Wood Birdhouse Bookends

I’m so excited to share today’s project idea because it is simple enough that you could totally make this with kids, but it is also a useful piece of home decor if you’re looking to add a little spring touch to your bookshelves at home!

I am always in awe of how many different types of unfinished wood birdhouses that are available at the craft stores these days. They truly have everything — lighthouses, camper vans, brownstones, barns, cottages, churches, saloons — really any building structure that you can think of. They make such a fun painting project for people of all ages, but I loved the idea of taking these one step further and turning them into bookends to hold up your books and decorate your shelves.

The only problem was that when I placed books on either side of the birdhouses, they were too lightweight and would just slide around. Not very functional for their intended purpose. After multiple (unsuccessful) attempts at figuring out ways to weigh down the bottom of the houses, I tried filling the inside of the house with cement mix and it worked! So today I’m sharing the steps in how I turned these little $5.99 unfinished wood birdhouses into a set of cute spring village bookends!

Let’s get started…

To make these wood birdhouse bookends, you will need the following supplies:

Unfinished wood bird houses (I used these townhouse birdhouses from Michaels, which worked great as bookends because of their flat sides)
Sand paper (220 grit)
Cement All
Gallon size ziplock bags
Acrylic paints
Polymer clay (optional)
Hot glue & glue gun (optional)
Felt sheet
Craft glue

STEP 1: Lay a piece of felt under the wood house and trace along the bottom edge. Cut the felt to size and set aside (we will add this to the bottom at the end).

STEP 2: Give every surface of the wood house a light sanding with a fine grit sand paper (220 grit). Brush off wood with a clean rag.

STEP 3: Prepare your cement. Follow the instructions on the Cement All box. You will mix a 4:1 ratio of cement mix to water. I think I ended up starting with about 1 cup of cement mix and 1/4 cup of water. Then I added water or cement as needed. Stir until the cement mixture reaches almost a thick smoothie like consistency.

STEP 4: Carefully pour the cement mixture into the bottom of a gallon size ziplock bag. Cut off a small piece of the corner of the bag. You are going to essentially use the ziplock like a frosting piping bag and pipe the cement mixture into the bottom of the house through the door window.

I found it helpful to have the birdhouse leaning at an angle to be sure the cement is filling the bottom. Continue piping in more cement mixture, pausing every once in a while to knock the bottom of the birdhouse against the table to be sure the cement is evenly filling up the bottom of the house. Continue until the cement reaches the bottom edge of the lowest window or door holes.

Allow the cement to dry overnight. The birdhouses should now be weighted enough to hold up books.

STEP 5: Now it is time to decorate the birdhouses! This was my favorite part :) Paint the surface of the birdhouse with about 2 layers of paint. Carefully paint in any details that you would like, like the door, window frames, front steps, etc. I found it best to use pastel colors to give the house a very springtime look. You can achieve a nice pastel color by mixing your acrylic paint with a warm white paint, playing with the ratio until you reach a pretty light shade.

STEP 6: If you’re interested in adding even more details you can paint in any decorations you would like, or you can find little miniatures to add some personality. I found that the scale of these birdhouses didn’t quite match normal dollhouse size, so I decided to make my own miniatures using polymer clay!

I shaped polymer clay into a few different shapes — a little bench, tiny plant pots, a watering can, a pair of gardening boots, and two little window boxes. The bench was just a little rectangle with two cylinders on the bottom as the legs. The plant pots were little cylinders that I pressed a hole into to add some faux foliage later. And for the window boxes, I created two thin rectangles then added some thin snake-like pieces of clay to the back on 3 sides, creating an open box.

I set these clay items on a piece of parchment paper and baked in the oven at 275 degrees F for 15 minutes (but follow whatever instructions are on your polymer clay packaging). Once they were fully cooled I added some little faux florals to the back of the window boxes and inside the plant pots with some hot glue. Then I hot glued the pieces into place on the bird houses.

STEP 7: The final step is to use some regular craft glue to glue your original piece of felt onto the bottom of your birdhouse. This will help to make sure your bookends do not damage your shelf surface.

And ta-da! Your birdhouse bookends are complete!

I love how these little birdhouses turned out. They bring me so much springtime joy. And now I just want to make a million tiny little miniature decorations. I’m thinking little wreaths, maybe some tiny flag bunting, or even a cute little picket fence!

You could also customize these bookends for other seasons as well. Obviously a Christmas village would be perfect for winter. A spooky Halloween village would be very fun. And maybe a summer vacation house — omg with a tiny little surfboard leaning against the wall!!

Needless to say, you’ll find me over here making tiny miniatures out of clay for the foreseeable future. Hope you enjoyed this project idea! Be sure to share pics with us if you make one of your own @entertainidea #entertaintheidea.

Happy Spring! xo Rachael