Nursery Decor using Birdhouses: A Tutorial

Once upon a time, a long long time ago, okay two months ago, I started this blog with great plans in mind for the Squishes' Room.  Finally, after moving and unpacking their belongings, the Squishes' Room is finally on its way to being redesigned.  Someday I will do a full post on their room and all its design bits as a whole...but for today I'd like to just share one little corner with you.  The Birdhouse Corner.

As I explained in a previous post, a bird theme was featured in their first room in our Brooklyn apartment.  I adore the birdhouse night light that Miss E received from her Grandparents and I wanted to keep that up in the new room.  Luckily, I came across these affordable ($1 USD) birdhouses from Jo-Ann Fabrics and inspiration struck!  

What you will need:

• Small Birdhouses (purchased at Craft Shop such as Jo-Ann Fabrics, Michaels, Walmart)
• Small Sawtooth Picture Hangers
• Hammer
• Pliers
• Tree Wall Decal or Paint to paint tree on wall
• If hand-painting tree on wall I'd also suggest a ruler, multiple sized paint brushes for detail work, and a covering for the floor
• Tape, such as Masking or Duck
• Scissors
• Stool or Ladder depending on height

An Array of Birdhouses

Step 1: Prepping your birdhouses

Once you have your birdhouses you will need to prepare them if they do not have hanging apparatus.  

NOTE: I chose not to stain or paint my birdhouses as I was matching them to the unstained/unpainted night light already in our possession.  Additionally, the girls' room is rather dark with taupe walls so I felt the bare wood lightened up the room in a way that stain or paint would not.  Should you want to stain or paint your birdhouses I would do so at this point before adding any hanging fixtures to the back.

I located Small Sawtooth Picture Hangers to attach to the backs of the birdhouses.

After & Before

Begin by placing your picture hanger on the back of the birdhouse.  Centering it as much as possible.

Then, using your pliers, hold the nail and hammer down one side of the frame hanger.

When you are done it should look something like this.  Continue nailing tightly and then do the same to the other side.  Do this for each birdhouse. 

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To give credit where it is due...the pliers were The Mr.'s suggestion.  This is what my hangers looked like before he handed me the pliers...  Exactly.

Step 2: Prepping your Tree

I had originally planned to paint the tree on the wall.  But, we are renters and the thought of painstakingly drawing and painting out a tree on the wall only to have to paint over it when we move was too heartbreaking.  Instead, I purchased this Tree Decal on Amazon.com.  Having used wall decals in our last home I can attest to the fact that they are simple to use and easy to clean up.  This is good if you are renting and do not want to paint or if you think that you might want to change your design (or that your child will...) in the future.  It is a temporary solution that looks quite impressive when applied correctly.

If you are going to hand paint your tree then go for it!  I'd love to see the results so please do share.

For all of you decal peeps out there this is what I did.  First, I cut out all of my branches and laid them out so that they were easy to see.

Then I started taping them to the wall to experiment with the layout.  

Now as you can see I already had a few birdhouses up.  I had specific places I wanted the birdhouses to rest so I put those up first.  If I didn't have to worry about plugging in the nightlight I probably wouldn't have worried about the birdhouse placement until after my tree was all arranged.  It is up to you which way you'd like to lay your wall out.

When you are taping remember to have some overlap between the branches and the trunk.

I knew I wanted the wooden birdcage I had bought at the antique store to be placed on this wardrobe so I made sure to place it as I went about laying out my branches in order to see how the overall look would be.



At this point I became vertically challenged and had to grab a ladder.  Yes, I'm short.  Anyway...once that was conquered I simply laid out all of my branches until I had the tree I wanted.

Step 3: Hang Your Birdhouses


After your branches are all up then start taking off the decal back and stick them to the wall one at a time.  (sorry, no photos here...got really into it and forgot camera!)

You will want to hang your birdhouses as you'd like on your branches before applying your leaves.  That way you can use your leaves as "filler" for the tree after the birdhouses are in place.

Try by hanging your birdhouses on the Ends and Middles of branches for variety.

Step 4: Add Your Leaves

Yup.  That's it.  Add your leaves.  Whether you'd like to be anal about it and use tape again...that is up to you.  Personally, I just winged it at that point!

 VOILA you are done!  Birdhouse decor is complete.

Now I would be failing you if I did not explain the mirrored closet doors.  From the outset a great debate raged on regarding what to do with the mirrored doors.  The Mr. and I agreed that they were a bit outdated (and to some a gaudy eyesore) and therefore should be dealt with swiftly.  But, how to deal with them, well, that was an issue.  As we went back and forth about removing them completely, covering them with a curtain, or simply keeping them open permanently the cosmetic problem was thwarted by the whims of Miss E.  You see, the entertainment value of the mirrored doors far outweighed any aesthetic issues as far as she was concerned.  And so, the mirrored doors remain and there was much rejoicing in throughout the kingdom.

I really love this tree and birdhouse idea.  Miss E enjoys it as well...although she seems to have less interest in the birdhouses and was much more excited about having "a tree mommy, MY tree" in her room.  She keeps pointing at it to show me the "leafs."  In the future, when the girls have outgrown the novelty of birdhouses, I'd like to use butterflies or even fabric flowers on the tree instead of birdhouses.  For those of you keeping tabs on the development of the Squishes' Room the Pom Pom Ceiling is next!

Do you have any DIY decor in your house?  What ideas have you come up with?  Please share!  I still have lots of other rooms to complete...

- rebecca lynne

Weekend Jaunt to the Amish and Good as New Consignment

This weekend we spent some time away from packing to check out the area.  The first place that is of definite interest is the large Amish population that lives nearby.  Yes, I said Amish.  And...those of you who know anything about quilting must know that Amish Quilts are amazing!  Aaaand...guess whose mother-in-law located the nearest Amish Quilt Store?  That's riiiiight!

So Saturday morning I piled my family into the car to drive out into what appeared to be the middle of rows and rows of corn to an Amish farm where they also have a quilt store.  Miss E was fascinated with the smell of manure and the multiple cows she kept seeing outside her window, to be honest, she was a bit annoyed that she didn't see any pigs!  Anyway, the store is located on the farm in a small building that looks like a little cottage to the right of the farmhouse...basically if you aren't looking for it you Will miss it.

The quilts we saw were stunning!  There was a huge pile of them folded on a table like a large glorious fabric book.  To view the quilts the woman who runs and owns the shop, Mattie Hostetler, patiently unfolds each quilt in the pile and goes all the way through until the pile is refolded onto the other side.  Just picture a huge book and each page is a quilt!  Amazing.  This pile was on a table and reached my chin in height...that is how many quilts there were.   The details in the quilting have inspired me, I am itching to get finished with one of my quilt tops so that I can actually dive into some quilting.  The quilts I enjoyed best were the ones that were mostly white with amazing quilting designs...all done by hand of course!  But, if you are into piecing, you would not be disappointed because the color choices were out of this world - colors I would never have imagined putting together.  Plus, the piecing was so tiny and the quilts were HUGE.  Completely inspiring.

I did not take any photos because it is rude and from what I have learned in my short time here the Amish aren't exactly psyched having people take photography of them or their lifestyle.  Think about it, what if someone visited your home and started taking photos of you washing your dishes?  Exactly.  There is no website for the shop but if you'd like to learn more about it and the Amish community in this area try visiting here.

Our next stop this weekend was to a consignment shop called Good As New.  This place rocked.  We are in the market for two extra chairs for our table.  Now that we don't have the table wedged up against a wall we actually have room for enough chairs!  We stopped here hoping we could find some cool vintage chairs and whatever else...  I am constantly on the hunt to add some vintage and antique furniture to our house and often can't afford it - so when my husband agreed we needed more chairs I jumped on the chance to add something shabby chic to the house!

There were so many cool things I took shots of a few items I'd love to take home with me...but couldn't find a good excuse to do so (i.e. couldn't convince my husband we needed it even though I so obviously think that we do).  I didn't have a proper camera as I wasn't intending to take photos that day...so excuse the quality of the pics taken from my phone.

Antique Silverware

Cast Iron Stove (I mean who doesn't want this just cause in their house??)

Old School Desk

I wanted the Table all this stuff is on - it was $60

Milk Bottles

Luckily we did find some chairs!  We own a "French Country Farm" style table.  Which is a fancy way of saying a simple big solid chunky square chopping block kind of table...which I wanted because I love that we can beat the you know what out of it while the girls grow up and later use it as a prep table if we decide to get something fancier.  Right now the table has four matching simple square chairs and I wanted to buy some cool head chairs that were different and vintage.  We finally found them!  Look at the carving on the seat back and the seat itself...plus there are gold grommets...yes, how cool?

Carved Chairs that Came Home with Us

Plus, now that all the chairs that belong to the table are being used at the table...I also needed and extra chair for the sewing room.  Voila!  Another cool carved wooden chair...and it was on sale for $25.  Score.

Sewing Chair

Here are some at home shots of the things we brought home...

A Victorian Sewing Box.  I thought this would be perfect to throw one of my jewelry projects inside and take around the house with me to work on as I go.  I used to cart a whole bead container with me before and this is just so cute I couldn't pass it up!  

Victorian Sewing Box

Inside Victorian Sewing Box

A carved birdcage for the Squishes' Room.  This birdcage looks amazing in their room...which is not ready for a photo shoot yet...  Isn't this cage awesome?  It was the first thing I saw when we walked into the consignment shop and I dragged my hubby to it and said This is a Must.  Luckily he agreed without much of a fight - smart man.

Carved Wooden Birdcage

Detail of birdcage carving

And of course I can't pass up on a fabric deal.  Two yards of Holly Hobby fabric for $2 will make such a cute baby quilt in the future, and I just love large floral prints and this one was just $1 a yard!

Here is a shot of our chairs in action at the table.  Don't they look like they were meant to be there?  I love them!  The carved seats also mean I don't have to go crazy finding seat covers to match the one we have because who would want to cover up the beautiful carving details and grommets?

Because I took out Miss V's high chair for a nicer composition...I promised her to include a glam shot of it.  It is an example of my love for older shabby chic loved furniture as it is a painted wood high chair with hand painted details.  It is considered a hand me down from my husband's Aunt.  They thought we were a little crazy for wanting this old chair but I l-o-v-e it!  I'll be so sad when we have no more babies to sit in it...sigh...

Anyway, that was our exciting weekend...plus more boxes that were unpacked.  Joy.  Hope you enjoyed the new chairs as much as I am!

- rebecca lynne