Denton County Magazine • July August 23 • BIRD YOUR HOUSE

Matt and Hannah Sams have made a lifestyle out of building custom homes for tenants who can be a bit flighty. If you think that sounds like their business is for the birds – well, it is.

The Lake Dallas couple design, build and decorate elaborate birdhouses that are miniature replicas of special homes or places in their clients’ hearts. Their business is called Bird Your House. On Facebook and Instagram, followers can see Matt giving tours of these birdhouses as a “bird realtor” or showing off a bird’s favorite fast-food location -- “Whatabird,” complete with the orange stripes. Hannah shows her work transforming a build into a replica of the inspiration structure with paint and skill.

“I love the fact that we get to work together; making each house is truly a unique experience,” Hannah said. “Matt and I usually bounce questions off of each other like, ‘Hey, what do you think of this color match?’ or, “Is this window too big?’ and at the end of the day, we both feel confident about the house we made.”

It all started in 2022 with a custom house for Hannah’s grandmother. To give her something unique and special, Hannah hatched an idea to create a custom birdhouse in the style of her grandmother’s long-time home. She enlisted then-boyfriend Matt to help.

“Hannah’s the genius; she thought of me building that house,” Matt said. The couple drew sketches, then built, painted and assembled the house. After they received positive feedback, Hannah encouraged Matt to start a business on Etsy, and Bird Your House took flight.

Matt’s degree in mechanical engineering helped him become proficient in computer-aided design software, which he uses to create the custom houses. A 3D printer allows Matt to cut and create certain parts of the home like roofs and railings, with the goal of getting as close as possible to the inspirational building’s design. Hannah uses her artistic talent to paint the homes, mimicking the look of brick and other accents.

The birdhouses are made from cedar wood, which is “by nature, one of the most naturally weather-resistant woods you can use,” Matt said. Then they are painted with exterior paint and sealed in polyurethane. The houses can be made with smaller holes for small birds like birds or sparrows, or larger holes for birds like purple martins.

The couple has built more than 100 custom birdhouses, including replicas of special family homes, a theater and even a hotel. They sell their birdhouses nationwide.

“My favorite project so far is probably our wedding venue,” Matt said of the custom birdhouse of the Black Diamond Lodge in Durango, Colorado, where lovebirds Matt and Hannah were married in March. “We built one of the most beautiful, complex and meaningful birdhouses we could have imagined. Hannah wants us to build another so we can have it in our own backyard one day.”

Customers flock to Bird Your House through referrals from other happy clients, through @BirdYourHouse on social media and Etsy, and by meeting the couple at the Denton Community Market, where they can be found most Saturdays. Custom birdhouses start at $299 with prices varying according to size and complexity. Most custom birdhouses require a day to produce, sometimes longer, Matt said. Also popular is the couple’s ready-made “Whatabird” house that sells for $50.

Matt and Hannah have adopted their own finely feathered friend, a cockatiel named Ptera (short for Pteradactyl), who spends her day overseeing much of the work being done for other birds as the brand’s ultimate wing woman.

Nesting in Denton County has many benefits to the couple, including inspiration, Matt pointed out.

“Hannah and I notice remarkable houses when we’re just driving around,” Matt said. “Denton has a great selection of beautiful houses and building -- and great people, too.”

Matt and Hannah Sams married at the Black Diamond Lodge in Durango, Colorado. They acknowledged this milestone with a custom birdhouse of the venue that they gifted to the lodge.

Soon after launching Bird Your House on Etsy, Hannah and Matt received a request to build a replica of the Arlington Theater in Palm Springs, California, to be used on a miniature railroad display at the living desert zoo in Palm Springs.

Hannah Sams previously served as a lifestyle manager for the Argyle neighborhood called Harvest. Matt and Hannah decided that as a gift, Bird Your House would make Harvest a replica of the historical house in the middle of the neighborhood. That home is now Harvest House coffee shop.

This beautiful replica of the Denton County Courthouse in Denton is a showstopper shoppers can find in the Bird Your House booth at the Denton Community Market on Saturdays.

This is the Whatabird, modeled after the well-known Whataburger. Bird Your House sells these ready-made for $50.