The Faerie Door By Fiona Broom

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The Faerie Door By Fiona BroomThis faerie door is the second one I made. The first one was simpler in terms of buying parts, painting them, and assembling them. It was too formal for my home, so I replaced it. The first one is in a Florida apartment right now, where the faeries visit my daughter and her DisneyWorld roommates. This second one is made with basic dollhouse parts: a hinged door and frame, a sparkly doorknob set, and the sides of stairs. To the door, frame, and stair framework, I added twigs, acorns, and dried flowers. The twigs were collected outside my front door. Most of the acorns came from Salem, Massachusetts, where they seemed to be all over the ground, everywhere I walked. The dried flowers came from a local crafts shop, and from the crafts section of a fabric store. It's a matter of personal taste, but I use natural flowers, not the dyed ones. The Door Faerie Door, up close - with napping ceramic mouse in front of it The door and stairway sides were painted green before I started hot-gluing twigs and flowers to them. Some of the green shows through, and it looks entirely natural. I recommend a green that is slightly bluer than the color of your moss, if you use moss. As I worked, I kept opening the door, to make certain that no twigs or flowers blocked the easy movement of the door. After all, we want the faeries to be able to use it! *grin* To attach the landing and stairs, I followed the same process I used for my first "gnome door," described below. The doorknob hardware is golden, with a sparkly crystal for the knob itself. The contrast with the natural materials is fabulous. After I made the door, I added a little table and chair to the setting. faerie table and chair, set with acorn "dishes" The table and chair are constructed with twigs, to dollhouse scale. I hot-glued them together, added dried flowers and moss, and then set acorn caps as dishes. Here are my notes from my first "gnome door," years ago. It was a far more formal design than the current one. The "door" that I made is actually a door and staircase. I went to a dollhouse store and bought the parts: A nice little door that swings in its frame, and it has an brass doorknob with key, that I purchased separately. I also bought a staircase (with banister), and a piece of wood to use as a landing, so the stairs don't butt right up against the door. I painted the door a nice cobalt blue (used Windsor & Newton "Finity" Acrylic artists' paint), and the fronts of the stairs (and the spindles that support the bannister) are white, as is the door frame. The tops of the stairs and the handrail itself are all Hookers Green (a nice forest green). The hardest part was putting it all together. Nails don't work well on these little parts, and the wood they use is reallllly hard. So I ended up using wood glue (white glue doesn't do it, even "tacky" glue), and holding the pieces where I wanted them, until the glue set. (This involved sitting in front of the television set, holding pieces together, for nearly an hour! *grin*) And then I reinforced the glued-together areas with hot glue, in places where it won't show. Then I used a carpenter's level (a little plastic one I bought for about a dollar at a Home Depot or something) to get it straight, and propped the whole thing against an outside wall, inside my living room, right where I wanted it. I marked beneath it with pencil, where it touched the wall, and put two finish nails there, for the landing (and door) part to rest on. (We're in an apartment, so this is a temporary arrangement. When I have a house, I'll probably do something more permanent.) I also bought a cute little mailbox at the dollhouse store, and that's resting on one of the stairs right now. And I got some teensy little nails (had to use my smallest jeweler's pliers to hold it while I nailed it into the door), that will hold the little Christmas/Yule wreath I bought for the door, too. Next to this whole display, I have a nice big grey rock that I picked up when I was last at my favorite beach in Maine. At the back of it, I hot glued a few twigs that are the right size to look like trees. And I have some teensy little gold & silver stars that I bought at the fabric shop, to hang on the "tree" branches at Yule. Finally, I picked up a miniature rose bush (in bloom!) at the grocery store for about $4, and I'm going to re-pot it in something more proportionately correct. But, for now, it's next to the staircase and it's pretty. And I rested the two keys to the door on the top step (the doorknob & lock are just "pretend," but the keys came with it anyway), in case my little visitors decide they'd like to have the keys available. The whole project took about three days of my spare time, far more than I expected. But I just love the effect! And the results were immediate. We have seen and heard fae folk in the apartment, from the first time the door was rested against the wall.

thanks, kim!