Harry Potter Bed - Climatic Canopy(Baldachim) in Easy Way

My son is a little bit of potterhead. He likes Harry Potter books and movies but also like knights, medieval castles etc. He dreamed of bed like in Hogwart or any other king's bed with canopy (baldachim). So... because my wife is also potterhead, she make a project of such baldachm to be hanged over the bed and I made it.

The project is very easy, it is detachable and can be hanged over any type of bed (don't need columns at the bed corners to put canopy on them).

Supplies

- 4 wooden boards about 15-18cm wide

- furniture strips for decorations

- furniture decorations for corners

- drill

- wood glue

- stain & lacquer

- fabric for canopy

Step 1: The Frame of Canopy

This s the most important thing - the frame - but it is also very easy in construction. Really. You need wooden boards at least 15cm wide. You can just buy them in the store.

The frame will be support for the fabric and we don't want that the fabric would lie on the bed. We want it to lie over the floor, so the boards for the frame should be longer (about 15-20cm) than the bed.

The frame is easy to build because You need just to glue it and screw it like in the pictures. It's not the best and strongest connection (in fact it's poor and I don't recommend to join the wood in such way) but for this project it is enough. Why ? Because the whole construction will be strengthen by the decors and furniture strips. Decors also will hide the imperfections in wood connections.

Step 2: Decorations and Furniture Look of the Frame

Baldachim need more stylish and furniture look. Plain boards would be looking ugly. So I've put two additional furniture strips at the top of the frame (like on the picture). Rectangular one at the top and than more fancy one at the side. Strips were glued to the frame.

I've also added some decorations at the corners. They look nice and as I wrote before, they cover the frame corners.

Step 3: Hiding Imperfections and Gaps

During gluing sometimes it's hard to glue the wood with no gaps (some decors are not straight). Don't worry of that. I have the solution. You need to make a putty from wood dust. Before painting it's good to sand the whole construction/frame. Don't throw away wood dust. Mix it with glue and a little bit off stain. In such way You create the mass which then put in the wood gaps. When the glue will dry, just paint the whole construction and Your gaps won't be visible.

Step 4: Painting

When You have sanded frame with gaps covered with putty, it's time for painting. I recommend to use wood stain and then laquer. The best will be the spray laquer, but painting with brush is also a good idea (but harder, because it's easier to make ugly looking smudges of laquer)

Step 5: Hanging the Fabric

I can not tell You how to sew the fabric, because sewing it's not my part of that job. My wife did it:) You can see that fabric is cutted to the frame dimensions and have the holes at the top. In those holes I've put metal rods. Those rods are then hanged on the inside on small wooden hangers which I've made from small pieces of wood.

Those pieces of wood are glued in "L" letter shape and later glued to the baldachim frame.

Step 6: Hanging the Canopy Over the Bed

I've drilled the hooks in the ceiling and hanged the frame on decorative. I was worried that this won't last very long, but the baldachim is in my son room more than a year now and it works perfectly. It doesn't felt (and You must know that my son isn't gentle when he is playing in his room). So in my opinion the sollution is good and tested.

That's all. I hope my idea will inspire You. Oh and one more thing. In the summer we are hanging the mosquito net over the bed. It also works well.