What Have You Done To Your House To Accommodate Your Lego Hobby/Addiction?

WatfordScottyM

The immortal words 'games room' came out of my wife's mouth on Saturday... The time has come!!!

stlux

Planning permission received for the new house, including a 15.8m2 Lego Room. Will finally be able to display a decent city.

JELJ1S

@mattdawson @geordiepaul @sumolego The plan for the door is a secret Bookcase door!!  so it will be a type of "secret lair" kind of place!! 

catwrangler

Okay, I now have an official "only regret" about the place we bought a couple of years ago - lack of opportunities for a secret door! :D

josekalel

JELJ1S said:

@mattdawson @geordiepaul @sumolego The plan for the door is a secret Bookcase door!!  so it will be a type of "secret lair" kind of place!! 

All he needs is a pool of sharks with "lasers"...

SprinkleOtter

JELJ1S said:

@mattdawson @geordiepaul @sumolego The plan for the door is a secret Bookcase door!!  so it will be a type of "secret lair" kind of place!! 

This means, of course, that you will have to show us pictures when it is done.

And, also, that dozens of contractors around the world will suddenly be getting requests for installing "secret bookcase doors."

stlux

No secret door nor sharks with lasers planned for my Lego Room. Door will be locked though when kids are visiting; supervised access only!

chrisalddin

stlux said:

No secret door nor sharks with lasers planned for my Lego Room. Door will be locked though when kids are visiting; supervised access only!

so, you will be installing a keypad, using a 10 digit code with palm and retinal scanner's, for a full 3 levels of safety.

JELJ1S

@sprinkleotter For sure!!  I will definitely post photos once It gets along!  I have just finished baseboards.  Will need to get closet doors and storage room doors next.  then carpet.  The bookcase door is in design phase at this point.  still trying to work out the types of hinges to use and all that. 

SprinkleOtter

JELJ1S said:

@sprinkleotter For sure!!  I will definitely post photos once It gets along!  I have just finished baseboards.  Will need to get closet doors and storage room doors next.  then carpet.  The bookcase door is in design phase at this point.  still trying to work out the types of hinges to use and all that. 

I think you might want to put the carpet in before the closet doors? Usually seems to go easier for me...

legomental

JELJ1S said:

@sprinkleotter For sure!!  I will definitely post photos once It gets along!  I have just finished baseboards.  Will need to get closet doors and storage room doors next.  then carpet.  The bookcase door is in design phase at this point.  still trying to work out the types of hinges to use and all that. 

Google viral nova and secret bookcase door. There is a very easy step by step set of instructions. I've used them and even I managed it. 

SprinkleOtter

legomental said:

JELJ1S said:

@sprinkleotter For sure!!  I will definitely post photos once It gets along!  I have just finished baseboards.  Will need to get closet doors and storage room doors next.  then carpet.  The bookcase door is in design phase at this point.  still trying to work out the types of hinges to use and all that. 

Google viral nova and secret bookcase door. There is a very easy step by step set of instructions. I've used them and even I managed it. 

Interesting and inventive, but not very secretive.

catwrangler

legomental said:

Google viral nova and secret bookcase door. There is a very easy step by step set of instructions. I've used them and even I managed it. 

Thanks for this - just showed it to my partner and he says we can actually use it for the understair cupboard he's renovating! :D 

JELJ1S

@legomental That is interesting.  that one is way too obvious for my plans.  Im doing something that looks like a built in bookcase.  Google "instructable Hidden bookcase doors to secret lair".  It will be a single instead of a double, but will move similarly.  It will also appear to be floor to ceiling so as not to look like a doorway of any kind. 

stlux

chrisalddin said:

stlux said:

No secret door nor sharks with lasers planned for my Lego Room. Door will be locked though when kids are visiting; supervised access only!

so, you will be installing a keypad, using a 10 digit code with palm and retinal scanner's, for a full 3 levels of safety.

I like the sound of that; will need to investigate!

Devastator

You should engineer the bookshelf so that tilting one fake book acts as the opening mechanism for the hidden door.

brumey

those of you displaying modulars on top of cabinets:

dont you have issues with dust? 

HugeYellowBrick

brumey said:

those of you displaying modulars on top of cabinets:

dont you have issues with dust? 

Yes

richl

JELJ1S said:

@legomental That is interesting.  that one is way too obvious for my plans.  Im doing something that looks like a built in bookcase.  Google "instructable Hidden bookcase doors to secret lair".  It will be a single instead of a double, but will move similarly.  It will also appear to be floor to ceiling so as not to look like a doorway of any kind. 

Be interested to see what you end up with. If we ever move out of rental apartments into an actual house, I'm going for a Mines of Moria door http://imgur.com/gallery/vOnt5

monkey_roo

Well, a year after starting to build out my Star Wars / Lego room I finally got the pictures on the wall, not quite Lego but there is plenty of that on display as well. Next job is to sort out the super heroes display, very messy right now.

piratemania7

Finally have had time to set up a train for the first time ever! The layout is not the final; I just wanted to get a feel for it and use all the track I had.  I need more track that I know...

Rsa33

TommyF

Can anyone steer me in the right direction. I have one wall of a room covered with Ikea Billy Bookcases (+extensions and glass doors). I now have another wall that I can only use at a higher level. I was looking for some display cabinets (preferably with glass doors to keep the dust at bay) Don't really want to go down the route of just using open shelves. Just wondering if there was something else out there. Hope it to hold Lego Castle, Lego Pirates & ships. Any help / advice appreciated ps low cost would be good too

masterX244

piratemania7 said:

Finally have had time to set up a train for the first time ever! The layout is not the final; I just wanted to get a feel for it and use all the track I had.  I need more track that I know...

looks like that one dead end track needs a buffer stop for now...

Fauch

some of my displays

GeordiePaul

@Rsa33 Laughed when I saw your IKEA 5x5 set-up. I have pretty much exactly the same thing. Getting worried about where my future modulars are going to go as I reckon I can only add another two if I relocate the GBHQ and that toy R2.

TheMaker37

@Rsa33 Love the display. I see you have that Sisyphus model. Where do you get directions for it if you don't mind?

starwars4ever

I just put up random shelves somewhere in my house when I run out of room. It works!

yys4u

@monkey_roo is that a mini tumbler you moc'd into a black one?

Rsa33

@GeordiePaul lol, agreed.  I have two other rooms stocked w built models, but I am outta space and have quite a few still in boxes that I can't build: including R2, newer modulars, and customized mocs...

@TheMaker37 found on rebrickable or jk brickworks website...one of my favorite builds ever, truly worth the experience.  Not sure how much it will cost now to bricklink, but I believe it cost me around ~$150 awhile ago.

All_That_Rocks

UPDATE: Builders started work on my extension last week. Nothing too exciting yet, just foundations but for anyone interested I've done a couple of Lego Room/Building videos on my youtube channel over at youtube.com/brickarena

Will try and post pics here too as things progress.

Venunder

@All_That_Rocks. I have an alternative for your plan.
Lose the Living room and expand your dining /sitting area. When you are not using the expanbdable table for Family gatherings you can move the sofa back for a better view of The Lego Movie. You will probably end up not using the Living room. Unless you plan a lot of formal gatherings?
Move the bent kitchen sink area, to get better views of your new TV/movie screen and view out of your bifold doors from the expanded sitting area. Remember you only spend 20 minutes at the sink 3 times a day? But spend up to 4 hours a day watching tv/ or The Lego Movie with your kids?

Gain a lego display area and a bigger store room, because you will always have more lego. You can always cut your study off from the Lego Display using a folding room divider?

All_That_Rocks

Venunder said:

@All_That_Rocks. I have an alternative for your plan.

Thanks for taking the time in redesigning my house. You've clearly put a lot of thought and effort into it. There are some great ideas there but unfortunately like all things its a compromise that has to be balanced with my ever tolerant wife. 

Don't take too much notice of sink positions or the study layout, thats just what the architect threw in and are all up for change.

Your a little off on my TV consumption though which in probably half your estimate and my kids are all grown up so I can watch the Lego Movie on the Lego room cinema display :)

No matter how much room I have it will no doubt not be enough, but then I do now have three spare bedrooms upstairs :)

prevere

Working on updating my Technic parts section. So many new parts...those have to get shoved in bins on the floor. To be fair the left half is Technic, far right starts tires/wheels.

SumoLego

^ Great googily moogily.  I thought my 18-foot table was obnoxious.

(Edit - obnoxious in a good way.)

prevere

The little thumbnail images are key. There's a tabletop below you can't see - which is always messy as hell.

prevere

I printed, cut and taped my own thumbnails from BL, because I wanted them in color. I know there are those really nice formatted ones floating about the forum as well. Each time I'm looking for a part it saves 5-10 seconds.

SumoLego

(Aforementioned table.  I have three sets of other Lego shelves with 'projects' and a display cabinet that has turned into a Lego junk collector.)

But I don't yet have a construction table.  I think I need to work on that next.  @prevere - I'm impressed!

Farmer_John

Wow...I just noticed that Brickset is removing images from threads after some time period...probably due to space constraints. Does anyone know the magic time period after an image is posted before they Brickset deletes them?

Recce

prevere said:

Working on updating my Technic parts section. So many new parts...those have to get shoved in bins on the floor. To be fair the left half is Technic, far right starts tires/wheels.

Very nice parts storage system!

Though the OCD in me points to at least 20 drawers that are not fully closed. :)) 

prevere

^Or that have labels....it's a never-ending siege. I've changed drawers many times based on how much I value time for that part...

legogal

Some fine looking LEGO rooms here for sure! After moving the collection around through five different rooms and several other areas of the house, it is about settled in one downstairs large hobby room without windows but with a double glass door to a well lit room. It can be tough finding a room that is large enough and has few windows in a home with rooms that have windows on at least two walls. The amount of sunlight striking your LEGO is a critical design factor. Common window blinds with slats often block out little light and have leaks on both sides that can allow a huge amount of light to hit your prized objects. If you store LEGO in transparent containers, this also can be a problem around windows. And of course you have to add enough controlled lighting (to a relatively dark room) to be able to see your LEGO! My LEGO containers (on tall metal rolling shelving) for storage are located in a different room upstairs, so building usually happens upstairs. If there is too much LEGO in one room, it can be overwhelming and hard to take in at one time. In a dream world, it would be cool to have a different room for each theme, wouldn't it!

TyresOFlaherty

Was about to start a new thread, and I was lucky I came upon this one! We have one last unfinished room in our basement that my wife is going to banish me and my collection to.

I plan on doing the framing myself, does anyone have any tips/ideas, or things they wish their Lego rooms had? (e.g. extra 2x4 reinforcement behind sheetrock to anchor shelves to, things like that?)

TyresOFlaherty

Also, I'm not a MOC guy at all (yet, say my friends who do), I'm more interested in display, and just a little storage for random/extra pieces.

My IKEA shelf is just plain running out of room here:

TyresOFlaherty

@Farmer_John Do you have any photos of your Lego room (Before/progress/after?) Unless I'm doing something wrong, I'm not seeing them on this thread and would love to see what you ended up with. Thanks!

chrisalddin

well just to show off what i got in one part of my room.

SumoLego

TyresOFlaherty said:

I plan on doing the framing myself, does anyone have any tips/ideas, or things they wish their Lego rooms had? (e.g. extra 2x4 reinforcement behind sheetrock to anchor shelves to, things like that?)

Definitely seal the basement walls and have good ventilation - musty basements make for stinky boxes.

mldj77

I'm thinking of having my basement remodeled. I have a Lego city down there already, as well as one upstairs. Neither are big enough. Plus I need storage space and a work area. I might have my garage removed to open up the entire basement. The city could be 36' X 8'

TyresOFlaherty

@SumoLego Thanks for the advice, from reading this and other posts, looks like I need to invest in an air purifier to cut down on dust, too? I need to strike while the iron is hot, my wife is itching for me to finish this room so I can have all my Lego in one place....total win/win situation here!

SumoLego

^ I have a UV ultraviolet filter in my HVAC system.  Night and day difference in the level of dust in my house.  I thought it was a bunch of malarkey - but I swear by it.

And as an aside, if you plan to heat the basement, make sure your furnace can handle the extra square footage.  And a return register to keep the air circulating.  Most people don't take the extra step to install one.