Bird House Lamp

I had this idea for a birdhouse lamp for Hope's room. Turn a birdhouse into a lamp with a PVC pipe as a pole and embedded into a flower pot for the base.

Sometimes my inspiration is motivated by cost savings and sometimes it's just a need to have a creative outlet. This birdhouse lamp is both.

I searched high and low for an unfinished birdhouse that looked like a real house and was about the size of a lampshade. This was not easy...

I ended with a papermache birdhouse I found at "Hobby Lobby" in Port Huron. The top comes off along the seam above the upper windows. Which I thought would be a cool way to change the light bulb. But I didn't like the paper. So I bought a bunch of balsa wood and some trim pieces and went to town.

I cut balsa in the shapes of all the sides, used a knitting needle to imprint 'siding lines' (click on the picture for a more detailed view)and cut out the window holes. Then I cut trim pieces and tried to make window moldings. This put me back to Micheal's for a balsa wood mitre box and saw. Cute tiny tools! So I learned how make mitre cuts and made my own window and door moldings. Then I added the scroll trim pieces to accent the sides and cover the seams where the balsa wood met. I AM WOMAN, HEAR ME ROAR.

The roof was a different issue. I first decided to paint it with a crackle finish and be done. I ended up painting it 5 times and never liked the colors or the finish...

So it sat.... for a few weeks.... my creative mind taking a break..... after several trips down isles at Michael's. I decided that the only way out was to make my own shingles.

So over the week-end I cut several one inch square pieces and used a corner rounder to make them more like shingles. Then I glued them on trying to vary them like the real thing. My family was quite impressed even before I added the stones to the chimney!


So, now I'm at another creative impasse... how to finish the base... any ideas?