Building faerie houses outside with materials found solidly in the quick region brings about figures that are unconstrained and fun however not entirely sturdy. “Privately obtained” takes on an entirely different importance when you are seeing stumps, woodland floors, or other normal areas for building materials. An overall guideline of thumb is to gather consciously and leave residing materials set up immaculate.
Outdoor faerie houses
While the facts really confirm that a portion of my pictures contain new gathered leaves and blossoms, I generally did so following reasonable practices and asked consent first … even from the actual plants. In some cases, regardless of whether they are copious, a tree may not wish to share its leaves. Counsel your instinct and regard the response that comes.
These little creations are naturally ephemeral as they come from the earth and return to it. It’s likely you’ll make your little house and enjoy it for a bit, only to leave it for others to discover while it still stands. Oftentimes the site itself will help guide that process.
When building outdoors, you can bring premade elements, such as doors or windows, with you. I like doing this because it adds creativity and sophistication to the design. Some things are difficult to make out in the field but can be made in the studio ahead of time. I keep a stash of premade items in a basket to take into the woods with me. It is great fun to work this way!
Making houses for different seasons gives us fabulous opportunities to expand our creative expression. After choosing a location (indoors or outdoors), decide whether the house will have round/curved walls or flat ones. There are construction challenges to each design style. For example, doors and windows are a bit more difficult to install on curved walls.
Flat-walled houses require more creativity on your part to ensure that they don’t look like miniature human houses. Once you’ve had a little experience with each, you will feel comfortable using either design format.
Once you have decided whether to use curved or flat wall construction, it’s helpful to make a quick sketch of the house so you know where you plan to put doors, windows, and towers on your house. You should also think about the type of roof you’d like to build.
Once the sketch is done, you can gather your materials. Select interesting materials to inspire construction—perhaps a particular twisted branch, a lovely jewelry finding, or a special shell or stone that you’ve found. Don’t worry about having absolutely everything on hand before you begin, as part of the process—the adventure of creating—is going out to find additional bits for your project to enhance its design.
When you have a basic plan for your faerie house, you’ll follow these general steps to build it.
1. Select and prepare the wall materials, as well as the base—if the house will have one.
2. Create the individual elements for the house such as doors, windows, vestibules, towers, porches, and so forth. It is much easier to create these elements separately ahead of time and add them to the body of the house.
3. Install the doors and windows while keeping in mind whether the house is to be finished on the inside or not, if lighting will be added or not, and if the roof will be removable or not.
4. Attach towers, bay or bump-out windows, decorative outside features (such as vines and twig trim), and prepare for the roof attachment.
5. Install lighting, keeping the battery pack handy (but as hidden as possible) so it’s easy to operate the switch and change the batteries, when needed.
6. Finish the interior walls, including decorative elements and trims, lighting sconces, window seat upholstery, and so forth. Final finishing is done at this step if the house will have a fixed roof. If the roof will be removable, finishing can be done later.
7. Build the roof(s). Build attached roofs directly onto the house. Build removable roofs separately. Add dormers, towers, chimneys, and finials that are part of the roof. Finish the inside of the roof if it will be removable.
8. Create and install the floor for the house. If a fixed roof has been installed, this will be your final chance to make any adjustments to the interior of the house before it is sealed up. For removable-roof houses, adding the floor is usually completed before the final interior finishes are done.
9. Add final landscaping details to the house. If you desire to attach the house to a base, do that now as well, and landscape around the base.