How to Decorate Birdhouses With Grapevines

Spruce up an old birdhouse with decorative grapevines.

Birdhouses add charm and whimsy to your garden, especially when they are filled with cheerful birds enjoying a bounty of seeds. A birdhouse decorated with colorful green and purple grapevines is a subtle way to flex your decorating muscles, or to personalize your outdoor landscape without distracting from its natural feeling, even if you are not particularly artistic.

Things You'll Need

• Wooden birdhouse
• Plastic grapevine or grapevine wreath, 3 to 6 feet
• Wire cutters
• Staple gun
• Glue gun
• Artificial moss
• Exterior acrylic paint, green and purple
• White spray paint
• Drop cloth or old newspaper
• Small paintbrush
• Plastic vine stencil
• Scotch tape
• Water

Instructions

Wrapped Bird House

1. Place the birdhouse on a clean work surface. Lay the length of plastic grapevine behind the bird house. If you are working from a grapevine wreath, snip the plastic stem of the vine near the bottom of the wreath with a pair of wire cutters and carefully unravel the wreath until you have a single length of grapevine.

2. Staple the end of the grapevine to the bottom left corner of the birdhouse with the staple gun. Wrap the vine around the base of the birdhouse until it reaches the front left corner, and staple the vine down.

3. Angle the grapevine to the top right corner. If the vine crosses in front of the entrance to the bird house, pull the vine below the entrance and staple it out of the way. Staple the vine in the top right corner.

4. Lay the vine along the front edge of the roof of the bird house, and staple it to the roof on each side. Snip the excess length of grapevine and discard, or continuing stapling the vine across the roof in a crisscross pattern until you run out.

5. Attach patches of artificial moss around the entryway to the bird house, using hot glue. Fill in bare spaces with extra artificial moss to create a full look around the bird house or to cover visible staples along the grapevine.

Painted Grapevines

1. Line a small patch of grass or pavement with the drop cloth or old newspaper. Set up the cloth or newspaper at least 10 feet away from your home, car or other exterior structures. Place your birdhouse in the center of the cloth or newspaper.

2. Spray paint the entire surface of the birdhouse. Begin with the bottom and work your way up to the roof using long, even sprays. Allow the paint to dry at least 6 hours, up to overnight.

3. Center and tape the plastic vine stencil to the largest side of the birdhouse. Dip your paint brush into the green exterior acrylic paint. Paint the vines and leaves of the stencil green by painting toward the interior of the stencil and not toward the edges of the stencil.

4. Clean your paint brush off in warm water. Dip the clean brush into the purple exterior acrylic paint. Paint the grape portions of the stencil in the same fashion as the green vines. Remove the stencil once all portions are filled.

5. Move the stencil to an adjacent wall. Tape the stencil so that the two edges of the painted vine connect or are close to each other. Repeat the same painting technique.

6. Continue painting with the stencil on all four sides of the birdhouse and the roof, if desired. Freehand paint a connecting green vine in places where the vines do not connect so that you've create one continuous vine around the birdhouse. If you want to fill in bare spaces, place a portion of the stencil in the desired location and repeat the painting process. Allow the birdhouse to dry overnight before placing it outside.

Tips & Warnings

• If you cannot find a grapevine stencil, use a plastic vine stencil and freehand paint small purple ovals to serves as grapes.

• If you cannot find a stencil, create your own with transparency paper. Print out an image of a grapevine from your home computer and trace the image onto the transparency film with a permanent marker. Cut out the vine design with a utility knife and use the negative image as a stencil.

• Wear a protective mask while working with spray paint.

References

• "Build Your Own Birdhouses and Feeders: From Simple, Natural Designs to Spectacular, Customized Houses and Feeders"; John Perkins, 2007
• "The Best Birdhouses for Your Backyard"; Michael Berger; 2001

Resources

• Free Prinatables: Printable Grape Bunch