How to Make a Fairy House: A Fun, Free Outdoor Family Activity

Winter is fading fast, and the new spring promises fresh bursts of green, with blooming flowers and chattering birds. One way to welcome spring and all of its outdoor blessings is to build a fairy house. Fairy houses are little constructs resembling enchanted cottages, built from nature’s offerings and perhaps a found object or two. They are designed to be small and cozy for the fae folk to shelter within from the rain and cold. Making fairy houses is a fun, whimsical and creative outside activity for children, families, and the young at heart.

Location

Any place is suitable for a fairy house! They look sweet nestled at the base of a tree trunk, or hidden within the brambles of a hedge. You may also build them in the middle of your garden, in a flowerpot, or even up high in the crook of a branch. Simply decide which spot in your backyard (or front yard) would attract fairies the most!

Materials

The best part about making fairy houses is that there is no expense involved. All of your materials come from nature! If you have a wooded backyard, or access to a forested area, take a long trek through it, gathering all of the interesting bits you see lying on the ground. These may include pinecones, acorns, curly twigs, pieces of bark, flower petals, leaves, interesting rocks, pine needles — the possibilities are endless! If you search near a lake or ocean, you can also collect shells, sea glass and other treasures from the waters. Take every effort to avoid disturbing nature in your hunt for items, as no fairy would like to inhabit a home made of stolen goods!

Though fairy houses are made primarily of natural materials, you may also choose to incorporate those small objects often found lying about, just waiting to be put to a creative use, such as old keys, bottle caps, jars and cans, lids, buttons, matchboxes and so on.

Construction

Now for the fun part! When it comes to the design of your fairy house, the only requirements are walls and a roof. If you build your abode against a tree trunk, the trunk itself can serve as the back wall, and then you may lean side walls made of sticks or bark against it. You can create a roof with sticks, bark, leaves, or moss, and even add a chimney made of stalks or stones. Alternatively, you could make a teepee formation with a bundle of twigs. Twine is useful for binding sticks and other objects together. Remember that your fairy house is an ephemeral building not meant to last forever, so don’t worry about imperfections or sturdiness. If your house falls apart, you can always build another, and make the next one even better!

Once you’ve finished constructing your house, you may decide that it requires some decoration — namely, furniture. It helps to think of furniture in its simplest terms: a table is nothing more than a base on four legs. You could use a piece of bark for the surface, and four small sticks broken to matching lengths for the legs. Similarly, use bark for a chair’s seat and back, with four tiny twig feet. You may need a bit of glue to keep the furniture together, or some sticky honey might do the trick.

Fairy houses are tributes to both the fleeting beauty of nature and human creativity. It is up to you to decide how simple and natural or fancy and elaborate your fairy house should be. Make sure to take a photograph once your tiny fae home is complete, as it will prove an enchanted memory to cherish for many springtimes to come.