Party prep for birthday 6.0 - Creating Honeydukes

I'm working my way through Pinterest's Harry Potter birthday party ideas, but am starting to accept that I won't be able to use them all. The party would end up lasting 17 hours if I did, and that is far too long for a group of five and six year kids. For my will-be-turning six years old boy, there are a few things I'm focusing on:

• Platform 9 3/4 - which won't take much since it's just the front door
• The Great Hall - where the eating and birthday singing will take place
• Potions class - the kids will do a minimum of two Potions-inspired projects
• Honeydukes - a visit here before the end will have the kids "buying" sugary treats before they depart
• The Gryffindor boys' dorm - where the kids can go for story time

I did not come across this specific idea, hence, the write-up I'm blogging right now. I saw this cardboard market from IKEA (see pic at right) the other day when walking through with Hen and thought that it was a good place to start. A market could just as easily be a candy shop, right? With a little work, though, I could make it more, well, authentic seems the wrong choice, but perhaps more appropriately styled for our party? Yeah, that's it. I bought the cardboard for $14.99, brought it home, put it together, and spent the rest of the afternoon helping my son raid our candy drawer so he could get this candy shop up and running. 

Today, I worked on turning it into Honeydukes. It isn't complete but I made significant progress. First, a trip to Home Depot was in order. Here's what I got: 

• package of utility sponges, large brick size $2.49
• 3 - 8oz samples of Behr matte paint in two complementary gray colors* $8.82
• handi painter $1.97 (for thin application of paint)
• 9' x 12' plastic drop cloth $1.98

Total: $15.26 

Grand Total: $30.25

I probably picked the most humid day of the year to give this a whirl. If you have the chance to wait until a less humid day, do that. 

Step 1 - I began the process by dismantling the cardboard market into pieces and laying them down on the drop cloth. I then used the handi painter to apply the coat of light gray for the mortar on the two walls and the roof. Note: I brushed paint onto the handi painter instead of dipping it into the paint to ensure as little paint as possible was being put on the cardboard to try and prevent bowing. Let the pieces dry before moving on. 

Step 2 - I poured a bit of the dark paint into a paint tray, dipped the sponge in, ran the sponge across the ridges in the tray to reduce the amount of paint on it, and pressed it onto the cardboard. Repeat, over and over and over again. Repeat one last time for good measure. Note: I staggered the brick placement at the beginning of each row. Also, I created the row with the initial pass, then rotated the sponge 180˚ and went back over each brick with the paint on the sponge. Be careful not to press too hard or you risk damaging the cardboard or applying too much paint. Let the pieces dry before moving on.

Step 3 - Once dry, I put all the pieces together, got candy, and took pictures.

Step 4 - I then hired a candy store attendant who was all to happy to try snot-flavored Bertie Bott's Every Flavor Beans.

I decided not to paint the front panel with the green and white stripes since Honeydukes has green on its storefront windows. I painted the counter dark gray, and the shelves light gray on the wrong side.

Things left to do to complete our Honeydukes store:

• create and hang the Honeydukes sign
• get and/or make more candy
• purchase jars for candy storage
• print sale sign for front of store

*I bought two samples of the lighter underlying color (i.e. mortar) and one sample of the darker brick color. I only used two samples and the brick ended up using more paint.