Probably the hardest culture to transform your room into is Gondor. Mostly we only get to see the outside of the city and houses, and the only times we get inside the buildings are the halls and such. But another difficulty is materials and cost. Most people can’t carve stone statues of kings, or get real stone floors and walls in their house. So I’ve come up with some cheap alternatives. Unfortunately, I don’t have a digital camera, so I wasn’t able to take pictures of what I’ve done to use as examples.

Walls

For Gondor, the color scheme is fairly drab and dreary, mostly blacks, grays, whites and other plain dark colors. If you’re lucky, you can paint your room a dark gray, and paint it to look like a stone wall. But if you’re on a budget, or can’t use a dark color, you can use white or off-white. But don’t get discouraged, thinking white is too bland. There are many things you can do to liven up a bland wall.

Stencils

If you have time, and a stencil you want to use, (I cut some leaf-shaped ones, because I wanted a somewhat elf-like feel to the room as well) stenciling can be very effective, and can add just that little touch that pulls the room together.

Banners

This is the decoration I used the most of, and it looks really good. However, it does help to have some sewing experience. Find a banner from the movies you like (I used the White Tree of Gondor a few times, but you can use anything) and decide what size you want the banner to be. Then go out and buy the fabrics in the dimensions you will need. I embroidered the designs onto the smaller banners I made, but for the larger ones, I used appliqué, and fabric paint. All look rather nice.

Other ideas

Although I have not tried these, one of the Authorized Reproduction swords from The Noble Collection would look quite nice hanging on a wall, although they are pricey! Another idea is to make a map or draw a nice picture to hang on the wall.

Floor

A wood floor would probably be the easiest good-looking floor to use, but I know I at least could not afford to rip up my carpet and put in a nice wood floor just for looks. So I just had to make do with carpet, with a few simple colored rugs to hide as much of it as possible.

Bed

If you have a normal bed (twin, double, queen, king), I would just leave it, and use neutral colors like off-white, white, grey, black or tan for the bedding.
However, if you have a bunk bed, or loft bed (like a bunk bed, but without the bottom bunk) like me, you can create the illusion of a four-poster bed. Quite a lot of fabric is needed for this, but little or no sewing is required. Just get a piece of fabric the length of one side of the bed, and tall enough to wrap around the railing of the top bunk, and still reach the ground. Get another piece for the other long side, and two more for the shorter sides. Then sew, pin, knot or otherwise attach the fabric to the bed. You could also tuck the fabric under the mattress of the top bunk. Velvet or silk would look quite nice for this project, but if you are on a small budget, some polyester can look a lot like silk, and would be a good cheap alternative. Fabric paint, embroidery or appliqué could be used to decorate the fabric.

Accessories

You should use as much wood and stone in your room as you can for accessories such as chests, bookcases and tables. If you can just go out and buy new things, great! But if you’re like me, you’ll need to hunt around to find the things, at a price you can afford. But you may be able to use some things you already have.

Tables are handy to use as a centerpiece for the room, and you can display some of your Lord of the Rings things on it. I found a nice wooden card table in my attic, but yard sales, flea markets and auctions would be good places to look.
Wooden chests are very useful, since most Gondorians would have them to store things in, and you can use them to hide any modern things you might have that can’t be disguised to fit in with your room. You can find these at flea markets and auctions, but I haven’t found one at a yard sale yet…If you live near a Goodwill store, those sometimes have them, so keep an eye out.

Bookcases can add a nice touch to your room, especially if they are plain wood or painted white, since they can add a rustic or a refined touch to the room, depending on whether they are simple, carved, or otherwise interesting. You can find these at all the same places I listed for tables, but if you are good with wood and tools (I’m not!) you could make your own as well.

Windows and curtains can be fun to try out different ideas with. Windows can be shaped with plywood and painted to look like arrow-holes. Or, if you want a less castle-like feel, you can just use some simple grey, black or white curtains.

What I’ve pulled together are just a few tips and ideas. When decorating your room in a Gondorian theme, two invaluable resources are pictures of props and sets from the movie (these can be found on the Galleries of the Extended Edition DVDs, and all around on the internet), to get a feel of the culture, and the books and movies themselves. But the best resource is your imagination. Don’t be afraid to use things from other cultures in Middle-Earth, or things that you have created. The most important thing to remember is have fun! It is your room, so make it the way you want.

~ Eldarion101