Magical Mum Creates Stunning Harry Potter Bedroom For Under £350
- Sophia Daly, 32, created the magical space for her seven-year-old daughter
- She carefully upcycled her daughter’s existing furniture and painted the room to look enchanted
- Sophia sourced second-hand accessories from Facebook Marketplace and ebay
If you spend each birthday waiting for your Hogwarts letter, get ready to fall in love with this magical Harry Potter bedroom.
Sophia Daly, 32, a mum of two children from Nottingham, was determined to transform her seven-year-old daughter Alana’s room into an incredible space based on the beloved movies and books.
Sophia, who works for the NHS and also has a handmade homeware business, managed to pull the project off for under £350.
She carefully upcycled her daughter’s existing furniture, painted the room to look enchanted and sourced second-hand accessories from Facebook Marketplace and ebay.
Sophia told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: "I came up with the idea as my daughter was seven in January and asked me for her birthday if she could have a new Harry Potter bedroom.
"When I was a similar age, my Nana Elizabeth made my bedroom into Narnia. My room was in a dormer loft conversion and you had to walk through her fitted wardrobes to get to my room.
“She decorated the room all Narnia-esque like I wanted and even put fur coats inside the fitted wardrobe so I had to walk through.
"It was magical as a child and now at 32 I still remember that room and what it felt like to have a magical room, plus all my friends were super jealous and loved it as well!
"I wanted to give that same level of magic to my children when I decorated their rooms and as I hadn’t decorated the rooms since they were born, now was the time to do it.
"I asked my daughter what kind of Harry Potter room she wanted, and she mentioned Gryffindor.
"So from there, I wanted to make it feel like Hogwarts and a Gryffindor dorm room.
"I did go on Pinterest and Facebook groups for inspiration but didn’t really like anything I saw, so we sat and movie marathoned the films and I picked out subtle things that were referenced in the films but not too in your face.
"I started out and I knew I wanted a brick wall, a platform 9 3/4 and a library wall.
"The brick wall I found at Next and was £13 a roll - I only used two.
"The bookcase wallpaper was from Wilko - the books have all the colours of the houses on and it was a bargain at £10. I managed to do that wall with only one roll.
"My daughter's furniture was all white from Ikea. I knew I wanted dark furniture but couldn’t find what I wanted or anything that I could afford, so I bought Frenchic paint in Smudge and painted her furniture as even if it went wrong, it would be okay as I had nothing to lose.
“It worked a dream. I bought one tin and it did every piece of furniture, as well as the skirtings, windowsills and door.
"The paint for the walls I already had from decorating another room in the house.
"The reading tent was the same that Nana Elizabeth made for me out of a double duvet cover she’d seen in a charity shop.
"The keys I glued wings on, put fishing wire on and hung to the ceiling with command hooks, and same with the floating candles.
"I revamped her blinds by glueing wallpaper to them with bookbinding glue, and I did the same for the wardrobe doors.
"My daughter has a million teddies as well that I knew needed to be kept somewhere. I’d seen teddy zoos and thought I’d love it if I could have a Azkaban prison.
"I found a wonderful small business that’s not too far from me. She made it for me and it is wonderful.
"All the Harry Potter merch I bought from Facebook Marketplace, Etsy or ebay, with 80% of it being second-hand.
"The spoon was £10, the first Harry Potter book was £2, and the Azkaban toy prison was one of the biggest spends at £70.
"The broom was £5, the door plaque was £10, the wand remote was £15, and the chess board was £10 and it came with some of the Horcruxes.
"The Hufflepuff goblet was I think around £3 and I spray painted it gold to look like the goblet. The wizard cup and Dobby was £15, Crookshanks was £7.50, Scabbers was £5 and the wand stand was £15.
“The Snitch light and Polyjuice Potion were a bargain on sale plus with my NHS discount on top it made them £12.50 for both.
"I knew I wanted the ceiling to be enchanted. I’d watched videos on YouTube of people’s versions but again, I didn’t want it to be all black.
"I got up the film again and paused it on the ceiling part and noted that there were clouds and stars.
"I started painting black and stippled blue with a dry stiff brush. I got a video tutorial on how to do clouds easily. It said to stipple grey and white together for the fluffy cloud effect.
"The edges were made softer by pure accident - I knew I wanted to do stars. I had some spray paint left from an old project but it was grey.
"So I thought I’d just test a small area, and it softened all the edges and made an almost fog-like appearance. I loved it.
"The stars I watered down with white paint and I simply flicked the brush to give the illusion of stars.
"I feel relief now it’s done! There were times that I was unsure if it would look good or just plain terrible, but I kept pushing on and thought 'it doesn’t matter if I don’t like it in the end’, as I knew my daughter would love it no matter what.
"I started with the furniture. The drawers were painted with tester pots and then varnished to look like the four houses.
"I then Frenchic painted all the furniture. I then did the ceiling which took me two days to complete.
“After that I did the walls and the skirting. Lastly, I took her blinds down and did the wallpaper part of the blinds and the wardrobe. Then finally came the dressing and accessorising, which is my favourite part.”
Sophia is delighted with how her project turned out - and her daughter is even more chuffed with her magical room.
“My tips would be shop small and local if you can,” Sophia adds. “Many do online selling and it means so much to small businesses at the moment to have the custom and the praise for their hard work.
"I bought everything I could second-hand and did the entire room for just under £350.
"I found it calming to do during the lockdown. I knew we couldn’t get out much or that things were out of stock so I simply searched Facebook, ebay and Etsy for items.
“It took four months of looking and buying items, and two Saturdays and Sundays to fully complete.
“Everything was from Etsy, ebay or Facebook Marketplace, as because I bought a lot in full lockdown I couldn’t go into shops so it was online.
“Because lots of people were redoing their homes, lots of stuff was up for sale!"
Tom Church, co-founder of LatestDeals.co.uk, comments: “There have been few books and films over the years that have captured as many imaginations as the Harry Potter franchise, and we’ve all wanted to bring a bit of the Hogwarts magic into our homes.
“Sophia’s hard work has meant her daughter Alana now has the most magical space to enjoy - and the enchanted bedroom will definitely be the envy of all her friends!"
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