I have six kids, five of which are boys, and they ALL love legos. I used to take solace in the fact that at least my little girl wouldn’t be collecting huge lego sets…Until they came out with Lego Friends…sigh
Now don’t get me wrong I love legos. I mean really, they are probably the best toys for kids. They inspire creativity, imagination, and help develop fine motor skills. Right!?! I want that for my kids.
So what is my problem? Well, when you have six kids that get lego sets for every birthday and Christmas, AND with every gift card they receive…your house starts to become over run…WITH LEGOS!! Sound familiar? (I can totally see you nodding your head)
In the beginning, when my boys were small, they would build the sets, which eventually fell apart, so they would play with the pieces creating anything they wanted. As they grew, they re-built the sets, and recently my oldest boy and his cousin created the “LEGO GAME”. Basically a “Risk” type game with lego sets and guys…they play for hours and love it…which is all great, but we are still bursting at the seams with legos.
Last year I had an idea to build a table, or several tables (because we have so many), that would store the lego sets. I also wanted the tables to allow my kids easy access so they get to them without any trouble. I am happy to say that this dream has finally become a reality and I am seriously super excited to share these plans with you!
Now my kids get to make awesome lego set ups and play their game, and I get to have all the lego sets hidden away when they are not being used, a totally win win situation!
I mean look at the difference! They were literally stealing furniture from around the house to cram their lego sets on! Now they are all neatly tucked away in rolling lego tables that look pretty and HIDE the sets! Woo hoo!! Oh, and it also keeps the set from getting broken apart, which is nice too.
Click here to get the PDF Lego Table Building Plans. *I also want to note that I will still do a tutorial in this post which will have some building tips and tricks that are not in the plan so if you decide to build these please read both! I made these tables to fit my family’s needs, so I will include a couple of ideas for modifying the plan in this post, if you have a desire to do so.
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So lets get started!! Back in October I started my oldest two boys
room makeover, and the reason I decided to do their room was because I had been promising my oldest son that I would make him some lego tables. I knew this would be my push to get it all done, and boy was it a TON of work!
This is what their room looked like before…
Today you will see about the project that inspired it all…the lego tables.
After drawing up some plans I headed to my favorite store, the
Home Depot to purchase some wood. I went with all new wood instead of my usual using reclaimed wood…I don’t have THAT much scrap! I had the nice guys rip the plywood sheets into appropriate sizes for building three lego tables. Since I don’t own a table saw (totally on my wish list) this was a huge help.
After getting all my cuts and drilling pocket holes I was ready to build. To make attaching my sides to the 2×2’s easier I used a piece of plywood underneath (top left). This put my 2×2’s and side piece flush together for drilling in the pocket hole screws. I love using my
Kreg Right Angle Clamp
when I work to keep my boards together while I drill in the screws (bottom left). After I had finished attaching with the glue and screws I lifted up my side piece and I was done (right). Perfectly inset!
Next up I added the top and bottom 1×2 trim with glue 1 1/4” finish nails using my
Ryobi Nail gun
.
To attach my sides together I drilled 3/4” pocket holes with my
Kreg K5 Pocket-Hole Jig
and used my
Kreg Right Angle Clamp to attach them to the sides for easy drilling. I added them to one side (top right), then attached them to the other side (bottom right).
After flipping it upright, I attached the bottom piece with pocket hole screws (top). I choose to put the pocket holes on the inside since the drawer would be covering them, but you could do them on the bottom. Either way will work. You could also add the bottom piece first and then the 1×2 trim later, I guess it just depends on how you like to do it. In the bottom photo I attached a scrap piece of plywood for a top back support.
In the photo on the left I am adding gorilla wood glue to the top piece, you can see I only have an overhang on the front of the table top. I put the lego table onto the top and attached it with pocket hole screws, from the sides and the top trim pieces.
Next up I built my drawers, or I guess they are more like trays. I wanted the sides shallow for easy access to the sets. I ended up using scrap plywood strips that I had left over from cutting the table pieces. You can save money by doing the same or you could purchase 1×4’s for the sides.
The drawers are simple to build. I glued and nailed them together with my
Nail Gun, by attaching the sides to the bottom and then adding the front and back pieces.
I wanted to show how I cut my plywood without a table saw. I use my
Kreg Rip-Cut
and
Ryobi Circular Saw
all the time! But the rip cut only can go to 24” and several of my cuts needed to be wider than that. So, instead of removing my Rip cut base from my saw for my bigger than 24 cuts, I just left it attached and used a scrap piece of plywood as my guide to keep my cuts straight.
I simply measured and marked my plywood where I needed to cut, placed my rip cut guide on the line (left) clamped on my scrap wood for my guide, and then cut away (right)! Perfect cuts every time! This shot is of me cutting my back pieces for the tables, or the fold down table extensions.
For my doors I ended up using some of my scrap pile. Yay! I choose to do 1/4” thick mdf, since I had it on hand, but you could also use 1/4” plywood. I wanted my doors to be very thin and light, because I wanted more room for drawer space, which is why I went with 18” drawer slides. I used inexpensive lath to add trim around each door and glued and clamped them onto the front. I suggest you measure your door openings on each table before you cut the door fronts, then cut them to 1/8” smaller on each side.
After I finished building I painted everything before attaching any hardware. I used my Home Right Finish max pro to do the hard work, and it makes me happy every time I use it!
I am so very grateful for
Rockler for supplying me with the hardware for my lego tables, they have amazing products and I couldn’t have made these awesome tables without them. When I got all my lego table hardware in the mail I was happy to see this
Rockler Universal Drawer Slide Jig included.Oh man is it ever cool! It makes attaching drawer slides accurate and easy. You can see that it even has a foot guide for adding multiple drawer slides at the same height without measuring (right).
Now I need to explain how I ended up using the jig on the lego tables. Since my doors would be inset I couldn’t attach my drawers slides with the jig from the front, because the jig attaches them flush with the front and I needed a half inch space for my doors.
So I attached them from the back. I figured out that if I added a small spacer (a thin piece of wood attached with painters tape see photo above) to my jig I could get my drawer slide in the right place by attaching them from the back. So I jigged the jig, and it was awesome. Funny thing is when I built my Reclaimed Wood Media Console a month after these tables I ended up jigging the jig again but from the front this time, you can see how here.
I put my drawers in and they worked great, no adjusting necessary, it was so much easier with the jig.
I used Flat butt hinges to attach the doors to the sides. Then I needed to get some scrap wood to make a stop for my magnetic catches. I just glued and nailed it onto the inside of the the top 1×2 support and it worked great (middle and right). I also used some thin old blind pieces between the door and the magnetic piece because the screw was a little longer than the thickness of my door (left).
I found it easiest to make a quick jig for drilling holes for my ring pulls, especially since I had to drill for six doors.
One of the biggest design challenges for me was figuring out how to have my lego table have an extension that my kids could put up when playing and then fold down when they were done. I racked my brain for months and then I discovered these awesome folding leg brackets at Rockler that were the answer to all my woes. They were perfect, in fact I was super impressed with the quality of all their products!
The best part is that they are super easy to install and easy to use. It is important to stagger them so that they lay flat when folded up. Simply screw the legs to the bracket and then screw the bracket to the back piece. I measured to get the length for my legs after built the table and installed the 4” casters. I never ended up painting the legs…who knows if I ever will! 🙂
Next up I needed to attach the piano hinge to the back piece, I cut my piano hinge with a sawzall to get it the right length. I clamped my back piece to my drawers (which I obviously removed) so it could stand it up while I screwed on the piano hinge (left photos). Then I attached the back piece to the lego table with the piano hinge (right).
When I finished my boys were so excited to get the tables into their room and try them out! Here is a shot of what they look like underneath when they are set up.
A few things I want to point out. I wanted to keep the drawers as big as possible without making the table too deep. So I opted to use
18” drawer slides and made them go all the way to the back. If you want to make yours smaller using 16” drawer slides you can adjust accordingly. This will allow you to have more room for the folding back piece to actually go inside of the table more, instead of it sticking out as far. You would just need to make sure you set the
folding leg brackets far enough in so that they would go inside of the table, and change your drawer size to fit a 16” slide.
Also the drawers do not slide out without the doors opening all the way out. If you want them to slide out without the doors having to open all the way you could add a 1×2 on the insides attaching your drawer slides to the 1×2. This would mean you would need to subtract 1 1/2” from your drawer width. We love our tables just how I built them, but these adjustment might work better in another space, so I thought I would throw those options out to you. 🙂
These lego tables are super sturdy and are perfect as a bench seat too, I love that they offer so many solutions to my problem!
I have never once had to put them away, my kids do it all themselves. They organize the drawers and everything. If you look closely I set one of the top drawers higher (lego table on the far left) because some of the sets were taller. You could customize it anyway you need!
The sets never get broken now and my kids actually play with them more, because they can do this…
I have seen them set up the tables several different ways to play their game.
Here is a different version.
And yet another. You can see this game is a big deal. This particular day was a recent snow day, all their friends came over and they had a blast playing the lego game, and taking breaks to play in the snow too. In the photo above they are getting set up.
Here they are ready to play. Can you spy my daughter’s sets?
It cracks me up with how serious they take this, and I love seeing their guys ready to go into battle.
Boys are so fun!
So that is it! If you have similar lego problem then this might be a great solution for you! I am already thinking of building some for my living room, and heck this table would be great for a craft room too!
Thank you so much for reading, and let’s spread the love and help all those lego overloaded mom’s out there know there is hope, so please share!!
Hugs,
Mindi
when I work to keep my boards together while I drill in the screws (bottom left). After I had finished attaching with the glue and screws I lifted up my side piece and I was done (right). Perfectly inset!
.
and used my Kreg Right Angle Clamp
and Ryobi Circular Saw
all the time! But the rip cut only can go to 24” and several of my cuts needed to be wider than that. So, instead of removing my Rip cut base from my saw for my bigger than 24 cuts, I just left it attached and used a scrap piece of plywood as my guide to keep my cuts straight.
wow! great post Mindi! I was so anxious to see how you did the legs. I've often done projects and struggled with the fold up legs. Then after reading your explanation, and looking at the photos, I was still a little confused, UNTIL (duh) I realized they fold to the left and right, instead of UP toward the cabinet/table.
genius!
pinning!
gail
This is awesome Mindi! When we made our kitchen island we used a nickle hinge and drop leaf supports. Which might be an alternative to adding legs. They are super strong too! I can see making a few of these for other uses besides legos. Pinned for later. Thanks for sharing at the party. Hope this finds you well!!
How wonderful is that! What a cool mom you are, that is a big project. My middle son is 24 and still likes legos, so you may have those tables in use for many more years.
I knew Jesus loved legos too!
I love that comment from Bliss! It's nice to find another Mormon mommy blogger! And that BYU-Idaho shirt is rockin'. 🙂 Your Lego sets put mine to shame. I finally dumped ours out of the beat up cardboard box they called home and organized them by size in a small set of three drawers. If we get any more I'm sunk. The fact that you built that awesome roll-away is amazing. Well done! I would love it if you stopped by to say hi!
My son and daughter were both huge Lego fans. We could probably have benefitted from a Lego table. We don't have grandchildren yet, but I know we will be buying Legos when we do so I will keep this one in mind.
Thanks for Sharing Your Cup!
These are so great! We are about to out grow the sliding lego table…I think these tables will be a perfect upgrade.
Those are amazing! What a great solution to the Lego problem. It seems like we never have enough flat surfaces for Lego sets at our house too. I love the drawers you made to store everything.
OK- this is an amazing project! So clever and a great idea. I have two boys and our Lego is starting to get out of control too so thank you for sharing this wonderful tutorial.
Wow! What a collection of Legos That storage cabinet is amazing! My youngest son loved Legos and now plays with his two boys. Thanks for sharing with SYC.
hugs,
Jann
This is so COOL! Love the design of the tables, I knew there was a reason to save my boys legos, even after 15 years! I hope I can get one made for my grandkids to love and enjoy! Thank you for sharing!
Those are awesome. Would be great in a craft room, too!
Pretty sure I need some of these in our house! We have a decent sized LEGO collection ourselves (though not nearly this many!) but sadly have nowhere to display the sets. So, right now, everything is stored nicely, and the one set we do have out (the Millenium Falcon!) is on top of the shelf it's all stored in. I would absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE to have something that not only let us build on, but put the sets into, as well as the other pieces we have!
Wow! Your kids have a Lego convention in their room! 🙂 Mindi, you have put so much love and hard work into this room. That Lego table / cabinet is fantastic! If my guy accumulates that many Lego's, I may need something like this cabinet.
Great tutorial! I know how long those take to write. Ugh! :/
My 9 year old grandson would love this to the moon and back. I love everything about it; pull out drawers, wheels and put it away! It's awesome! Thank you so much for sharing with us at Merry Monday.
This looks so good! Pinned and tweeted. Thanks for coming to our party and sharing such an amazing recipe! I hope to see you next Monday @7 because we love to party with you! Happy Friday! Lou Lou Girls
This has to be one of the coolest ideas I have seen. I love it!
This looks awesome!
Roughly how much did the cost to make?