Fairy garden houses and supplies

How to choose fairy garden pieces

Start with the scale you want. Fairy garden pieces look best when they share a rough size range. A mushroom at about 1.6 x 1.6 x 1.6 in (4 x 4 x 4 cm) reads as a focal point. A mushroom at about 0.47 to 0.78 in (1.2 to 2 cm) tall reads as ground cover. Mixing both is fine if you place the small ones in clusters near the base of the larger ones.

Think about where the garden will live. A tabletop bowl or tray suits a house, an angel and a few mushrooms. A planter outdoors suits resin pieces that can sit in soil and be wiped clean. A hanging spot suits the bronze fairy, which measures about 4.7 x 3.1 x 2.4 in (12 x 8 x 6 cm) and can hang from a branch, a hook or a shelf edge.

Color sets the mood. Red, purple, yellow and pink mushrooms give a bright storybook look. Glow in the dark mushrooms in red, pink, purple, yellow, orange and green add a second layer of interest after dark. Bronze and multi-colored figures stay quieter, so they work well as background pieces.

Sizes and measuring

Measure your space before you buy. A fairy garden in a shallow bowl may only have 2 to 3 in (5 to 8 cm) of usable height, so a tall figure will crowd it. A deep planter or a windowsill box gives you more room.

Here are the sizes in this category:

• The Mushroom Garden Miniature: about 1.6 x 1.6 x 1.6 in (4 x 4 x 4 cm)
• Tiny Resin Duck Figures: about 0.67 x 0.6 in (1.8 x 1.6 cm)
• Glow in the Dark Mushroom Figurines: about 0.47 to 0.78 in (1.2 to 2 cm) tall
• The Vintage Angel Garden Figurine: 8.3 in (21.1 cm)
• The Hanging Fairy Figurine: about 4.7 x 3.1 x 2.4 in (12 x 8 x 6 cm)

Use a ruler on your planter before you place an order. Leave some open soil or moss between pieces so the scene does not look packed. If you plan to group ducks, note that they come in packs of 50, 100 or 200 pieces, so a single pack can fill a wide area or be split across several small scenes.

Materials and finishes

Every piece in this category is made of resin. Resin holds fine detail, which is why tiny mushroom caps, duck bills and angel folds stay crisp at small sizes. Most pieces have a painted finish, so color sits on the surface rather than running through the material.

The Mushroom Garden Miniature has a painted finish in red, purple, yellow or pink. The glow in the dark mushrooms are also resin with a painted finish, and they come as a set of 24 or 48 figurines. The ducks are plain resin in yellow or white. The angel is multi-colored resin. The hanging fairy is bronze resin with a single finish across the whole figure.

Resin is firm but not flexible. Drop a piece on a hard floor and a thin part, like a wing or a stem, can chip. Set pieces down instead of tossing them into a bowl.

Care and placement

Care is simple. Wipe each piece with a soft dry cloth. Do not soak resin figures or scrub them with a brush, since that can lift paint. If a piece sits in soil, lift it out before you water heavily, or water around it and let the surface dry.

Indoors, keep fairy garden pieces out of direct sun for long periods. Painted resin can fade over time in strong light. Outdoors, bring small pieces in during hard freezes if you want them to stay in good shape for years.

Glow in the dark mushrooms need light to charge. Set them near a window or under a lamp during the day, then move them to a darker spot in the evening. The glow is soft, so place them where you will see them up close, such as a bedside shelf or a covered porch table.

Building a scene step by step

1. Pick a base. A bowl, a tray, a planter or a shelf corner all work.
2. Add one larger piece. The mushroom at about 1.6 x 1.6 x 1.6 in (4 x 4 x 4 cm) or the angel at 8.3 in (21.1 cm) can anchor the scene.
3. Add mid-size figures. The hanging fairy at about 4.7 x 3.1 x 2.4 in (12 x 8 x 6 cm) can sit on the ground or hang above it.
4. Fill gaps with small pieces. Glow mushrooms at about 0.47 to 0.78 in (1.2 to 2 cm) tall and ducks at about 0.67 x 0.6 in (1.8 x 1.6 cm) work well here.
5. Leave some bare soil or moss so the scene can breathe.

If you want a seasonal look, swap a few small pieces instead of rebuilding the whole garden. Ducks and glow mushrooms are easy to move, so they make good seasonal accents.

Mixing fairy garden pieces with book nooks

Many shoppers here also build book nooks and miniature rooms. Small fairy garden figures can sit beside a book nook on the same shelf. A row of glow mushrooms at about 0.47 to 0.78 in (1.2 to 2 cm) tall can line the base of a bookshelf insert. A single bronze fairy can hang from a shelf bracket above it. Keep the scale close so the two scenes feel related rather than competing.