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Every kid should have a themed bedroom at some point in their life. We all have that story or character from our childhood which helped us unlock new realms of our imagination and when you’re a kid, your bedroom is like your sanctuary. If you’ve got a kid in 2021, there’s a good chance the themed room they want will be inspired by Harry Potter.
It’s been almost a decade and half since the release of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the final volume in J.K Rowling’s fantasy series which by then had already become one of the most well-known and best-selling franchises in history.
The first book was released in 1997, and within three years it was a global phenomenon, captivating the minds of millions of readers both young and old. Today, it’s showing no real signs of slowing down.
The books are still selling millions of copies every year, the subsequent film franchise is still ongoing and has expanded into a shared universe, and there are video games, merchandise, stage plays and theme parks all based around the world Rowling created.
Kids are still obsessed, to the point where it’s often all-consuming. This might seem somewhat concerning to you at first, but remember that it’s not really anything new. The same thing happened with Star Wars, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings, Marvel and it’s not really a bad thing.
Your kid is exercising their imagination, and it’s getting them into reading. So if they care about it that strongly, you should encourage their interest. Not to the point that it inhibits their school work or social life, but you should definitely allow them to relish in the things they enjoy.
And helping them put together a Hogwarts themed bedroom can be a part of that. Here’s how to do it:
Personalize It
Every kid’s experience of Harry Potter is going to be different. Some people latch onto different characters or different plot threads, or maybe a different aspect of the universe as a whole. One unique thing about Hogwarts is the house system.
What Rowling achieved by having four separate school houses, the students in which were determined by specific personality traits, was to give everybody reading a house which they could recognize as the one they’d be a part of.
Gryffindor for the brave, Slytherin for the ambitious, Hufflepuff for the noble and Ravenclaw for the intelligent. Every kid will probably see themselves in one of these houses, and each of them can be associated with different colors, symbols and design choices.
Your kid might already know which house they belong to, but if they’re unsure, you should have them take a Harry Potter house quiz. It’s an exciting thing to discover and sets a great foundation for how to approach the room’s design.
Bedding
If you are trying to get the job done quickly and inexpensively, you could just get some bed sheets that are the right colour for the specific house, but if not I would definitely recommend that you get some bed sheets that are Hogwarts branded.
The bed is the epicenter of the room and it’s where you should aim to have the most striking representation of the room’s theme. Harry Potter bed sheets are extremely popular and you can easily find them online.
There’s also a lot of different options for how extravagant the design is. If you’re going for a Slytherin-themed room for example and you don’t want the room to be overpowered by dark green, you could get white bed sheets that have the Slytherin crest on them.
Or maybe you could go for nonspecific bed sheets. Like the kind that displays a view of the castle or perhaps the Hogwarts crest itself, and then the rest of the room can put more of a focus on the house.
Walls
Again, colour is going to be a big part of this design and so you can go for paint or wallpaper that is appropriate for your kids house. Blue for Ravencalw, orange for Gryffindor, green for Slytherin and yellow for Hufflepuff.
Again, if you don’t want to darken the room too much, you could go for a mix of those colours with white or just brighter shades. Where you can really get creative on the walls is with the kind of hangings you choose.
You could get house banners like the ones they have in movies. Those always look really nice and are very vibrant. There are a ton of artists out there who’ve done Harry Potter inspired work. While there are a lot of official posters and art pieces that are great, that stuff isn’t in keeping with the spirit and it’s not exactly unique.
What you should look out for are more creative designs. Intricate paintings of objects and places from the series. Perhaps a large mural of the Hogwarts castle itself, maybe a print of the Deathly Hallows symbol or a drawing of the marauders map.
You could get art decal stickers too. These can come in form or images and symbols or they could be letters that you could use to spell out a quote from the books across one wall. And you can even look to independent artists.
Because Harry Potter is so popular, many fans are creating and selling their own artwork and a lot of it is extremely unique and creative. It ranges from sketches and paintings to modern digital artwork.
Accessories
Outside of the walls and the bed, every Hogwarts themed room needs some knick-knacks. Just some fun things to have around the room to help bolster that magic Harry Potter themed atmosphere.
Every bedroom needs a mirror, so you could either buy or design one that’s in the style of the Mirror of Erised from the first book. An alarm clock is always handy, so perhaps one that’s shaped like the golden snitch would be an idea.
Maybe the toy chest can be the shape of a cauldron from a potions class. There’s a lot of accessories which can be functional, but they don’t have to be. You can get figurines and stuffed animals too.
Or just decorative items. I’m sure your kid would love to have their own personalized wand or broomstick to put on their nightstand or hang on the wall. And maybe an ornamental owl in a cage hanging from the ceiling would be a nice addition too.
The great thing about designing a Hogwarts theme room is that there are so many people sharing the passion, which means that there is an awful lot of artwork and accessories already available to you.
And the fact that there is so much of it also means that you have a lot of options when it comes to putting together a personalized mix of stuff for your kid. Designing the room will be a fun and rewarding experience for you both.