Author Meredith McCardle recently gave into her “huge nerd” tendencies by painting the first page of Harry Potter on a wall in her office.

Buzzfeed has some in-progress photos and project details. Instead of stencils, McCardle used a borrowed projector to display the text on her wall, traced each letter in pencil, then went back and painted in the letters. She does note that it took longer than she expected:

Can we all take a second to laugh at the fact I legit thought this would be a fun weekend project I could bang out in about 4 hours? In reality, it took 60 hours over the course of 3 weeks, thus proving once again I am absolute crap at time estimation. But whatever. WORTH IT.

This is a great way to spruce up a blank wall, and beyond the ability to trace simple shapes it doesn’t require any particular artistic ability. It’d be fun to use the first page of a classic like The Wind in the Willows or Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland for a child’s room, or go dark and do The Silence of the Lambs in the dining room.

If you don’t want to commit a whole wall to the project, you could do the first lines of several novels in a frieze near the ceiling:

“You will rejoice to hear that no disaster has accompanied the commencement of an enterprise which you have regarded with such evil forebodings.”

“May 3. Bistritz.– Left Munich at 8:35 P.M., on 1st May, arriving at Vienna early next morning; should have arrived at 6:46, but train was an hour late.”

“First of all it was October, a rare month for boys.”

“The thousand injuries of Fortunato I had borne as I best could, but when he ventured upon insult I vowed revenge.”

This kind of project is great for renters, since all you need to reverse it is a couple of coats of paint.

(via Jes)