DIY Door Stop - Rustic bird from scrap wood

I found the most adorable photo of a bird doorstopper on Pinterest the other day. I tried to follow the link to see how it was made or where I could purchase one – but unfortunately, the link didn’t lead anywhere.

But since I’d seen it, I “needed” one of course – and it didn’t look too difficult to make – so I thought I’d see what I could come up with.

I had some scrap lengths of 2 x 4’s in the garage, so I started tracing out circles on it – a big chubby one for the bird’s tummy and a smaller one for it’s head.

From there I measured the gaps under my bedroom doors (these are the ones the wind usually slams shut in the spring) and came up with a height and length for the bird’s tail.

Don’t worry if you don’t have a scroll saw to cut these – and be SUPER-CAREFUL if you attempt this using jig saw. I brought out my handy-dandy Bladerunner X2 to do the cutting – it can cut rounded shapes but still has a table and a guard to keep the digits safe.

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Rockwell Tools - Bladerunner X2 — click image for link to Rockwell Tools and for more information.

A little swoop here and another there and you have a bird door stop…

almost.

At this point it could probably be a walrus or seal as well.

I clamped my DIY door stop down to the workbench with a scrap piece of wood underneath and then drilled a 1/2″ hole for its eye. I’ve had terrible luck with using spade bits – usually the drill grabs the wood and then my wrist gets ripped out of place. Clamping it down to something solid worked much better and allowed me to have both hands on the drill for stability and strength.

I sanded the guys down with 60, 100 and then 150 grit sand paper to give them a clean, and more rounded look. To sand the eye holes, I just wrapped a piece of sandpaper around a pencil and then slid it back and forth until all the edges were smooth. You could skip this step, but it really does look better if you do it.

I tried two stains on these birds – a Varathane gel stain in ‘weathered grey’ and a Minwax stain in ‘special walnut’. Coat the birds, let soak in, and then remove the excess. Repeat if you want a darker colour.

Once they were both dry I added a coat of triple-thick varnish to each – just to protect them from moisture and to keep the stain from getting onto my carpets.

SOOO CUTE!

These DIY door stops are a bit low to keep outer doors open, but that was so you could add a rubber liner to the bottom. The wood will slide if it isn’t wedged beneath the door, and outer doors are usually on wood or tile floors, so you don’t want to wedge the doorstop without a rubber bottom or you risk scuffing up your floors. You can pick up cork or a small piece of weather stripping and glue it to the bottom of your DIY door stop with a hot glue gun.

Actually, you could probably just use a hot glue gun and coat the bottom of your door stop to act as a gummy layer – but it will wear off.