Creative mum and son make amazing Mario play unit from old bookshelf for £11
- Amy Field, 28, and her six-year-old son, transformed an old bookshelf
- The Mario unit comes complete with working Mario pipes to each world
- The project cost Amy just £10.99
If your kids aren’t back in school yet and you’re looking for a creative project for the whole family to get involved in, get inspired by this Mario-loving family.
Amy Field, 28, a mum of two and optical assistant from North Wales, decided to indulge in a fun craft project during the lockdown, turning an old bookshelf into a Mario play unit for her son Theo, six.
The play unit comes complete with working Mario pipes to each world, and artificial grass.
Amy posted her creation on the Latest Deals, Extreme Couponing & Bargains Group on Facebook, where she received hundreds of likes and comments praising her clever project.
Amy told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: "We originally saw the idea on Facebook, where a lady had done one for her son using storage cubes.
"My son is Mario obsessed so we showed him and he instantly wanted one... but it had to have working pipes!
"We already had the bookshelf and we've recently renovated a house so we already had the paint. We used a mixture of masonry, normal wall paint and some acrylic.
"The pipes we used are plumbing pipes and fittings which again we already had from the house renovation.
"All I needed was the artificial grass which I ordered off Amazon for £10.99.
"We started off by cutting the holes for the pipes, as we wanted them to go from one world to another.
"We then glued in the pipes ready to be painted.
"The process of painting took an afternoon with my son's help… He's very particular!
"We then stuck the grass down and added his toys which he has collected over the years.
“It only cost £10.99 in total, which was the price for the grass.”
Amy says the activity has been the perfect bonding project during lockdown.
"We loved doing this project together,” she adds. "It was something we could get stuck into and create something that would provide hours of fun after.
"Theo loves it - he has spent hours playing with it and enjoyed the fact he got to pick the levels how he wanted it.
“It cost very little and of course gave us somewhere to store all those Mario toys!"
Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, comments: “Most of us have old, unloved furniture lying around at home that is desperately in need of an upgrade.
“Whether that’s a cupboard you could paint in a fresh shade, a chair you can reupholster, or indeed a bookshelf you can turn into a Mario-inspired paradise, all you need is some inspiration and time at home to get stuck into your project.
“The lockdown is distressing for many reasons, but at least it’s giving many families, like Amy’s, much-needed time together to enjoy a creative project just like this - and as Amy proves, it needn’t cost the earth!"
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