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School holiday fun: Make your own bird themed croquet set

25 Sep 2025

Keep the kids busy these holidays and enjoying the spring weather with this DIY croquet game. It’s also the perfect theme to celebrate the Bird of the Year competition which is currently on until 28 September. Get the kids involved in this fun project and make it a moment for them to learn all about our native birds and wildlife in New Zealand.

You will need:

Step 1: Start by using a jig saw or band saw to cut out arches with native bird shapes on top. Find some bird images online to copy if needed. Make the height of the birds to be 25cm tall and 13cm wide. Make the arch on the inside 13cm tall by 10cm wide. 

Step 2:Use some more plywood to make some small feet to go on either side and front and back of the arch legs. Glue these on with wood glue, and once dry, sand rough edges smooth and wipe away any dust.

Step 3:Prime the birds with a coat of Resene Quick Dry, followed by two coats of your chosen base colour. Fleur used Resene Bluff for the Kokako, Resene Rice Cake for the Kereru, Resene Teal Blue for the Tui, Resene Rusty Nail for the Fantail, Resene Tussock for the Kingfisher and Resene Black for the Saddle Back.

Step 4: Paint on the rest of the details in more of your chosen colours. Here’s what Fleur used for each of her birds:

Kokako: Resene Optimist.

Kereru: Resene Clover, Resene Bluff, Resene Kingfisher Daisy and Resene Raging Bull.

Tui: Resene Rebel and Resene Rice Cake.

Fantail: Resene Rebel and Resene Rice Cake.

Kingfisher: Resene Rice Cake and Resene Dauntless.

Saddleback: Resene Fire.

Finish with all other details (eyes and beaks) with Resene Black.

Step 5: Drill a 3mm diameter hole in the bottom of each of the bird hoop legs. Cut a length of Number 8 wire to be 120mm long and push the wire into the hole. These can be pushed into the ground and will help prevent the hoop from falling over.

Step 6:To make the croquet mallets, cut a 40mm diameter dowel into two 160mm lengths. Use an 18mm drill bit to drill a hole into the middle of the dowel. Squirt some wood glue into the hole and insert a 900mm long, 18mm diameter dowel into the drilled hole.

Step 7:Stain the mallets with a coat of Resene Waterborne Woodsman in a colour of your choice. Fleur used Resene Dark Oak. Use some painters tape to tape off 250mm of the end of the handles and 35mm on each end of the mallet head. Paint the taped-off areas with your chosen colours. Fleur used Resene Bullseye for the red mallet and Resene Madison for the blue mallet. Paint two wooden balls in matching shades to your mallets.

Happy croqueting!

project and images Fleur Thorpe

 

Published: 25 Sep 2025