Movie Accurate Harry's Cupboard Under the Stairs | 1/6 Scale model wanna be

PeterIsMyName

New Member
Hello everyone!
I just watched and read the Harry Potter saga again, and started to think, what if I build a 1/6 scale model of Harry's Cupboard?

And with that, I started doing some research. I have found some cool pictures. The tallest point of the door is about 1.75/1.78 meters high, because Aunt Petunia's Actress, Fiona Shaw is 1.73 m tall, and she stands slightly under the top of the door, while the lowest point is right at her shoulder height, as you can see by this picture:

Wb5nOYp.jpg

Then, I have found some details about the back, and top of the cupboard:
kRfelwC.jpg

eJ0td53.jpg

gkRL8U0.jpg

gkOCX8k.jpg


Also, there aren't many pictures online, but I do want to build just the stair segment and the cupboard underneath, and if possible, I would like to get a 1/6 scale Harry Potter from Star Ace, although, I dont have the money for that quite yet.

One more thing. I am not quite sure of what materials I will be using yet, but I will try and stick to wood, and similar to reality materials. I have relatives who can sew, so making the pillows and bedding set wont be that much of a problem as long as I provide them with sources/models for it.

Do any of you have any pictures/sources/whatever that can help with this?
I will be starting this project later today, or tomorrow, so let me know what you think about it, and any ideas you might have, just share them with me!

All pictures I have here

Thank you!
 
There's a reconstruction of the set at the Harry Potter studio tour in Leavesden. You can't get that close to it, so I don't know if there are too many great photos of it online.

harry potter leavesden tour cupboard - Google Search
Oh wow, thank you so much! I saw some pictures of it, but searching for that specific thing brought up many good views like the end of the stairs, which seem to curve. There seems to be a blindspot in almost all shots I have seen, which is the right, inside part (where Harry's feet would be if he was lying down).
 
UPDATE--
Seems like I did some wrong calculations on the height of the cupboard's tallest point.
I went to rewatch the scenes and realized that perhaps because of perspective, Aunt Petunia seemed almost as tall as the cupboard itself... Well, she totally isn't!
I searched for the average size of a female head and got 57 centimeters. Then, using GIMP, I measured the pixels of her head, and did a conversion to know the pixels in between her shadow's height, and the cupboard height, in this shot:

xCnVfFK.jpg


Interestingly enough, I got a measure of around 201 cm (For the height of the cupboard), which is just 3 cm taller than the average for indoor doorways in the UK, and also, 3 cm shorter than the average for indoor doorways in Scotland.
Although, because of wrong estimations, and the usage of a shadow to see the height, and considering perspective too, I will be sticking with 198 cm, which is the average for a door. Now, that is pretty good already!
Then, using a picture I found online of the Leavesden Cupboard, I calculated that the lowest point of the cupboard was 138 cm tall, and that will make it easy enough to know the angle of the door's "slope"


I now know that the measures for the Cupboard's door are:
198 cm for the tallest point.
138 cm for the lowest point.
75 cm wide (which is actually, the average width of inside doors in the UK!!!!).

Now, there is a left side and right side to the doors, which I calculated too.
The left side is 53.5 cm wide (Height can be easily found, so I didnt bother to calculate it)
The right side is 157 cm wide, in the widest point of the actual thing, so its pretty easy to make the rest of the measurements.

I also calculated the width of the first, and also widest pole of the stair case, which is 10cm x 10cm (-Thanks to Bengrim09 for the help!)

So, adding all this up, we can get this measurements for the entire stair case:
294.5 cm (2.945 meters) of width, from the wall left of the door, to the first pole of the staircase.

Also, the skirting board is about 4''3/4 tall, which is about 12 cm! (-Thanks to Bengrim09 again!)

All the other measurements from above will make it really easy to plan this all out!

I will be adding some sketches and drawings made by me tomorrow.

I also figure out that there are 14 steps all the way to the top of the stair case, and now I need to calculate the height of each step, but I will leave that for either tomorrow or whenever I have time to do so.
 
Last edited:
I was at the studio tour a couple of years back I'm sure I got some pics somewhere on a file
I will try and find them and post them for you
 
239275BB-E749-4F40-9FC6-0434E577C11D.png
DF7BC481-F8F4-4EF4-A67F-91BFAD6DA853.png
UPDATE--
Seems like I did some wrong calculations on the height of the cupboard's tallest point.
I went to rewatch the scenes and realized that perhaps because of perspective, Aunt Petunia seemed almost as tall as the cupboard itself... Well, she totally isn't!
I searched for the average size of a female head and got 57 centimeters. Then, using GIMP, I measured the pixels of her head, and did a conversion to know the pixels in between her shadow's height, and the cupboard height, in this shot:

View attachment 941469

Interestingly enough, I got a measure of around 201 cm (For the height of the cupboard), which is just 3 cm taller than the average for indoor doorways in the UK, and also, 3 cm shorter than the average for indoor doorways in Scotland.
Although, because of wrong estimations, and the usage of a shadow to see the height, and considering perspective too, I will be sticking with 198 cm, which is the average for a door. Now, that is pretty good already!
Then, using a picture I found online of the Leavesden Cupboard, I calculated that the lowest point of the cupboard was 138 cm tall, and that will make it easy enough to know the angle of the door's "slope"


I now know that the measures for the Cupboard's door are:
198 cm for the tallest point.
138 cm for the lowest point.
75 cm wide (which is actually, the average width of inside doors in the UK!!!!).

Now, there is a left side and right side to the doors, which I calculated too.
The left side is 53.5 cm wide (Height can be easily found, so I didnt bother to calculate it)
The right side is 157 cm wide, in the widest point of the actual thing, so its pretty easy to make the rest of the measurements.

I also calculated the width of the first, and also widest pole of the stair case, which is 9cm x 9cm

So, adding all this up, we can get this measurements for the entire stair case:
294.5 cm (2.945 meters) of width, from the wall left of the door, to the first pole of the staircase.

Knowing all the other measurements from above will make it really easy to plan this all out!

I will be adding some sketches and drawings made by me tomorrow.

I also figure out that there are 14 steps all the way to the top of the stair case, and now I need to calculate the height of each step, but I will leave that for either tomorrow or whenever I have time to do so.
I was at the studio tour a couple of years back I'm sure I got some pics somewhere on a file
I will try and find them and post them for you
 
Also the thickness of the large pole at the bottom of the stairs ( newel post ) is usually 4” 100mm
Sorry but that’s the only pics I have
Skirting board height looks about 4 and 3/4” they call it 5” but it was always 1/4 smaller
 
It might help but the average door size of houses built in the 70s/80s was 6’6” high and 2’6” wide the architrave around the kitchen door looks like 3” so it will measure 2 and 3/4”
 
Also the thickness of the large pole at the bottom of the stairs ( newel post ) is usually 4” 100mm
Sorry but that’s the only pics I have
Skirting board height looks about 4 and 3/4” they call it 5” but it was always 1/4 smaller
Wow! Thank you so much! I will update my posts then!


I had seen this picture, it's still unfortunate that it's blurry and doesn't allow to see much :/ I guess that with the safety perimeter, it's hard to get a good angle of the inside.

It might help but the average door size of houses built in the 70s/80s was 6’6” high and 2’6” wide the architrave around the kitchen door looks like 3” so it will measure 2 and 3/4”

Yeah, those are the exact heights and widths I have up there, but I have them in centimeters for it to be easier to get to 1/6th scale!
Thank you so much for all the help and contributions!
 
A female head is not 57cm, unless you mean the circumference maybe (if you found it on a website for hat making? 57cm is almost 2 feet).
Imo you could get fairly close in Leavesden; well worth a trip for you if you can make it happen!
 
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