Giving an old rusty bird feeder new life with some spray paint. A few years back I remodeled my mom’s guest house (we all call it the little house, you can see the transformation here) and have been meaning to grab the bird feeders and houses from the yard over there ever since. This feeder was the one I had my eye on and, to my surprise, the post was free standing!
I brought it back to my yard but when I went back for the bird houses I was run off by a couple of very angry mama birds lol. So I’ll be leaving the houses until the occupants grow up and move out.
I had the flower bed beside my garage in mind from the moment I brought the feeder over. The plastic on the feeder is so sun bleached I can barely see through it and it was cracked but, at one point, it was a pretty high quality feeder.
The top “cap” was steel and still in good shape so I decided to keep the feeder and do what I could to make everything look a little nicer for now. The whole bird feeder was lashed to the top of the post with a few wraps of steel wire.
Everything was SO RUSTY.
The post itself I decided on white. I hit the whole post and the bottom of the platform with a wire brush before hosing it off and then it took several coats of Rustoleum’s white high gloss spray paint to finally get it looking better.
Then it was time to decide its location! (Of course the nicest thing about this post is that I can move it anywhere anytime I want.)
My first choice in the garden was closer to the front so the lilies and perennials would totally cover the base. I really liked it but unless I wanted to move it every year before winter it needed to move back. Its a little hard to imagine right now but this is where half the snow from my driveway gets piled and I didn’t want the plow taking out my new bird feeder!
So I moved it back to behind the bench and out of the way.
From the driveway or path you can’t see the base at all and I plan on planting this area out next spring with asparagus and perennial wild flowers. So, it should grow up to totally cover the base. I happened to have the concrete block laying around… seriously, it was in my lilac bush, I don’t know where it came from lol.
But it worked great here over top of the base of the feeder adding more stability so I used it because I had it.
The block also gives me a much needed step up to fill the feeder! Whoever built this thing must have have been A LOT taller then me!
Up until now all of my feeders were out on my deck so I added a bin of sunflower seeds inside my garage with a secure lid so its more handy to fill it.
I think it really turned out good! My birds found it right away and my seed budget literally just doubled lol. But I’m happy to feed them and have them here. In the future I’m thinking I could drill some more holes and add hanging suet feeders from the base.
I love the new look of the old birdhouse. It is amazing what a coat of paint can do for anything!
Thanks Carol!
Great job!
Thank you Nancy!
HA! We JUST, sent that exact feeder to the Resale store! The plastic saw better days for sure! However, with our bear problem; we decided to give it a new home, someone can use. We no longer buy feeders, but make them; since the bears destroy them (AND the hooks!) as fast as we fill them ๐
I LOVE, how you painted it red; to match your door, and radio cabinet! <3
Hi Barbara, so sorry to hear about the bear problems. So far for me *knocks on wood* I haven’t had any problems though all of my neighbors have. I think it must be because I have my horse pasture surrounding most of my house lol. Thanks!
i love the new look ,looks great and bright …they should really enjoy the new digs for them and i love how your yard just all grows together …i want mine to do the same but i always get back in there to get out the weeds i just need to add more plants so they all grow together right isn’t that what it is or are you the lucky one and your grandma had done this years ago…..it just looks beautiful…should be proud of all the work you have done there just looks great …with our garage was that clean …have a wonderful day …
Thank you Madeline and YES it is absolutely true that my flower bed looks like that simply because it is VERY old and fully mature. At this point the lillys just took over everything which I just love! Definitely thank my Grandma for that!