Goodbye Traditional Bird Baths — There's An Antique-Style Find From Home Depot

If you're a lover of wildlife and always strive to attract a more diverse variety of birds to your yard, you already know all about bird baths. They can be a wonderful oasis for local birds who need to drink, cool off, and clean their feathers. But while you can totally make a charming DIY bird bath yourself, there's something to be said about how classy and elegant some store-bought models can be.

For example, Home Depot sells an antique-style birdbath with bird figurines for $22.44. It features a faux-bronze finish with a shallow bowl and a thin pedestal. It measures 33 inches tall, which fairly standard for a bird bath's height. What makes it unique is in the details: There are two small bronze birds perched on top of the bowl, as if they were drinking from the water. The bowl itself is has ridged edges reminiscent of a leaf, seashell, or small natural pond, and the base of the pedestal features intricate cutout designs reminiscent of antique bronze work.

While this bird bath looks like bronze, it's actually made of a type of plastic called polypropylene. Although it won't get as hot as metal when left out in the sun, placing it in the shade is best to prevent the material from deteriorating and leaching microplastics into the water. Also, polypropylene is typically more lightweight and less durable than metal, which might cause pieces to break, or cause the whole thing to topple more easily. 

This type of bird bath is particularly popular at the moment because it fits into the old world European garden trend. This is a centuries-old garden trend that's making a comeback, where old-school French and English garden elements are used. This can be achieved through specific plants like lavender and climbing roses, but it really comes alive when paired with antique-inspired yard decor pieces like this bird bath.

In order to recreate this aesthetic, place the faux-bronze bird bath in a spot in your garden away from direct sunlight. Then, grow your choice of charming plants nearby that can tolerate some shade like hydrangeas or wild bergamot; you'll be able to attract even more birds if you choose native plants. Add some ornamental grasses around to help blend the bird bath into the lawn, as if nature had grown around it over decades. But be careful not to completely surround the bird bath, since you'll need to access it every two to three days to clean and refill it, ideally without stomping on your plants. 

Another option is to style this bird bath on a patio. This works especially well if you have a brick or natural stone patio that has that old-world aesthetic. Here, you can use mismatched terracotta pots to grow some of those earlier-mentioned plants. Place some iron furniture nearby, like a table and some chairs, but keep in mind that birds like to feel safe when they use a bird bath, so they won't use it as much if you're always out on the patio. In that case, keep some distance between the human furniture and the bird bath, placing them on opposite sides of the patio if possible.