A mum-of-four has explained how she created the perfect Disney Princess bedroom for her daughter by spending just £450.
Sharnene Jewell, 45, a housekeeper from Cardiff, wanted to give her youngest daughter Amaya the bedroom of her dreams.
To keep costs down, Sharnene found second-hand bargains on Gumtree and eBay - including a Disney Princess bed for £100.
She also accessorised the bedroom with products from Facebook Marketplace, car boot sales, Next and Matalan.
The bedroom now has a stunning castle theme and Sharnene says she is thrilled with the results.
Sharnene explained how Amaya recently moved into a bigger room after her older sister moved out of the family home.
She told money-saving Facebook group DIY On A Budget UK : "Amaya originally had the smallest bedroom in the house, but when her middle sister flew the nest, Amaya was able to upgrade to the larger bedroom.
"Amaya loves dressing up as a princess, so we were thrilled to find a real Disney princess bed for sale second-hand for £100 on Gumtree.
"I thought it would be a nice idea to base the room around the bed and Disney princesses normally live in castles, so it just made sense to do a castle theme.”
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Sharnene started by painting the bed and bedside unit so it looked like they were made from stone.
She did this by using Rustoleum graphite paint to do all the corners and crevices, before going over the furniture with Farrow & Ball Worsted.
"Then I did the wardrobe. I bought the wardrobe for just £10 on eBay, which was amazing and I’m so happy I found it,” said Sharnene.
"I decided to do a stone effect again, but this time I wanted texture. I crumpled up tissue and stuck it on with PVA glue and then painted it.
"I started with the graphite grey again, then I applied white just to the high points with a foam roller, leaving the low areas dark and finally I went over all of it randomly with watered-down Worsted.”
Sharnene then moved on to the walls, which were cream to start with. She left this colour on the edges of the room to add even more of a shadow effect.
The DIY mum wanted the wardrobe door to have an iron effect, so she used the original light background as a base and added black and light brown randomly applied with a sponge.
"I liked the effect so much I ended up doing the handles on the wardrobe, bed drawer and bedside table drawer, the curtain pole, radiator, unicorn head, mirror and mouse door,” she said.
"The tree painting was mostly created with poster paints. I did the trunk of the tree with a paintbrush and the leaves with a bath puff and sponge cut into the shape of a leaf.
"I decided to add lights to the tree, but didn’t want them too bright, so I bought solar lights from Wilko and the solar panel is hanging outside the top corner of the window, which means they come on by themselves as soon as it gets dark and they are nice and safe.
"I stuck them up with command strips.
"I kept the white curtains my other daughter had in the room which went perfectly with Amaya’s own bedding.”
“The only things I bought were the faux fur throw for £50, matching cushion for £24 and £99 beanbag from Next and the hanging plant from Matalan.
“I also bought a light fitting for £3 from a boot sale, the mirror for £2 from a boot sale, the flooring from Gumtree for £35 and the rug for £10 from Facebook Marketplace.”
In total, she spent £450 on the Disney bedroom makeover.
Sharnene said the walls were “by far the hardest part” but said she is thrilled with the overall design.
She added: "I love the challenge of working on a budget and the satisfaction is far greater when you’ve had to work to fit it all together and get the room to look like it was always meant to match.”
