Humans aren’t the only ones who can enjoy a cozy log cabin. With log cabin birdhouses, you can add a great and helpful decoration to your yard that both you and your bird neighbors will enjoy. Plus, these customized designs are fully functional and will look great on any property! Follow this guide to make your own log cabin birdhouse from scratch and also learn how to turn any standard birdhouse into a log cabin today!
Tools and Preparation to Create a Log Cabin Bird House
To start, you’ll need the following items:
- Hammer
- Small and thin nails (panel pins)
- Saw
- Utility knife (for debarking)
- Around 20 sturdy sticks that are around 9 inches long (to use as the “logs” of the house)
- Two wood boards of your choosing (for the roof and floor)
- Glue
Bird feeders and houses are generally simple to make, although log cabin styles may be a bit trickier. A classic birdhouse, for example, will typically have seven boards with one used as the floor, four for the walls, and then two connected at an angle to create a triangular roof. The triangular roof is also crucial in areas that receive snow or lots of rain to prevent the house from collapsing.
However, for log cabin birdhouses, you will need to cut either sturdy sticks or wood bars into small logs so they can be stacked together. If you wish to avoid cutting your own logs or can’t find any suitable sticks outside, you can purchase precut wood sticks at your local hardware store before beginning.
This guide will provide detailed instructions on how to build an authentic log cabin birdhouse with ease. Plus, you’ll also learn how to turn any ordinary birdhouse into a log cabin with a few simple adjustments. Whether you’re an experienced birdhouse builder looking for a new idea or a novice who wants to touch up a store-bought birdhouse, this guide will help you achieve a log cabin aesthetic today!
Classic Log Cabin Bird House
This classical log cabin design will look great in any yard and is sure to impress even the most critical birds. It can rest on a pole or be hung by sturdy wire, depending on your preferences. This design is a bit more tricky than your standard bird feeder design, but with a bit of patience, it should be doable for all skill levels. As you get more advanced, you can add extra stories, more doors and windows, and even separate rooms and mock fireplaces to your cabin!
The following instructions in this guide feature a simplified design to reduce the number of materials used while also being more beginner-friendly. For a more advanced design and photos of the process, you can check out related blueprints here for extra information.
The Floor and Walls
For the floor, cut some of the wood into a roughly 8-inch x 8-inch board. You should now ensure that all the sticks fit alongside your base, and ideally, the sticks should be slightly longer than the base, although it’s unnecessary. If any sticks are too long, simply place them on the side of the floor and cut off the ends while leaving about an inch extra on each side. The sticks should then measure roughly 10 inches apiece, but if you want a more rugged aesthetic, you can have each stick measure a slightly different length instead.
Once you’ve cut all the sticks into the correct size, you can then use your utility knife to debark the sticks as best you can. This will help to keep your birdhouse from fraying when outside.
To start building your walls, glue two sticks on opposite sides of the floor to ensure the base is sturdy. You can also add nails for extra support.
This next step is one of the trickiest, but it can be done relatively easily with a little patience. You will want to cut grooves/joints near both ends of two sticks so they can easily stack upon the previously glued ones. These grooves will be no deeper than half the width of the stick, and they should be cut so that they fit perfectly on the lower sticks without slipping.
Once the grooves are cut, you will place the log with the cutout grooves horizontally onto the larger logs below. Add some glue around the connecting areas, and then hammer a thin nail into both logs to provide extra sturdiness. You will repeat this process by adding grooves onto the next sticks, stacking them horizontally onto the previous small ones, and then repeating until your cabin is at an ideal height.
The Door
To create a door, simply cut through the middle section of one wall while building your cabin. This will require cutting a few inches off the middle of at least 3 or 4 sticks to create the opening. The previous process of cutting the grooves and building upwards remains the same; only now there will be a door for birds to enter and exit with ease.
The Roof
For the roof, you can simply cut a wooden board in half and place both ends at a 30-degree angle to create a triangular roof. Note that this board should be slightly larger than the one used for the floor. Simply glue the inside of the bottom roof boards to the outer top of the walls and add nails for support. You can also add sticks alongside the edges of the roof for a more authentic aesthetic. If you’d like, you could even add a mock fireplace to complete the cabin look! Once your cabin is finished, you can attach it to a tree, hang it from your roof, or attach it to a post among other ideas.
A Super Simple Log Cabin Bird House Design
The previously described birdhouse requires a fair amount of work and planning; however, you can still get the log cabin aesthetic without the hard work with this simple trick! Instead of constructing the walls with stick “logs,” you can simply create a standard four-wall birdhouse and then glue sticks to the outside to create the illusion of a log cabin.
Depending on the size of the sticks, you can either cut them length-wise in half and then glue them on or simply glue them on without alterations if they fit nicely. This is a simple way of creating your own log cabin without the hassle of carving the sticks or using extra tools. While this design may not reach the heights of a true log cabin, your birds will be just as happy with their new cabin home regardless of how it was built.
Once you build your first log cabin birdhouse, you’ll likely be inspired to create greater and more intricate cabins in the future. With countless styles to choose from, you can have a lot of fun by designing and building a new log cabin birdhouse for your yard today!