Outlet Cover With Fairy Garden Theme

I trimmed the roof pieces; I cut one about ¾” longer (the thickness of the wood) as it would overlap the second roof piece.

I had one larger piece of scrap wood that I cut into a triangle, using a miter saw, to use as the gable of the structure. I didn’t actually know when I did it that it was called a gable – google informed me. LOL

I gave all my pieces a light sanding and then screwed the sides to the bottom base and the gable, using 3” L brackets. I left a little space on the outside edges of the gable because with the roof attached it might prevent my door from opening and closing.

I also screwed up through the bottom board, into the bottom of the side pieces, for extra support.

Next was to build the door. I didn’t have any more wide pieces of scrap wood, so I used three boards and joined them together using pocket screws. I also applied wood glue between each board.

Next was door hinges. This was actually the only thing I bought to construct the cover. They were $4.89. After some research (as I’m not familiar with hinges) I determined the type I needed are called semi-concealed. I screwed the hinges to the back of the door. Then I screwed them into the front face of the cover.

I placed what I had constructed on the ledge to finish it off. I added a door knob and a medallion, that I spray painted black to match the hinges.

Then I attached my roof using a brad nailer. I nailed into the gable and then into each other along the top.

At this stage I stopped and was planning to decorate the following day.

To following day, to my surprise, the door had warped and bowed outwards! I had assumed scrap wood under my deck for a minimum of eight years would have done whatever warping it would do by then. But I guess under the deck it was not exposed to sunlight. Either way, it did not look good!

To solve this I cut two more boards, the width of the door, to strap it back into place. I considered using wood screws from the back so you wouldn’t see them, but it was really bowed out and I was worried the screws would pull away over time. Instead I used large bolts and added nuts inside the door. Once I had my holes drilled and everything all lined up, I removed the bolts and spray painted the heads black to match the other hardware. And the door is straight again! The nuts and bolts gave it a nice strong hold.

I was trying to think of something I could use on the roof to make it stand out from the rest. But couldn’t think of anything that I had on hand so I dry brushed it with dark walnut stain.

After it was done I removed the weeds and other stuff that was in front of it and added a layer of cardboard.

Then I filled it with black mulch.

Then the fun step began, my daughter and I decorated around it in a fairy garden theme. We mostly used stuff we found around the house and garden. But we did run to the dollar store and spent about $12 on random things my daughter picked out.

And done!

I think this project turned out pretty cute and really accents the new flower beds. I have a feeling we’ll build on the fairy garden theme as time goes on. If you have any ideas I’d love to hear them. 🙂