my bird bath

I hope the birds like it as much as I do! They loved the makeshift bird bath I threw together last week so I'm pretty sure they will enjoy this one too. I've wanted to add a bird bath to my backyard for a long time. The inspiration I needed came from Karen and her amazing blog: The Art of Doing Stuff. I decided to make mine out of a wooden bowl from Target and 3 aluminum rods.















What you need to make this bird bath:

- 3 aluminum rods. I chose 3/8 inch diameter – 4 foot long. From Home Depot ($4 each)
- wooden serving bowl/tray – this one is from Target ($19.99)
- hammer
- drill and forstner drill bit (3/8 inch to match size of rods)
- level
- pencil

Step one:
Take into consideration the shape of the “bath” as you hammer the rods approximately one foot into the ground making sure they are level and plumb.

Step 2:
Place the wooden bowl on top of the rods and get it fairly level. It’s a natural shape so do the best you can. Once it’s in place, use a pencil to trace the rod where it meets the bowl.

Step 3:
Drill into the bottom of the bowl where you traced the rods using a forstner bit - not too deep - just enough so the rods will sink in a little and stay in place.

Step 4:
Fit the bowl onto the rods.

Step 5:
Check to make sure the interior of the natural shaped bowl is level – we needed to pound in one rod a little bit more to get ours level.

Step 6:
Fill with water and wait for the birds!



It took Mark and I about 30 minutes to put this one together. It stormed and rained the first night it was up and didn't blow away or fall apart. I will probably end up putting a coat of polyurethane on the wood to make it even more water resistant. This bowl from Target did have some sort of light finish on it so we'll see how it holds up.

In case you missed my post from July 15th or just haven't had time to check out The Art of Doing Stuff, see how Karen made her very cool bird bath here.

I love the look of hers however my fear of anything porcelain from Ikea that is used outdoors kept me from making one exactly like it.