I don’t have a lot of hobbies, but one that has carried over from my childhood is building with legos. My children have all inherited this “gene,” but each has a different variant. Emma loves to build kits and follow the instructions, but she’s not much for playing with them once they’re finished. Anders rarely has the patience to build a kit (Emma and I usually do that) – he prefers to linger around and play with the minifigures until we’re done. He’ll then play with the finished project, and often destroy it in the process (much to my chagrin). Ben is only 3, but he likes to build “trucks.” And I use that term very loosely!
One of the challenges with a lego obsessed household is keeping everything organized. Anders had decided the dining room table was the best spot for his minifgure battles, and thus bricks tended to wind up all over the house. We also had a hard time keeping all of our kits together. Last year we decided to try and tackle this problem by building a lego table in the boys’ room, and it has worked out quite well!
Here’s what you need:
1 16 inch x 72 inch wooden board (these can typically be found at Lowe’s or Home Depot)
4 15 inch x 15 inch Lego building plates (these are available at Amazon)
Glue (anything that will bind plastic to wood should do)
Sterilite Plastic Drawer Organizers (24 inch high – available at Target, Walmart, Amazon) – we bought 4 narrow carts with a variety of drawer configurations so the kids could organize by kit themes
Here’s what you do:
Really simple – glue the Lego building plates to the wooden board – you can fit 4 of the 15 inch plates on a standard 16×72 inch board, with a little space left on the sides. We put some heavy textbooks on top of the plates to keep them in place while the glue dried (best use for a textbook!). Once the table is ready, it can be rested across the Sterilite bins with a space left in the middle for a chair. That’s it!
This is one of those home projects that was incredibly easy to do, and has seen a lot of use. Anders spends a ton of time sitting at his Lego table organizing battles, and the Lego plates make it easy for him to stand his minifigures wherever he wants them. I love having the Sterilite organizers handy as it makes cleanup so much easier. It’s also easy to take the drawers out whenever you want to build a particular kit.
Here’s an example of an Anders Lord of the Rings battle from earlier today:
