Milk Painted Birdhouses
In our neck of the woods, it’s the beginning of March, and that means Spring is right around the corner! (If you’re in the Southern Hemisphere, Spring will come around in a few more months!)
Spring is when buds start blooming, the days start getting warmer and birds begin nesting in the trees.
Speaking of nesting birds, we’ve got a super fun craft for you to enjoy!
Supplies Needed:
Wooden Birdhouses - You can find these in any craft store. We sourced ours from Hobby Lobby
Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint in your choice of colors. We used:
Kitchen Scale
Eulalie’s Sky
Ironstone
Arabesque
Layla’s Mint
French Enamel
Trophy
Boxwood
Shutter Gray
Topcoat of your choice. We used:
Zinc Wax
Furniture Wax
Brushes - One medium sized (2.5”) and a few small artist brushes
Lint-free shop towels
Containers for mixing Milk Paint
Popsicle stick or mini whisk
Water
1 Tablespoon scoop
Step 1 - Mix Your Milk Paint
To begin your Milk Painted Birdhouse project, use your imagination and pick your favorite Milk Paint colors.
Mix up a small batch of each color you chose. We recommend mixing 1 tablespoon of Milk Paint powder with 1 tablespoon of water.
If your birdhouse is on the bigger side, bump it up to 2 or 3 tablespoons. Raw wood tends to be quite thirsty, so be ready for your birdhouse to soak up more paint than you think!
If you’re new to mixing Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint, you can watch our video tutorial below for a quick catch-up.
Step 2 - Paint 2 Coats of Milk Paint on Birdhouses
After you’ve mixed up your batches of Milk Paint, it’s time for the fun part - PAINTING!
Grab your brushes and begin painting. We recommend a medium brush for the bodies and roof, and a small artist brush for the finer details, like the base.
Apply 2 coats on your birdhouse, waiting anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour in between each coat.
We used Trophy on the roof of this one, French Enamel for the body and Boxwood for the base.
For this little guy, we used Kitchen Scale on the roof, Eulalie’s Sky on the body, Layla’s Mint on the base and Arabesque for the little perches outside the hole.
Step 3 - Add Details
This step is optional, but it’s a great way to punch up the character on your birdhouse! Add picket fencing, flowers, trim or outlines to give your project some pizazz!
We picked Ironstone for our details.
Do you see the subtle crackling on the front of the birdhouse in the image above? You can force that to happen using a hairdryer! If you mix your Milk Paint on the thick side, and use a hairdryer to help it dry, it will naturally crackle and craze. This gives your birdhouse a lovely aged effect.
Once your Milk Paint is dry, use sandpaper to smooth it and distress if you wish. We chose to leave ours full-coverage with no distressing.
Step 4 - Apply a Topcoat
After your Milk Paint has dried, and you’re finished adding details, it’s time to protect it! Lucky for you, we have lots of topcoats for you to choose! You can read about each one in this blog post:
…and clear Furniture Wax for the rest.
The birdhouses we created are meant for indoor use only, as our waxes are interior finishes. If you’d like to use yours outside, opt for an exterior polyurethane or a Tung Oil.
Step 5 - Enjoy!
You can place your birdhouses on your fireplace mantle, incorporate them into a Spring centerpiece on your kitchen table, or give them as prizes at the end of an Easter egg hunt!
However you enjoy your birdhouses, we know you’ll have a blast painting them with Miss Mustard Seed’s Milk Paint!
