Month: February 2019

I spent a lot of time researching styles and features of coops before I began this DIY chicken coop. I first decided on my must have features; easy access to eggs, food, water and easy cleaning access! It had to be raised and everything had to be accessed from the outside. I wanted my coop to make having chickens easy. I also wanted something cute, but I didn’t want to spend a lot of money or buy a lot of new materials. I enjoy my outdoor space and having chickens had to keep in line with my ideal back yard.

I was lucky that I had some access to materials. I had a basement full of plywood with cedar shingles that I knew I wanted to tear out, and there were several treated wood planks that the previous owner used as garden edging. That meant I only needed some screws, 1 – 4 x 8 sheet of plywood, 2×4’s, metal roof and some chicken wire.

I started my design on paper, planning carefully to make the coop the right size to use with my 4 x 8 sheet of plywood and shingles. The coop was 4′ x 4′ with a angled roof. Egg nesting box off the back, 2 double door that opened the entire front of the coop, and a door that was operated from the outside.

I made a stable base to start building the coop on. This base will sit on top of pressure treated 4×4″ rails in my yard.

I moved my piece outside and began planning the layout and build as things were going to get too heavy for me to carry. I put 4×4′ plywood at the base of the coop. From here I could start building the walls and roof.

It was starting to look like a coop! Its hard to see but I do have some supports off the back for the nesting boxes to sit on. I tore out some of the shingled walls from my basement and cut the top at an angle to match the pitch of the roof line.

The back wall has a large window and nesting boxes. I had a 4 x 4′ piece of plywood left and I made the nesting boxes. Three boxes that are level with the interior of the coop for easy cleaning. I also planned and cut out an east facing window and the door to the run.

I built up the run, and bought 3 pieces of 12′ corrugated metal roofing sheets. I cut them in half to 6′ using a jig saw and metal blade. I also attached the top of the nesting boxes with hinges to access to eggs from outside.

I put wire over the windows and stick tiles. The wood closing off the nesting boxes it snug, but removable to make cleaning easier. I also found white plastic boxes at the dollar store that fit perfectly in the boxes to keep that area especially clean, no one like dirty eggs! (After a year of using the coop the stick tiles haven’t lasted. One sheet of laminate might work ok, but the chickens scratch so much the tiles get lifted and have mostly come out with cleanings. )

I made front doors out of shiplap boards and attached them with exterior grade hinges. I also built a sliding coop exit door.

I built a ramp for the chickens to enter and exit the coop and the perches with sticks from the yard. And I finished attaching the wire and metal roof.

This lovely (coughs) wicker set was left by the previous owners. The colors (and the pictures don’t do it justice) were so awful they reeked of old junk. Wicker wasn’t my style but I had seen some of those gray resin chairs and wanted to try to achieve that look. They needed a little TLC but were solid and comfy.

To start: I hosed them down, rubbed them with a plastic kitchen brush and allowed to dry completely. These chairs also had some serious paint flakes so I was careful to wash these on a sheet that caught the chips to be dried and tossed later.

Sanding wicker isn’t really effective, but I lightly hit it with a 220 grit. ( I always makes sure to sand any piece I work on, it really makes the finish that much more professional. )

Since the paint job was in such poor shape and these chairs were going to be outside, I used a oil based white primer painted on. My mother helped me paint these and she complained the whole time that we had to use oil based primer. She say to spray paint them and be done with it. Well…I had a plan in mind and carefully researched this as I don’t like re-doing projects in a year or two because they didn’t hold up.

After they were good and dry I made a watered down mix of acrylic craft paints. I used dark brown, gray and black. The paint was quite thin, enough to leave pigment behind but also soaked onto the cracks and joints. To my horror, they looked awful! I was waiting for an “I told you so” from my mother, but instead we laughed to tears about all our hard work and how it looked like really dirty, moldy chairs!

Well, I left these chairs half done for a while, discouraged at the finish. Somehow I got the determination to finish them, and I’m so glad I did! Somehow after a few coats of the thinned out acrylic paint and after applying clear gloss spray clear coat they looked exactly like I wanted! The paint dried evenly instead of just in the cracks and the clear coat tied it all together! I made these a few years ago, and I have re-sprayed their clear coat once just to maintain the finish and they still look great!