A mum-of-two has transformed her son’s bedroom into a Ghostbusters-themed space.
Poppy Jones, 31, from South Wales, has created her son Frank’s dream bedroom inspired by his favourite film for just £80 using bargains from B&Q and Amazon.
Poppy told latestdeals.co.uk 's money-saving Facebook group DIY On A Budget UK : "We just moved house after spending many years, and lockdown, in a cramped two-bed.
READ MORE: Mum creates 'dinosaur room' for £60 using bargains from B&M, Wilko, B&Q and Poundland
"The kids finally had their own rooms so I wanted them to be particularly spectacular as it was a special occasion and a long time coming finally having a room each. My son Frank has autism and his latest obsession includes Ghostbusters. He watches it every day.
"One of his favourite scenes is when Slimer slimes the hotdog vendor so he was very specific about the hotdog request. When I was browsing Ghostbusters merch, everything was so expensive. An official pop-out wall art Slimer is around £500 to £1,000.
“That’s absolutely not suitable for a four-year-old fan, but there wasn’t anything available on a budget, so I decided to make my own. I thought long and hard about how I could make one and tested several materials.”
Poppy found that clay was too hard and expanding foam was too flakey, so she turned to papier-mâché. She continued: "I remember doing a project out of papier-mâché whilst in art college and how easy paper was to manipulate and that’s when it came to me.
“The papier-mâché Slimer took over 20 hours and several layers to make. He’s made entirely out of PVA glue and newspaper, finished with acrylic paint. I then pierced bracket holes in the back of him so he’s just hung using Rawlplugs and screws.
"The bedroom itself I hand painted using paint I already have in my studio for my business. The green is emulsion Valspar from B&Q and the rest is acrylic. Most of the other stuff is mainly from Amazon.”
This includes the self-adhesive vinyl brick paper which cost Poppy around £5 a roll. She explained: “I needed four for one wall. The yellow stuff on his bed and on the chest of drawers is hazard safety tape, again from Amazon at around £4 a roll.
"I used the excess emulsion for the slime drips and the background of the Slimer sculpture. The logo itself was hand painted by me just by copying an image online. It glows in the dark! I got the paint from B&Q.
"I created a perfect circle using a pin tack and attached a pencil to the other end to swoop and trace it around. I got some silver vinyl to cover the bookcase to give it that fire station feel, from Amazon again at around £6 a roll. I used it to make a trim on the shelves.
"The green beanbag for the snug under the bed was also from Amazon and cost £16, and the bedding from Amazon was around £25. The lampshade was one we already had and I upcycled it by painting it with the hazard stripes. You just have to be careful when painting fabric around lights and always use LED safe bulbs. The LED strip lights were from Amazon for £5.”
The whole project cost Poppy around £80 total. She said: "It felt amazing knowing I saved a lot of money and made something so cool out of newspaper. Frank absolutely loves his new bedroom and is so happy. He’s been playing Ghostbusters in there every day and acting out some of the scenes.
"I love the creation and just plan to add more little bits when I can now, including a real Ghost Containment Unit to screw on the wall at Frank's request!”
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