DIY GNOME VILLAGE – A FUN, EASY & AFFORDABLE PROJECT

Vivienne and I made a DIY gnome village last week in a Hometalk TV segment. It was so fun and easy, I wanted to share it on the blog too.

You can watch the full segment here if you’re interested.

DIY gnome garden TV segment

We started off with all our supplies, which were mostly from Dollar Tree (a few came from Michaels).

Gnome garden supplies

Preserved moss – option 1
Preserved moss – option 2
Terra cotta pot(s)
A larger saucer dish (1 per pot)
Brown paint (lighter and darker options)
Paintbrush
Hot glue and hot glue gun
Gnome figurines – option 1
Gnome figurines – option 2
Gnome doors, windows and accessories pack – option 1
Gnome doors, windows and accessories pack – option 2
Rocks

Extras (if desired)

Wood slice(s)
Faux succulents
Faux pebble sheet
Dragonfly lights (or similar)

I love Dollar Tree because you get so much bang for only a buck, but it’s always hard to share links to the products after. I always recommend going into a store if you have one close to you – so many treasures, ha! I went back and checked for these supplies recently, and they are no longer in stores.

I’ve linked all the items listed below from Amazon for those of you interested in making a gnome village for yourself.

Supplies for DIY gnome village
painting terra cotta pots brown to mimic tree look for gnome garden

The first step in your DIY gnome village is to paint your terra cotta pots brown like a tree (or you can choose any paint color you like).

Vivi painted the base of her pot a lighter brown, and I painted mine a darker brown. Then I dried both of them with a hair dryer because I’m impatient (and was also filming a TV segment).

painting terra cotta pots brown to mimic tree look for gnome garden - dry with a har dryer

We then switched paint colors and added some bark detail to each pot.

painting terra cotta pots brown to mimic tree look for gnome garden
painting terra cotta pots brown to mimic tree look for gnome garden
painting terra cotta pots brown to mimic tree look for gnome garden

Once our pots were dry we got to work on the gnome village tree tops!

To achieve this look, we flipped or sauces upside down and simply hot glued our preserved moss to the tops until all the terra cotta was covered.

You will go through quote a bit of glue on this part.

hot glue moss to a terra cotta pot saucer to make a treetop

Vivi mixed in different mosses to her liking.

hot glue moss to a terra cotta pot saucer to make a treetop
hot glue moss to a terra cotta pot saucer to make a treetop

And I kept mine pretty simple with mostly one kind of moss.

hot glue moss to a terra cotta pot saucer to make a treetop

Once the moss was glued, we took our gnome doors and hot glued them to the pot. We filled in the gaps around the door with more moss.

hot glue gnome doorway and moss to a terra cotta pot tree
Note: The dyed moss will turn your hands green, but it washes away with soap and water.

I repeated the same steps on my pot.

hot glue gnome doorway to a terra cotta pot tree

Our gnome homes were assembled! We gathered our miniature gnomes, accessories, and glue gun for the next step.

gnome accessories

I chose to hot glue a few mini mushrooms on top of my tree, followed by a gnome. Vivi chose to add a bench, and a few other accessories on hers.

Hot gluing accessories to my DIY gnome garden house
Hot gluing accessories to my DIY gnome garden house

About 20 minutes later our gnome villages were complete and ready to go outdoors to be set up.

DIY gnome garden – a fun, easy & affordable tutorial. It's the perfect summer project for all ages, kids and adults.

I hung two short strands of dragonfly lights (Dollar Tree) from the tree, and we got to building.

We started by placing the wood slab bases, then our new DIY gnome trees, and then added all our accessories in!

We went a little overboard for our TV segment – you definitely don’t have to add in as much as we did to achieve a gnome village look.

DIY gnome garden – a fun, easy & affordable tutorial. It's the perfect summer project for all ages, kids and adults.

I adore our gnome village! It’s been outside for three weeks and is still doing great!

After quite a few rain storms, the moss dye has stained the wood slices, but other than that it still looks the same.

DIY gnome village garden – a fun, easy & affordable tutorial. It's the perfect summer project for all ages, kids and adults.

Vivi is so proud of our creation and it’s been a bit hit with the neighborhood kids and walkers too.

DIY gnome village garden – a fun, easy & affordable tutorial. It's the perfect summer project for all ages, kids and adults.

I highly recommend making one, and if you have a kiddo in your life, it is even more fun. 🙂

Check out all our other DIY projects if you’re looking for craft and home improvement inspiration.

DIY gnome village garden – a fun, easy & affordable tutorial. It's the perfect summer project for all ages, kids and adults.

xoxo
Audrey

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DIY gnome village garden – a fun, easy & affordable tutorial. It's the perfect summer project for all ages, kids and adults.