DIY Drop Zone!

Days before Christmas seems like the best time to undertake a small construction project, doesn't it?

I thought so too! Nevermind that I had 19 people coming to dinner on Christmas Eve. What's a little sawdust, drywall dust, and paint?

This new drop zone had actually been in the plans since Thanksgiving, but I kept getting told that I needed to wait, because there was a couch to get rid of before I could implement my plan. Once that couch was gone though! It took a day or 2 to get the furniture moved and the space for the new drop zone cleared out.

I'm getting ahead of myself, let me tell you how this evolved. I bought an entire set of furniture for the family room after Thanksgiving, which meant that all the furniture that was currently in the family room would need to move downstairs to the basement, which further meant that I needed to get rid of 2 pieces of furniture. Luckily, my dad took the big red couch. The chair still needs to go to the dump. The kids have destroyed it.

So with all of that changing, I started looking at another spot in the house that wasn't working anymore. That spot was the itty bitty coat rack that held their coats and backpacks (sometimes), but more often than not, the chair in the living room would hold the oldest's backpack, the shoes would get thrown somewhere near the sofa table, and the two littles......well their crap just got strewn from the living room towards the kitchen. It drove the hubs and me crazy. So I started coming up with plans for a new and improved drop zone. The original plan was to build lockers over on the wall against the stairs in the living room, but that required work. Not that I'm afraid of work, but it would've had to wait until after the new year, and as my husband so eloquently called my unwavering impatience, it just wasn't gonna happen.

So I started really looking at spots and things we had on hand, and then an idea grew. What if I transformed my little office space into the new drop zone?

My area could move into the living room and we'd just use it as more of a parlor. At least then the room would be seeing regular use!

So now I have the perfect space for the drop zone, but how to implement it? I could still do lockers, but again that meant waiting. No, go. Then I remembered that I built a bench eons ago, and it was going to be homeless when the new furniture came in. Why not use it? It was a custom built bench to go over the laundry baskets we used as toy bins when the boys were small. It'd certainly work for a bench to put on shoes and house shoe baskets.

So I moved it and the memo board over to the new spot. Small Fry approves of this!  He and Baby Girl immediately jumped on the shoe basket idea, and it's been so great not tripping over their shoes. Big Guy took a little longer to come around, actually, we still have to remind him to put his shoes away.

I am loving this change so far, and it's not even done!

Next, I had to make sure I had the lumber. We've got loads of scraps in the garage from various projects, so I was fairly certain that I could find everything I needed, and I was right. I managed to scrounge together all the wood I would need for the wall. I even found the builder's paint!

I called my dad and asked him if he wanted to take a break from painting his basement to help me build some wainscotting for the area. I also told him I'd pay him by providing lunch and coffee. He's cheap, but good labor.

I drew up some cursory pictures, and texted them over to him, explaining what exactly I wanted. We went back and forth a bit over what he would bring over and what I had. In the end, the plans were set! He would come over the next day and build me the wall I wanted. Squeeeee!

Construction went exactly as you figured it would. It was a straightforward plan with nothing to really complicate it, except or the dang outlet. Oh well. The outlet is behind the bench so ending the wood a bit above it worked out well.

  

The only real hitch came when I was touch up the wall where the hallway color is. My sample can was a different shade completely! So I went back to Lowe's and discovered that they'd changed the name of the paint I had used (it's now called Wild Mushroom), but if I had the code then they could mix it up. Of course, I don't remember the code, that's why I remembered the name! Google search to the rescue! The paint is still a shade darker, but to be fair this paint has been on the wall for ~5 years, so some lightening is to be expected. I will be repainting parts of the hallway at some point so that you can't see all my touch-ups. Home improvement projects never go exactly to plan, do they?

You can see the terrible touch-ups in the picture, but look how nice the whole area looks! I love that the kids are using it and that the only shoes I've tripped over lately, are the hubs. I mean I don't love that, but it's so much better than dodging several pairs on my trek from the front door to the kitchen.

So there's the new drop zone, and I gotta say I love it a little more that it didn't cost me a penny, not including the $13 for the new paint for the walls. I love how simple and easy it came together and how much nicer it is now to walk in our front door and not see piles of kid crap everywhere. Who knew that such a simple change would bring so much peace?

Thank so much stopping by!

Cheers,