Parents Build Amazing Jurassic Park Themed Bedroom With a Jeep Bed For Their Son
A MUM and dad have revealed how they have made an epic Jurassic Park-themed bedroom for their son which includes an incredible Jeep bed.
Abigail Talbot, 23, and Darren Block, 42, spent just £250 on the amazing room transformation for their son Horatio, two.
Abigail, a support staff for engineers at energy company SSE, and Darren, a blacksmith and bicycle mechanic, live in Manchester and are also parents to Aria, one.
The Jeep was the perfect focal point for the dinosaur-themed room, which they cut from MDF and softwood timber and accessorised with products from eBay and Amazon.
Abigail told money-saving community LatestDeals.co.uk: "We assembled the jeep body, added the legs, filled and sanded the screw holes with body filler and sand flat, then added the wheel arches and filled and sanded the joints and also wood slats for the bed.
“The trickiest bit is getting the angles of the cuts to fit. Car body filler hides a lot of mistakes.”
Abigail said she then added the grille and primed the wood with spray paint, before adding a few coats of paint.
She said: “I used exterior paint as it's more hard wearing. I also used car pinstripe tape to make the finish neater where the colours join.
"Next was the wallpaper, before moving the Jeep into position. We added the wheels and grille and painted cracks on the wall to add to the feature using scrap off cuts of MDF.
"I used cheap plastic plants and firewood logs from Aldi to create the scenery and stuck it down with car body filler.
“We covered the rest of the MDF with a thin layer of filler and pressed in some cheap gravel. I used all the MDF I had left instead of throwing it away.”
The couple then added cheap artificial grass under the Jeep to create an area for Horatio to play, and this was stuck down with double sided tape.
She added: "Cheap plug-in LED light strips from Amazon added to the Jeep. He can change the colour to what he likes with a little remote.
"The process is messy due to the woodwork and with the MDF you need appropriate ventilation.
"Once all the pieces of wood have been cut, you will need to build the bed in the room you are putting it in as it's heavy and won't fit through door frames.”
Abigail said the overall cost was around £250 for the entire bedroom, with the bed costing £200.
She said: "Our local timber yard is still open so we were able to source all of our materials from there but B&Q stock all the products required.
“The headlights were from Halfords. We tweaked them so they could be wired to a plug.
"The wheels were gifted to us by one of our local scrap yards, Gadbury Auto Salvage.
"Car body filler to fill all the joints and screw holes just finishes the bed off, and truck bed liner paint which you can buy from Halfords was also great and cheap too.
"It doesn't scratch or wear easily so we have used it on all the areas that our boy comes in contact with often.
"All the fake plants are from eBay and were as cheap as chips and the bookshelves are spice racks that were painted to match his bed. The wallpaper was from Amazon for less than £30.
“The sky is painted to look like the stars at night. This was done prior to the lockdown by Marshalls Night Sky Ceilings but it really adds to the overall look at night time.”
Abigail says that getting stuck into a DIY challenge such as this one is a great way to be creative and productive during what is a stressful time for families.
She said: “It's a great little project that will keep people busy during lockdown and it's something amazing for the kids.
“I’m relieved now it's done and so happy that our little boy loves it. It was a big step for him because it was the transition from a cot to a bed.
"The next project after the garden will be a bed for Aria!”
Source: www.thesun.co.uk/