I transformed my granddaughter's room into jaw

Jul 21, 2023

A JOINER has transformed his spare room into a jaw-dropping Disney hideaway using bargains from Facebook Marketplace and salvage yards.

Robert Rideout, 49, created the Beauty and the Beast-inspired bedroom for granddaughter Harriet McConway, six, after taking her to see the musical in Edinburgh.

In a true labour of love, the Greenock grandad used second hand gems for the magical transformation before surprising little Harriet.

The makeover took several months and set the self-employed joiner back around £2,000.

He said: "She couldn't believe it. It was amazing to see how happy she was and worth every minute of work.

Robert lives with wife Lynn, 54, in an 1870's villa and she helped with the soft furnishings for the bedroom.

The £2,000 transformation price tag includes all furniture, flooring, panelling and blinds, curtains, cushions and bedding too.

Robert said: "We had taken Harriet to see the Beauty and the Beast musical in Edinburgh and we had the idea to try and recreate something magical for her in one of our spare rooms when she comes for sleepovers.

"She stays with us at least once a week, maybe more depending on circumstances, so we wanted to create something really special for her to remember as she loves all things Disney - especially Beauty and the Beast.

"Everything is either second hand or salvage yard finds by myself on my travels.

"Part of my day job is restoration work and I frequent salvage yards and antique shops regularly."

The Rideouts bought their home in Greenock, Inverclyde, four years ago and have also renovated the rest of the villa using Robert's skills.

The room took several months to finish - with Harriet asking her grandpa why he had to make it "so fancy."

The idea came to life when Robert found two matching overdoor pediments which had been removed from another old house.

They were painted a horrible brown colour and were pretty beaten up, but had beautiful detailing so he set about restoring them to add above the room's doors.

"I remember bringing them home and hiding them in the room so my wife wouldn't see them, as they were in pretty bad shape and I'd paid a couple of hundred quid for them," he joked.

"I just knew they would be fantastic with some TLC."

He then made a window plinth using MDF and used two old glass doors to make a mirrored feature before adding architrave around the edges.

"I was really getting a feel for the room at this stage and feeling more creative the more I did," Robert said.

"I had some mirror glass cut to fit in each of the apertures of the two doors and found some French-style handles to complete the look.

"I added an old ceiling rose that was broken and rescued from a skip as I thought it would look good painted below the doors."

He added columns either side of the doors, panelled the walls and added a pelmet above the window which he made from MDF.

"I also installed some baroque cornice and a plaster ceiling rose and chandelier and finally I had an idea to make a French-style bed canopy by cutting the top off an old damaged cabinet and mounting it on the wall using ornate cast iron brackets."

Robert even added some ostrich feathers to the top of the bed using the centre piece of an old chandelier before hand painting it and adding gold leaf touches throughout the room.

A student artist who needed to create a painting for her coursework painted the murals on some of the walls.

All the rest of the furniture was found for free or cheaply on Facebook Marketplace and they added parquet style flooring from B&Q to replace a grotty orange carpet.

The bed was around £100, the bedside cabinets £200 and the console was £300.

Lynn then added blinds, curtains and bedding.

The couple also added a large clunky set of keys to the door for an extra Beauty and the Beast touch.