A mum-of-four has given her Disney-obsessed daughter the bedroom of her dreams whilst saving money in the process. Sharnene Jewell, who is a keen DIYer, set out to create a princess themed bedroom for her youngest daughter Amaya.
The 45-year-old found second hand furniture on eBay and Gumtree and set about transforming them to give them a stone Castle-like effect. She also accessorised with bargain item s from Facebook Marketplace, car boot sales, Next and Matalan.
Sharnene, who is a housekeeper, shares her DIY transformations on TikTok and Instagram in a bid to help other homeowners save money whilst renovating. This bedroom in particular cost her £450 in total.
READ MORE:
"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," Sharnene told money-saving group DIY On A Budget UK .
"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."
Sharnene began by upcycling the bed to give it a stone-effect look. "I started by doing the bed. It was white originally, but I thought it would be amazing if it looked like it was made from stone, so that’s where I started," she said.
"I did the bed and bedside unit first. To create the effect was super easy, I just bought Rustoleum graphite paint to do all the corners and crevices and then went over the whole bed with Farrow & Ball Worsted. I applied both paints with a brush and wiped away excess with a cloth."
The money-saving mum bought her daughter's wardrobe for just £10 on eBay. "Then I did the wardrobe which I bought for just £10 on eBay, which was amazing and I’m so happy I found it," Sharnene said.
"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 took a paintbrush to the walls and doors to give them the same castle feel and also added a tree feature. "Then for the walls, it was basically the same, but the walls were cream to start with and I left that colour on the edges of the room to add even more of a shadow effect," she explained.
"I wanted the wardrobe door to have an iron effect, so I 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 added: "The tree painting was mostly created with poster paints. I did the trunk of the tree with a paint brush 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."
When accessorising, Sharnene also found bargain buys from car boot sales and online.
“The only things I bought were the faux fur throw, matching cushion and beanbag from Next and the hanging plant from Matalan," she said. 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.
“It cost me about £450 altogether. The most expensive things really were the £50 throw, £99 beanbag and £24 cushion from Next, but I went all out for them because I just knew they would finish the room off perfectly.
"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. I had to keep telling myself to trust the process and I’m so pleased I did, because Amaya’s little face was worth all the effort."
Sign up to our free weekly property newsletter by clicking here
