean.

After brushing Sea Salt color over the Ocean color I stippled and textured the paints together. You can go wherever you want to with this paint. It can be applied with a putty knife or something similar to achieve a plaster like finish. Or just brush it on regular! No sealer required.

The base is Seal Gray with an overlay of Sea Salt.

I'm not sure where I'm going to display the Starfish Cottage. The paint is indoor/outdoor so you may see it on my front porch. First I have to remove the last of the Christmas stuff. If you're new here, this is how I roll.

After the painting the clean up was easy because the paint is water-based. A little soap and water and that bunch of brushes was good as new.

As you can see I swirled the paint, I streaked the paint, I smashed the paint, I had fun with the paint. Now it’s time for the finishing touches.

I went through my junk finds searching for beachy looking stuff. The “driftwood” perch is a piece of dead vine I pulled from a tree in our yard. All the extras are applied with hot glue.

Ta-Dah! The Starfish Cottage.

The paint job took 20 to 30 minutes. Seriously. The fun, junky, add ons took the longest. I pulled the “seaweed” from a few artificial flower stems.

Makes me long for the beach.

I didn’t forget the sides.

Beach Lover Birdhouse

Does the Beach Lover Birdhouse make you think of sun and Summer? How about those colors? Leave me a note with your thoughts about the Starfish Cottage.

FolkArt Coastal™ is made in the USA and the 8 ounce size is perfect for craft projects or small pieces of furniture. Check out the Coastal paint on Amazon here.

As always, thanks for being here and have a great day, Kathy

Disclosure: I partnered with Plaid Crafts to bring you this project. All words, project ideas and photographs are 100% my own.

Kathy Owen

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Author: Kathy Owen
Kathy Owen is the founder of the home decor blog Petticoat Junktion where she shares tutorials on painting furniture and upcycling thrifty finds into unique home décor. Her DIY projects have been featured on the Home Depot Blog, Plaid Crafts, Behr Designer Series, and in numerous magazines. Kathy’s newest website is HappyHomeDIY.com