A Harry Potter Inspired Make Over

So most of the upstairs of our house is renovated- and i realise I've only yet posted about the bathroom, but yesterday I embarked on a new downstairs project so I thought it might be fun to share it as its being done.

Yes its the cupboard under the stairs...may seem insane to want to "make over" the cupboard under the stairs but seriously, although I don't have a picture to demonstrate, imagine you open the door and 50 pairs of shoes, an ironing board, the hoover and some random tin bucket you have no idea where it came from all fall on top of you. 

We did once upon a time have a shoe rack in the cupboard enforcing some kind of order...



But alas it was from one of those cheap shops (you're getting the theme of the house by now...) and was made from balsa wood. One day when straining to reach the hoover amongst said carnage, i lent on the thing and it spilt clean in two :( (joining Weight Watchers shortly afterwards too)

Next year will be when all the big changes start taking place downstairs- new boiler, new doorways, new log burner, kitchen etc so in the mean time we have a list of smaller jobs to do this year , oh and that small thing of our wedding in June! (more on that here)

Main tasks to do to complete this Harry Potter-style renovation:

1. Paint the walls inside the cupboard 
2. Paint the dark stain door and surrounding skirting boards white (yay!)
3. Buy and erect a new shoe stand
4. Lay some new flooring. 
5. Sort out storage

So yesterday i started off by emptying the cupboard, filling in all the cracks in the walls with Polyfilla (the rest of our house is held together by this) and caulk.

We already had this hook thingy up on the wall and for some reason was really hard to screw in at the time (something to do with breeze blocks or something) so we have just worked around it.

Caulk is really great for filling in long cracks where plasterboard meets like we have done in the second picture, but its also really good for finishing off doorways and skirting boards once you have painted them. 

Next job was to lightly sand the door and skirting boards to "rough them up a bit" to quote one of friends at B&Q. -Side note: I have picked up so many helpful hints and tips in B&Q a)because i go there at least once a week, b)if I'm on my own i clearly look like i have no clue about DIY as nearly every person that works there asks if i need help...

Obviously door handles and the hook which was on the inside of the door have been removed by someone who knows how to use a screwdriver before sanding!

Then the whole thing was "masked off" using the blue decorators tape we had in the shed and I started with the first coat of undercoat&primer. I used B&Q's own (although it may seem so i can confirm i am not getting paid by them to write this blog!) We did the same task with the dark stain door in the hallway last year- but we didn't use any undercoat or primer and it took nearly 10 coats of paint...but hey you learn from your mistakes and all that!

So the first coat didn't really do all that much (except make the house smell like fish??) but as all hairdressers know turning jet black hair platinum blonde takes time and effort so I carried on regardless.

The recommended time between coats is 4 hours so in the mean-time the polyfilla and caulk had dried so I started with the first coat of paint inside the cupboard. The paint we used was just the left over from what we have used in the hall stairs and landing: Crown Toasted Almond 

 I realise its a bit crazy to even consider painting the cupboard under the stairs, but i thought since we are painting the door anyway and replacing the carpet, it can't harm to spend ten minutes evening up the walls and painting them one nice uniform colour.


Then i got bored and went for a McDonald's. 


Later on after 4 hours recommended drying time had passed I applied another coat of undercoat&primer to the woodwork. This morning I got up early before we went on our payday trip to Ikea (more on that here) and gave it a 1st coat of actually paint- (we use Eggshell as I can't stand the sheen of gloss & it give a nice happy medium) and gave the walls inside a final touch up with the emulsion:

So the door is looking much lighter and i think will only hopefully need 1-2 more coats of paint. Over the next few days we will get a new handle to match the hallway door which you can just see in the left, paint the skirting boards inside the cupboard and lay the "new" carpet - we have a big stretch of carpet left over from our bedroom we need to use up!

So now our walls look even more yellow than they did before and i cant wait to rip off the anaglypta paper and get the whole thing re-plastered. Also that clock (came with the house) is starting to look even more sorry for itself than ever before..

I would love to redesign Harry Potters' under the stairs bedroom!!!!