There are Harry Potter fans, and there are Harry Potter fanatics.
Young adult author Meredith McCardle had moved into her home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida when she wanted to decorate the walls with something that would inspire her to write.
She had originally considered the stencil of a French poem, but decided to settle on the first page of the Harry Potter series instead.
“‘Harry Potter’ was one of those books that I read when I was in college and I fell in love with it,” McCardle told ABC News. “It kick-started my love for young adult literature and that’s what I write now.”
The project involved using a projector to map the words onto the wall, then hand-tracing the letters with black paint one by one. What she thought would be a four-hour job turned into a three-week endeavor.
“I made a serious miscalculation,” McCardle admitted. “But I’m not a quitter.”
McCardle put up pictures of her finished project on social media, which became a huge hit and was eventually even seen by J.K. Rowling herself.
“I thought, ‘There’s no way she’ll see this in a million years,'” McCardle said. “But she eventually saw it and she favorited it and from that point it exploded. It was a really cool moment. It felt very surreal.”
McCardle is taking a break from DIY painting for now.
“I’m taking a break,” she said. “I’m very sick of painting.”
