DIY Faux Concrete Bird Bath Finial

Would you guess it's a fake? When your concrete bird bath statue cracks and you have a resin finial collecting dust in the basement, the two just seem meant for each other. At least that's what I thought when I had the light bulb moment. With layers of chalk paint in colors that match, one would never know it's a DIY faux concrete bird bath finial and I'll show you how easy it was to replicate.

DIY Faux Concrete Bird Bath Finial

We love our concrete bird bath and so do the numerous flocks of feathered friends that visit it daily. I find great joy sitting on the deck with my morning coffee watching the birds splashing about in the fresh water.

But unfortunately, the bird statue that sat atop our concrete bird bath for twenty years cracked and looked worse for wear.

I promise this isn't the normal state of the water in our bird bath. Daily or every other day I hose any debris off with the jet setting on my garden hose and then fill it with fresh water.

This resin finial that has been on a shelf in the workshop for several years came to the rescue. Why spend big bucks replacing garden statuary when a budget-friendly option is sitting right under our noses.

I figured if I could replicate the colors of our concrete bird bath by painting layers of paint, it was worth a try using our resin finial as a replacement.

This is what our bird bath looked like before...

...and here it is now with the fake concrete finial bird bath topper. We've had so much rain my poor delphiniums are so late to bloom. Once they do, the bird bath will be surrounded by pretty purple blooms.

Don't worry, I didn't get rid of the damaged birdie with all its vintage charm. He now sits in my rose garden among the fragrant blooms and looks perfect in his new spot.

Here's how I made the resin finial look like real concrete...

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Remove the feet from the resin finial

In order for the finial to sit flat on the birdbath raised platform, I needed to remove the feet on the resin finial. To do that I walloped them off with a hack saw. I quickly learned the fine dust is stinky and so it was imperative that I wore a mask and protective glasses and took it outdoors to finish cutting.

Painting layers of chalk paint to make resin look like concrete

I used chalk paint to turn the resin finial into faux concrete but any paint that adheres to plastic, like multi-surface craft paint, will work.

I brought the basin of our concrete bird bath indoors to use as a guide when replicating and layering the colors.

The first layer of paint is two coats of a warm gray Annie Sloan French Linen chalk paint. I applied two coats to completely cover the original green finish.

To add depth to the recessed areas of the finial, I painted them a dark Hurricane Gray color using an art brush.

Next, I added a lighter Pewter gray chalk paint color that echoed the lighter grey in our concrete bird bath. I used a large round tip stencil brush and much like you do when stenciling, offloaded most of the paint onto a paper towel first before pouncing around the details and outer edges of the finial.

With warm Annie Sloan Old White chalk paint, I pounced the paint where it would naturally weather outdoors from the elements. I used our concrete bird bath basin as a guide to gauge where to apply the lighter color.

Last but not least, I went back in with the French Linen color to blend the colors. This warm grey is the most predominant color on our concrete bird bath. To blend the colors I lightly dampened my brush with my handy mist bottle and lightly pounced the brush.

There are no rules when painting layers of color. Let your intuition be your guide and if you added too much color in one area, go over it with another until you achieve the look you want.

How to protect the paint from the outdoor elements

I let the paint dry overnight before spraying four light coats of exterior-rated matte clear coat, waiting at least an hour between coats.

How to attach the faux concrete finial to the concrete bird bath

While the bird bath basin was indoors, I attached the finial with clear waterproof silicone caulking and let it cure 48 hours before taking it outdoors to set on the birdbath base.

It's been raining cats and dogs for weeks and so far the paint finish is holding up beautifully. I love how the finial adds a lot more height to the bird bath. Do you see my Barrel Stave Flower Pot Holder hanging on the gate?

I hope by painting my resin bird bath finial to look like concrete it has inspired you to think outside the box for creating faux concrete garden statuary for your outdoor living space. Thrift store shelves are filled with budget-friendly resin garden statuary potential.

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If you have any questions about my faux concrete garden statue bird bath finial, please leave them in the comment section below or press the Contact Me button at the top of the blog to drop me an email. I love hearing from you!

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