Ah, domestic bliss. Living in a cottage with lovely flowers and animals is something we’ve all dreamed of at some point or another, right? Just imagine: neighbors far away, birds chirping, breeze in your hair and beautiful scenery all around you. What could be better?
This week, we wanted to focus on making the happiest of homes with our Cottage Play House. The best part is the super simple DIY Birdhouse that only takes a few steps to make, and even the littlest of your children can help with it! Once you are done painting your birdhouse, just prop it up in your front or backyard and watch your children’s face light up with joy when it’s being used by all the birds in the neighborhood!
Cottage Play House
There’s no place quite like home! If your little one is looking for a place to call their own, look no further than our Cottage Play House. Featuring an inviting design and a very roomy 58″ x 48″ x 58″, this happy abode is sure to inspire endless hours of domestic bliss. The best part of all is that the easy-to-assemble color-coded poles and simple pull-over fabric cover ensure that this durable house is move-in ready upon arrival.
Should your child choose to “add on” to their space, they can always attach one of our stylish tunnels to the built-in tunnel port. Not only is our Cottage Play House airy and bright thanks to the “peek-through” mesh panels and comes with a fun “sky light”, but it’s also portable and versatile, making it the perfect home in any setting. This cottage purposefully doesn’t have a floor so your kids can bring in chairs, table, little bikes in and out with ease! It also has fun, interactive roll-up windows and doors you can push to each side with hook and loop. Our casa es su casa!
This Cottage Play House, along with the smaller version here, is one of our most popular items. That is why we have two sizes to offer depending on how much play room you have! And, what does a house need when it is all fixed up but a birdhouse to welcome all the birds to the home!
Painted Birdhouse DIY
What you’ll need
- Plain, wooden birdhouse
- TIP: We let Michael’s do the heavy lifting here, but we also found some great birdhouses for a great price on Amazon as well.
- Acrylic Paints
- We chose complimentary colors that went with the Cottage Play House!
- Paint Brushes
- Bird Feed
How to make it
- Choose a base color and paint the whole birdhouse that one color
- The sky is the limit here – paint whatever you want! Here are some suggestions: your name, your family’s last name, the name of some of the birds that might come into the yard….the world is your oyster when it comes to what to paint!
- Let it dry for about an hour
- Fill the birdhouse with some bird feed and watch the birds come to your “front yard” while relaxing inside your Cottage Play House!
More ideas
DIY Mailbox
Let’s keep adding to the cottage! As we mentioned, our Cottage Play House comes in two sizes. The smaller size is absolutely perfect for smaller numbers of children, and still big enough fun for another awesome DIY to make your house a home. We created DIY Mailboxes for this smaller tent, and they will work great for the larger one as well! Click here for that tutorial.
Bird watching
Of course when you put up a birdhouse, there’s nothing better to do than watch all the birds who come use it! This is a great opportunity to learn all about them! Grab a birdwatching book or search what birds may be living in your local area. Print out some photos and watch the excitement on your child’s face every time they recognize one!
Attract for nesting
Sure watching birds eat from a birdhouse is fun, but what about if some of them moved in and built a nest in there? Seeing the baby chicks hatch year after year could be an exciting moment for the whole family.
Here are some really great tips from Birds and Blooms for how to make your birdhouse attractive for nests:
- Select a Suitable Nesting Location: Each bird species has different habitat requirements, and this includes the environment they’ll choose for nesting. For example, the best location for a bluebird house is an area facing or surrounded by open fields, where the insects they eat and feed to their young are plentiful. Some birds are the complete opposite! Do some quick research for birds in your area and what they might like!
- Use a Birdhouse That Fits: Generally, small birds need small houses; large birds require large houses. House wrens are happy with an 8-inch-tall house with a 4- by 6-inch base, while a chickadee might select an 8-inch-tall house with a 5- by 5-inch base. Bluebirds need more room, so a box that’s 5-1/2 by 5-1/2 inches and 10 inches tall is perfect. Wood ducks and screech-owls need big houses, 10 by 10 inches and 24 inches high.
- Check the Entrance Hole: A very important aspect of selecting the right house for the nesting birds you want to attract is the size of the entrance hole. This will also keep out competing nesters, since almost no other birds can fit through such a small opening. If you have extra tools available to make your birdhouse hole larger, this will greatly increase your chances of a nester!
- Hang It at the Right Height: The final factor to consider is that nesting birds prefer their houses at different heights, depending on the type of bird that they are. Doing research to find what is best for your local birds can help increase your chances of a bird family to move in!
Let us know!
Did you make a DIY Birdhouse or have some fun in your Cottage Play House? Make sure to tell us all about your experience in the comments below!