Creating the Potions Setup | Harry Potter Hogwarts Dinner Party

Disclaimer:  The following post includes primarily Amazon Affiliate links. Not all these items are what I specifically purchased, but I’ve tried to link to as similar a product as possible.

You almost expect Snape to walk in at any moment and is his monotone voice state

‘There will be no foolish wand-waving or silly incantations in this class.’

To create this potions setup for the Harry Potter Hogwarts Dinner Party, there are two parts. The towering bookshelves, crammed of intricate bottles filled with the likes of Wartcap powder and Pepperup potion. Between the shelving, inset into an alcove, a worn wooden table holds a rustic cauldron, a slate with ingredients left behind by a student and a collection of candles that flicker, leaving a moody eerie glow.

Here’s the key points on how they were put together and a shopping list of the items are at the bottom.

The Bookshelves

General points

Dark brown bookshelves are found at Ikea.

Every shelf was lit up behind the bottles and jars with battery operated led lights.

All other labels and book covers came from TheRPF.

Bookshelf One

Hooting Harold Owl from Bunnings

whiskey decanter

The Veritaserum, Skele-gro, Wartcap powder and Pepperup potion labels came from this website printed on a textured paper stock

Oil and vinegar cruet

variety of bottles with stoppers

Test tubes in a wooden rack. Play with the different weights of liquids. For example, from heaviest to lightest, corn syrup, dish soap, water, vegetable oil.

cookie jars filled with foods from Asian food stores (they were wrinkled and grey and looked perfect!) or coloured water with plastic insects.

Canadian Club bottles (the ornate type) with labels removed

Apothecary jars filled with dried herbs and more foods from the Asian store

Shelf Two

Very similar to shelf one, here you’d find:

glass jars filled with coffee beans, dried leaves, dried flowers, spices, spiky plants, dried roots, salt, seeds, dried corn husks, dried wormwood, pine needles

garlic

mini bottles

cleaned mussel shells

compass

hourglasses

Dried coffee filters wrapped with brown twine or paper rope, or burlap covered the tops of the glass bottles

On the top of both bookshelves to extend the height, we piled old fashioned styled books, large dark feather dusters as fillers, ornate birdcages and owls.

The Potions table

image by Danika Zuks

Items you would’ve found on the potions table included:

several copies of Advanced Potions textbooks (you can find the printable covers on therpf.com)

candelabras of different heights

the rustic cauldron lifted up by a wrought iron frame

hourglass

scales on a piece of slate, with several ingredients scattered

A transfiguration chalkboard

image by Danika Zuks