After I'd made my first two book nooks, my daughters wanted one of their own.
Have you ever seen those fairy doors/windows you can put outside at the base of a tree? And it can glow in the dark to make it seem like there is fairy house in your tree? I've wanted to get one of those for ages. I thought they would be so cute in our yard, and so magical for my two daughters to see. I have a big imagination, and I remember as a kid thinking fairies could totally be real. Like, really real. Tinker Bell did exist to me. Nothing was out of the realm of possibility.
Anywho, I had even saved a few fairy doors to my List on Amazon, waiting for the right time to buy. Turns out I'd buy them, but they'd never see the base of an actual tree.
Twice the Fun
For this project I was making two book nooks, one for each of my girls. So I needed twice the materials. I didn't want to make them identical, so I had to choose two different fairy doors, two different sets of "extra" decorating items, and two lanterns. But I could also make a lot of it the same. Same pine bark, same foliage, same stepping stones. Double the trouble, as it were.
I was actually feeling really good about these. They were very similar to my first book nook, and I knew it was pretty easy to work with moss and more natural elements. I knew I definitely wanted to use actual tree bark along the rear wall to make the door and windows look like they were on an actual tree. So I tromped out into my yard and collected pine pieces that had fallen from the trees around our property.
Bark from the trees in our backyard
My book nooks were two different sizes to accommodate the different doors I bought. Once I started adding piece of bark to the rear wall, I realized how heavy it would make it. And I don't know if you knew this or not, but bark is not flat on the underside. That glue was never going to hold. But, my friends, thank goodness for Mod Podge. I glooped it on there until I had am impenetrable fortress of foamboard, bark, and Mod Podge. Truly a work of art *chef's kiss*
If you are wondering what the green stuff is, that's the base/floor. I had in my mind a sort of "entrance" walkway leading up to each fairy house. It was a good start, but there was one problem. Since I can never cut hardboard square, I tried using foamboard for the outside of this book nook. It cut beautifully and I was able to get it pretty square. The only problem was when I painted it the foamboard ended up bowing horribly. You'll see in the picture below how the bottom curls up from where it was painted. So while it was easy to work with, if I had the choices and knew I'd need to paint or glue on it, I would not choose foamboard again for the exterior of a book nook.
You can see here where the bottom is starting to bow from the paint
Making vs. Buying
These nooks were also exciting because I could make some of what I needed. I couldn't find stones I liked for these nooks. I had some modeling clay so I created the stepping stones the way I wanted them to look, and then painted them with acrylic paint and Mod Podge to get the look I wanted. I feel like my catch phrase for these should be, "When in doubt, Mod Podge it."
I decided to buy the foliage to line the path instead of making it. I considered using a leafy plant that wouldn't lose its shape or color, like an azalea, but decided against it. I wanted to use glow-in-the-dark paint to create a firefly effect, and I didn't know how that would affect live foliage.
The glow in the dark paint was exciting because I had never used glow-in-the-dark paint before. Since the windows and the lantern of the fairy house were suppose to glow in the dark, I decided to make it a little more interesting by adding more glowing touches. I ended up adding footprints and "fireflies" to the nooks. They came out pretty neat:
Completely dark book nook with glowing elements
Book nook with minimal lighting and glowing elements
I thought it turned out cute, and my girls were excited that it glowed in the dark.F or the sides I printed out a "forest floor" scene to make it look like it was scaled correctly, and added moss to the ceiling and walls. Moss can hide a lot of things, like paper seams and lighting.
Speaking of lighting, I didn't love my lighting choices. I used fairy lights twined through the bushes, which was a good choice, but I also put a button light on the ceiling. This didn't really work because the button light was a cool white, while the fairy lights were a warm white. So only one of the lights go on at once. The button light did end up being useful in a way, because if I turned it on for a while before dark I could get the glow-in-the-dark parts to shine better. Otherwise the book nook didn't get enough light inside to make the glow-in-the-dark paint show up well.
Book nook partially done
Finishing Touches
Once the book nooks were glued together, I had my age old problem of cracks showing light through the seams. While my cuts were more square than usual, the bark I used was not. Even though I trimmed it down, it still make lining up the piece wonky. And I couldn't paint the outside, because of the bowing situation. I ended up using some duct tape on the edges to block out the holes:
Book nook with duct taped edges
Ya'll, let's be honest. That looks janky. And because these were for my daughters, and not going on a traditional bookshelf, you'd be able to see the outside all the time. And I couldn't paint it, either. What could I do?! (Or rather, what would Tinker Bell do?!)
I went in my -growing- pile of book nook supplies and found some wallpaper leftover from the bakery book nook. I decided that could work, since I didn't think the Grandma Stover's glue would warp the foamboard. I also thought it was a little ironic that the inside would be a forest scene and the outside would be wallpapered. A little switch-a-roo.
Applying wallpaper to the outside of the book nooks
It wasn't applied perfectly, but it would do. It definitely looked better than the duct tape. I made a mental note to research better ways to finish the outside of the book nooks, particularly if they weren't actually going to be mostly hidden on a bookshelf.
Finished wallpaper exterior
Move In Day
In the end, my girls loved their book nooks, which was really my main concern. I asked them if their fairies had moved in yet, and my oldest gave me a curious look that seemed to say, "You mean there might really be a fairy living in there?!"
I did learn some important things with these nooks. I'm not super happy with the lighting options I've found so far, so I want to look into wiring my own lighting and using LEDs. I want to research how to better decorate/finish the outside of the nooks. I'm still working on scaling and dimensions. All these things I will learn in time! For now, I've got another two book nooks under my belt. On to the next!
My older daughter's book nook
My younger daughter's book nook
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