Take your garden from green to enchanted by inviting in members of the fairy world with a handmade fairy door. These small doors serve as portals to the magical realm by presenting a fairy-sized invitation into your garden or home. Fairy doors make whimsical garden decorations or additions to baseboards and cabinets. Make them as gifts for housewarmings or fill your garden with a variety of doors for fairies, gnomes, elves and hobbits.
Instructions
1. Lay the plywood on a work surface. Measure and mark a rectangle 2 feet high and 1 foot wide. Saw the rectangle free from the plywood and lay the door flat. Starting halfway up the side of the fairy door, use the pencil to draw a curved top to the door by drawing half circles just under each corner. Saw the corners off following the curved lines. This makes a fairy door with a squared based and arched top.
2. Use sandpaper to smooth the edges all around the fairy door. Pay special attention to rough areas left by the saw. Rub the sandpaper over the flat front and back side of the door as well. Slowly run your bare hands lightly over the door to feel for rough areas or splinters and sand them away.
3. Choose either a solid exterior paint or wood stain color. Lay the door flat. Paint the top side and edges with the first coat. Allow it to dry. Flip the door over and paint a coat on the back side. After drying, repeat by painting a second coat on both sides and all the edges.
4. Locate the bottom right corner of the door. Measure and mark 3 inches in from the edge. Locate the bottom left corner and measure 3 inches in from the edge. Continue marking 3 inches in from the perimeter up each side of the door and around the arched top. Lightly trace this new perimeter with a pencil. This is a 3-inch border around the door you may decorate as a fairy door jamb.
5. You may paint the 3-inch door jamb a darker or lighter color than the main door. Arrange decorative stones, pebbles, plastic gemstones, shells, dried flowers and moss, or other items in the 3-inch jamb. Glue all the decorations in place.
6. Add a doorknob to the fairy door. Choose a decorative cabinet knob--they are available in a wide variety of colors, materials and designs in hardware or home-improvement stores. Mark the location of the knob halfway up the door and 1 inch in from the door jamb on either side. Predrill a hole to match the screw included in the cabinet knob. Screw the knob into the hole until it is tight.
7. Use acrylic paint to add details to the door like faux wood grain, address numbers, the names of your imaginary fairy family or other fun details. Decide on a location for the fairy door in your home or garden. Most fairy doors are placed at the base of large trees or stumps, floor level even with baseboards, or cabinet level on top of kitchen or bathroom cabinets. Place the door against the tree or wall, drill two holes through the door jamb into the wall and screw a 4-inch wood screw through each hole to secure the door to the wall. Cover each screw head with wood putty and paint to disguise them.
