If One Door Closes Another One Magically Appears

Or, How To Make A Simple Fairy Door

It's a well known fact, at least among those of us who follow fairy stories, that if one prepares a comfortable home for fairies in one's garden, fairies will come to live in the garden.

Sometimes, however, there is a ready made home in the base of a big tree and all that is needed is an inviting fairy door. Follow along for our surprisingly easy yet rewarding DIY!

Laura Klaus / CC BY-SA

I made my first Fairy Door following the tutorial below from the PennyWise Blog. The illustration is pretty self-explanatory, but here's a link to the blog if you want to see more. What's so great about this door is that it's very easy and inexpensive, but doesn't look it!

What's not explained in the graphic or on the PennyWise Blog is how to make the antique-y looking crackle finish for the doors shown. It is amazingly easy and inexpensive too! Read on!

Paint your door with a base coat in the desired color, generally a darker color, and let it dry completely. Next paint on a coat of Elmer's Glue-All. Yup, you heard me! Plain old white glue. Let the glue dry only partially. Now, this is important... work quickly, before the glue dries all the way, and paint on your top coat. White or cream looks good for this. Paint with single strokes and don't go over it twice to try and fix anything... that messes it up. The paint will crackle as the glue dries. It's kind of amazing!

This is how my first door turned out.

And I repurposed it here! So even after it had gotten wet from watering, it was still useable!

I'm just going to go ahead and show you the rest of this Fairy Garden. It's probably my favorite I've ever made. Because bunnies. And that fairy...

There are tons of doors like these to be found for inspiration on Pinterest or if you Google them. BTW... Just Mini Gardens is on Pinterest!

I love the door below that comes from RootsNursery.com. Their Blog Post has several really unique doors on it with instructions.

We hope this inspires you to try crafting your own Fairy Doors. In fact, making your own Fairy Garden accessories, like my ladder, above, is so much fun! Also, you make them out of sticks and stones from your back yard and odds and ends from your kitchen drawer. Soo much cheaper than buying them!