How To Make A Birdbath From Terra Cotta Pots

Oh what a beautiful day it has been, especially for a Monday.  You know how Mondays can go sometimes.  Here it is the last day of April already.  Where does time go?  Today the weather was simply spectacular and we spent the entire day outside enjoying the above average temperature.  It was supposed to be in the high 80's today and I am sure it was, because I got quite warm at times, but the steady breezes kept it bearable.

Dan and our son in love Todd finished tilling and readying the garden space and it is ready for planting all those vegetables we hope to harvest this summer.  That's if the bunnies don't get them first.  We have some really big rabbits that dart through the yard and I know how they love the new green shoots of vegetable plants.  We will have to figure a way to keep them out of the garden.  I may have to consult  Mr.  McGregor about a solution.   Note to self, reread Peter Rabbit.

While Dan and Todd were busy tilling the garden, I worked on a little project of my own - a new birdbath for my "secret" garden.  This is not an original idea as I had looked up birdbath images on Google and found many examples of ways to make them.  I have a big concrete birdbath that I have had for years and it is really, really heavy.  Instead of using it for a birdbath this year, I am using it to hold the giant asparagus fern I got at the farmer's market last week.  Sometimes, I make some crazy choices.  Do you ever do things like that?

The birdbath idea I really liked was one made of terra cotta flower pots and I knew we could get that in our car.  We don't have a truck or big car anymore and it makes it very difficult to bring home big pieces of anything.  Flower pots will definitely fit in our trunk, so that is what I went with and this is a very easy project to make.   

First, you need 3 different sized flower pots, a large saucer and a small saucer.  My pots are 14", 10" and 8" in size.

I got my pots at Old Tyme Pottery and the two saucers at Home Depot.  Total cost was about $30.00 compared to a LOT more money for a ready made birdbath.  I bought a can of colonial red spray paint at Big Lots for $3.00 and had bottles of acrylic paint that I used for the decorating.  I also sprayed it with some acrylic sealer that I had.  You can get clear acrylic sealer almost anywhere spray paint is sold and it is just a few dollars for a can.  

First, I turned the biggest pot upside down.  I ran a big bead of E6000 glue around what would normally be the bottom of the pot (but is now the top) before placing the next sized pot on it. 

When  you place the next pot on upside down, this will bond the two pots together.  If you are painting your pots all different colors, you will want to paint them before putting them together.  I knew mine would all be the same color, so I put them together first.  It's your decision.  Repeat with the glue before placing the third pot over the second.  Now you are ready to paint.

First, I lightly sprayed all the pots with a white primer to help the red paint stick better.  When the primer dried, I sprayed the stacked pots and the saucers with the colonial red paint and let it dry.  When the paint was dry, I ran a big bead of glue around the top of the last pot on the flat surface and placed the biggest saucer on the glue, making sure it was centered and let it dry.  For the small saucer, I found a flat piece of concrete that had broken off of something and sprayed it red and sat the small saucer on it because I wanted to be able to remove it from the big saucer.  Now, I was ready to decorate the birdbath.

My decoration choice was to paint dragonflies on the birdbath and some fern fronds to tie it in with the garden.  I used a stencil I had for the ferns, using different shades of green to paint them on the pots and in the saucer.  For the dragonflies, I used some light lavender and pink mixed together for the wings and a mixed green for the body highlighted with black.

When the paint was dry, I sprayed the entire birdbath with clear acrylic spray just to help protect the paint from weather.  It took Dan and I both to move it to the garden area - terra cotta pots stacked are not light.  I won't add any water until tomorrow after it has completely dried.  

Doesn't it look pretty behind the wrought iron fence?  I hope all the birds in the yard will enjoy a respite in the garden birdbath splashing in the water and quenching their thirst.  It's going to be so enjoyable watching them this summer.

There are so many more projects that need to be done in the yard and garden, but we are gradually making progress.  Today's project was lots of fun and it was most pleasant spending time out of doors.  I have already started on tomorrow's project.  Check back and see what tomorrow brings.  

Everyday Donna

Things to Remember:

Nature does not hurry, yet everything is accomplished.
-Lao Tzu