What is this... a house for birds?

+1 if you got the Zoolander reference! Anyway, get ready for a blog post about my longest running project (so far). It started when we were home over labor day weekend. I made this birdhouse (below) when I was a kid (I'm guessing between 7 and 9 but I'm not sure). Well, after I wasn't a kid, my parents put it down in the basement (the nerve!). Anyway, my dad and I were down there and I asked if I could have it and restore/redo it. Both my parents thought it was a good idea, so I brought it home. Of course, I had used red paint, one of the harder colors to paint over.

First, I hand sanded it down to a certain point.

I had first thought I would paint it yellow with a gray roof.

But I ended up hating the yellow (and the red was still bleeding through). I probably should have used spray primer first.

I then decided to switch to blue with a gray roof. I was using acrylic paints I already had. I used this color on the canvases in our dining room. Anyway, I thought this made the little birdhouse look like my parents house.

I then used acrylics to paint flowers and such on the birdhouse.

Then, I decided to mess with it. The door was looking funny to me, so I tried to create ivy. Fail.

So, I wiped the front back to blue and just did some simple flowers. Much better.

I finished it up with a matte clear coat (spray paint). It sealed all the paint in and actually seemed to bring out the colors.

So, why did this project take so long? Well, mostly laziness and fitting in random coats of paint here and there. It was, in general, a pretty slow moving process. I also did many coats of that blue to get a good covering. Now, I just need to see if my parents want to use it now that it's all fancy. I suppose if they don't want it, I can find a place for it on our deck. :)

That's my birdhouse story. I think the only thing I would do different if I did it again would be to prime the whole thing to white before painting. But, it seemed to cover pretty decently and I don't see any of the red. I just hope it doesn't bleed through over time. If so, you may see another post about redo-ing a birdhouse.