How I Built A Castle Themed Room

I had been wanting to make a themed room for quite sometime and decide to use a room in my house. I rarely do projects for myself but I thought this would not only be a fun project but also a way to explore different techniques of working in foam.

First I wanted to go with a style that I could live with! I was tempted to go over the top with the room with a steam punk design or even a Fortress of Solitude Superman design but I wanted to keep it as restrained as possible so that not only did it have a "fantasy" feel to it but that it would still be functional. Finally I decided on a castle style room. I did not want to have a particular style from a movie or anything so I just laid out what would work for the room.

The first thing I started with was redoing the floors. I wanted a more rustic look so I choose a flooring that gave me a wood look. I used vinyl flooring since the room is in the basement.

My next focus was the walls. I decided to make the back wall look like stacked stone blocks. I did not want a heavy textured look but a more refined look to the block. All of the blocks were cut out individually and then weathered. I painted a texture paint over them to give them a stone feel. I used 4 different colors to achieve different colors so that the wall would have a more natural appearance to it. Paneling was attached to the wall before gluing the stones in place so I would not damage the sheet rock.

With the side walls I went with a large stone block look. I thought having the whole room in stone blocks would be too much and take away from the overall look.

To camouflage the modern windows I made dummy windows to fit inside of my windows. I added an amber frosted plexi glass sheet behind them so you would not see any of the new window.

The columns were from foam and again textured the same way as the stone walls. Foam was also used go around the molding to the cubby hole that has the computer and TV. I added the curtain to hide everything and give the room a clean look. I also did this to try to hide as much new technology as possible so that someone in the room can have the effect of being in an old castle room!

The last piece I constructed was the fireplace. I purchased an insert with fake flickering flames. The whole piece was made from Styrofoam.

The final phase was to decorate the room. I found pieces I thought would work well with the overall theme of the room. Some of the items used in the room are antiques from my family. One piece very precious to me is the cane my Grandfather carved. Other items very important to me are the iron horse on the fireplace purchased by my Mother over 50 years ago and the glass bowl belonging to my Great Grandmother on the wooden table.

I learned a lot building this castle themed room and I enjoyed the change of pace by working on something for myself 🙂

Take a moment and view the before and after photos of this project on my portfolio page!