Wooden Bird Box

 

I’ve had this wooden box for a while now and knew I wanted to do something with it but wasn’t sure what…

I had picked it up in a garage sale for a few dollars. It’s really quite simply made and it wouldn’t be hard to make one, I think. If I’m correct these types of boxes were used to store cheese in, in the old days.

This one will probably be a catch-all on our coffee table for now. ( I’ll stick with keeping our cheese in the fridge )

I knew I wanted to paint a picture on the lid. I thought about words along the side but skipped that. I was afraid it would look too busy. Since I added some green accents to our living room, I went ahead and painted the lid and the bottom strip green. (old hiedleberg) The main base part I painted white.

 

I found this neat clipart on Microsoft word that really caught my attention..

I cropped the two branches and the flying bird and enlarged them and printed it out.

I used the least color possible to save my ink, as long as I could see the outline to trace it. I arranged it on the lid to see what angle would look best. I then used carbon paper to transfer.

As you can see, the carbon paper does get smudged some, but it’s easily wiped off with a damp cloth.

The next step was painting it…

I did kind of like this look of not distressing it but of course, I couldn’t contain myself and grabbed my sander and stain to give it an aged look…

I applied the stain with a cloth after sanding.

I think I’ll add a wooden knob in the center of the lid for easy opening, but for now this will do!

Have a great week everyone!