Fairy nook for backyard garden: part 2: painting

As I wrote in my previous post, when we made a fairy nook (garden) out of an old toy oven, I painted it with vines in line with our plans for a rustic woodland theme.  At the start I wasn't quite sure how it would look but it evolved as I painted.  Here are step by step photos of how I did it.

This is the toy oven when it was brand new in Christmas 2011.

This is the oven after I sandpapered it to make it easier to paint it.  It produced so much paint dust that I put on a mask to stop myself inhaling it.

I bought some small tins of paint that are suitable for exteriors.  I had hoped to get some sample pots made up but the exterior paints had to be mixed in larger amounts than I wanted.  The only suitable colours I could find were Mission Brown, Brunswick Green and Cream in the White Knight Splash range.  These are the classic heritage colours, and it seems they are also great fairy garden colours.

I used the cream to mix some lighter green colours for the interior where we wanted to create a cafe.  This is the area that wont get much light so I wanted to make sure the paint is as bright as possible.  I was happy with the vines of flowers on the walls but not quite sure what to paint on the floor.  Eventually I drew a fairly simple rug.  It was much easier than using the sample flooring that tempted me at the hardware store.

I painted the back although I knew that it was unlikely to be seen.  It was an opportunity to try some different vines than inside the cafe.  It didn't look quite as I hoped.

So then I worked on these vines and still wasn't so happy with the result.  It didn't matter because it will not be seen.  I was just glad that the back was painted so it was sealed against the weather.  Also it was not just boring!

I like patterns.  The sides were painted brown but I was happy with them once I painted some green vines to cover one side.

On the other side I painted some vines to frame the rail which on the oven was intended as a place to hang tea towels.  I thought about a swing to hang from the rail. Then I found some old plastic flowers in the back yard that could sit there.

After all those vines I had worked out a way to style them on the top of the nook where the garden would be.  I took step by step photos in the collage above.  First I painted the lines.  Then some leaves and dots.  The dots were topped with a fuzzy top in an alternative colour to make them look like gum nuts.  Then I did more dots and fuzz in different colours, and a few more dots with not fuzz.  I also painted some texture on the leaves and lines.

This was the fairy nook once it was painted.  It was now ready to make it homely with furniture and plants.

The painting provided a good background to the nook and helped it blend into the backyard with our pot plants.  I ended up covering up quite a bit of the painting.  For example we carpeted the rug on the floor of the cafe with fake grass.  At times I considered covering a lot more of it up.  But the nook needed some space.  The painting certainly added the right vibe to the fairy nook.

My series of fairy nook posts:

• Part 1: upcycling a toy oven - a fairy nook overview
  
• Part 2: painting (this post)
• Part 3: creating the cafe
  
• Part 4: creating the garden