a family command center. - Love Lake Living

Hello and happy day to you! Today I have a fun project to share!

S2 started kindergarten this year (cue alllll the tears), and with that came an insane amount of papers and a crazy lot of things to remember.

On our last trip to Disney (I will share more about our Year of Disney very soon!), I picked up the October issue of HGTV Magazine at the airport. I have a lot of magazine subscriptions, but HGTV Mag isn’t one of them, so I always treat myself to a copy when I think about it. I should really think about getting a subscription, because they are why I painted my front door yellow, and the reason that our new FAMILY COMMAND CENTER is so cute.

So here’s the cover of the October 2019 issue of HGTV Magazine…

And here’s our new family command center wall!

urban walls irregular dots (in black, but multiple colors available) // similar gold wall file organizer // boat cleat hooks // glass dimensional dry erase boards

Family Command Center

I ordered the decals as soon as we got back from our trip, with plans to do the whole wall as an accent wall of sorts. But then I realized that this blank expanse of wall (about 9 feet high x 6 feet wide) would be the perfect drop zone / command center for our family. It’s right off the mud room / garage entry and across from the coffee station / butler’s pantry (our rooms have multiple uses, how ’bout yours?).

gold push pin magnets // dry erase markers // gray file folders

So this project quickly snowballed – don’t they always?! To get the look from HGTV Magazine, I had to paint this wall white-ish. Which meant that I had to find a white that I liked, that coordinated with our cabinets, trim, and gray wall color (Benjamin Moore Sterling). The easiest thing to do was get our wall color in a lighter formula. So I went to Lowe’s and got a quart of eggshell in Sterling at 25% strength. It was perfect. A quart was just enough to do this 9′ x 6′ wall.

After I painted the wall, we hung the dry erase boards. It was really so easy, you guys! We didn’t know how easy it would be since they sit away from the wall about an inch, and getting them both level and lined up to each other might have been tricky. BUT they were packed with a piece of styrofoam on top that was the exact size of the board. We traced the holes onto the styrofoam, then used it as our template for placement of each board.

They also came with little clear acrylic marker ledges which attach to the back of the board with double sided foam tape. I put the ledge on the top board, but left it off the bottom one (little hands don’t need easy access to markers!).

Using a ruler and a dry erase marker, I marked off the squares for the calendar then attached this skinny vinyl tape to make the squares permanent so I don’t have to draw them every month.

September and October are the busiest months of the year for us! Things better slow down in November because I got Hallmark Christmas movies to watch. 🙂

Oh and the boards are also magnetic – perfect for hanging important papers and artwork.

Next came placing the dots. They come on a sheet with about 150 dots. I wanted to hang the boards first because there was no sense in placing dots behind them where no one would see! So I placed the dots individually around the boards, making sure some were peeking out from behind so it looked like they went all the way under there. It looks like it would take a long time, but for the whole wall, it maybe took an hour and a half! Depending on how close you place your dots together, you may need more or less sheets, but I needed 5 sheets to cover this wall. I cut a straight edge on the ones that met the baseboard and the corners so it would look more like wallpaper and less like vinyl decals. 🙂

Here’s a wider view of where this sits in relation to other spaces! Right after you come in from the garage, this hallway is to the right. The butler’s pantry is our coffee station and now the left wall is MUCH more functional as well! You can also see that nothing hanging on this wall gets in the way of walking down the hallway to the playroom.

The butler’s pantry is one of my favorite areas in the house. It’s nice to have the coffee maker, bean grinder, sugar and creamer (in the mini fridge below) within such close proximity to each other, yet out of the way of the main kitchen area (I hate clutter on my counters, how ’bout you?).

pendants // countertop // coffee maker (this is the newer model of mine) // tiered tray (similar)

I used a gift card on the dry erase boards, and already had the file folder and boat cleat hooks, so all I bought were the paint and decals! This was a super fun project to dream up and implement and I’m so obsessed with it, I find myself making excuses to go write something on the calendar. 🙂