Hi there! I hope you are having a good week! I am excited to share a fun project with you today! This past week I created a family command center wall that I am hoping will help us stay a little more organized. We don’t have a lot of open wall space in our central living spaces, so I decided to use a wall that leads to our basement. This wall is a spot that gets a lot of traffic because it leads to our main play area plus it is located right by our front door. Anyway, enough build up, let’s get to the actual space!
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Creating a Command Center
Every year around the start of a new school year, I get in an organization mode. Just like at the end of the school year, the kids come home with a TON of paperwork at the beginning of the year! There are forms to sign and dates to remember–paper overload!
I came up with the idea to create a wall to serve as our central information center! Here, the kids can find their chore charts, see the weekly dinner menu, leave forms for me to sign and see upcoming important dates (picture day, pizza days, etc!)
I used this Krylon Chalkboard paint on the walls. This is the paint my contractor used on our kitchen chalkboard wall and he said it is the best chalkboard paint. You need to use at least two coats of paint to get the wall completely dark.
The paint has to dry for a full 72 hours before you use chalk on it. Once the paint has set, you need to prep the wall by rubbing a piece of chalk (on it’s long side) all over the wall. It sounds harder than it is…it only takes 5 minutes to do this!
When I was coming up with ideas for this wall, I considered removable wallpaper. However, I wanted the spot to be kid friendly and fun, so I thought chalkboard paint would be a better fit.
I bought a three pack of clipboards to display our chore charts. I debated on laminating the chores charts to be able to reuse the charts. But we’ve done that route in the past and sometimes the charts get really messy and we lose track of which week we are on. Instead, I printed out three month’s worth of charts and we will use a new one every week.
Blank Chore Printable Template
The fun part was adding all of the little details. I found the envelope paper holder and corkboard in Target’s office section.
Reversable Corkboard/Chalkboard
Chores for Kids
The stairwell works out perfectly for the kids! My little guy can sit on the step and look over his chores.
Then my big kids can stand at eye level and review their responsibilities:) Everyone loves being able to see our weekly menu–husband included!
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Do you give your kids an allowance? We’ve gone back and forth on this and currently we are giving allowances for chores. We want our kids to learn about money management and making decisions on when to buy and when to save. Our current requirement with their allowances is that they have to save a portion of their earnings into long term savings. We will see how this all works out–it is always a work in progress! I’d love to hear your ideas!
Links to Free Chore Printables
Five Year Old Chore Chart (Pictures)
This is the second post I have seen about making command centers. This must be the new thing to do to be so organized. Like where you made yours and what you used.
I think everyone has organization on their mind this time of year!
I love this and we totally need it. Just gotta figure out where now 🙂
Love this! We need to add a chore chart to our command center! I love the chalk board style too so you can easily change this up daily! Great ideas 🙂
Nice ideas! I have a command center but it’s not as cute as yours!
Super cute idea! I love the gold envelope holder too. I will definitely be adding a command center in our household!
This is such a great idea! We might make a wall like this, too. 🙂 Thanks for including my blank printable chore chart in your post!
It looks great. I have a friend with a huge chalkboard calendar wall and I love it, but we don’t have the space!
Love this! Clear expectations for the kids and a sense of security in the routines!?
As I was reading through this I was thinking “I wish I had space for a command centre”. Then I scrolled down and see that you’ve done it at the top of the basement stairs. Brilliant idea! Right now I try and do a bit of a command centre on the fridge, but it always ends up looking messy, so this could be the perfect solution. Great post and I love that gold envelope!
Yes-I had to get creative because I don’t have a lot of available space too! But it’s a perfect spot because it is out of the way yet gets a lot of traffic.
I LOVE this command center! You did an awesome job! 🙂 I especially love the chalkboard wall and the chore chart!
Thank you Madison! I am hoping it keeps our family very organized:)
This looks great! I really want to set up a command center for my family in our kitchen once we’re done renovating. I think it would make my life so much easier (and definitely more organized!)
It’s nice to start off the school year a little more organized. You’ll have to share your space once it is renovated!
I love this! Makes my type A personality jump for joy!
A family command center doesn’t have to take up space in the kitchen, laundry room or mud room. We love that Jaclyn of Coffee, Pancakes, and Dreams put a wall leading to the basement to work as her family’s command center. With chalkboard paint, clipboards to hold chore charts and a shiny envelope awaiting loose papers, the command center put things in their place. Check out the step-by-step on Jaclyn’s blog and as a bonus, get a set of free printable chore charts. If you’re short on space, we love the DIY Farmhouse Command Center created by Michaels. It’s got all the essentials—a place to jot down notes or greetings, a slot to hold mail and a row of spools repurposed as key hooks. Plus, it takes about 30 minutes to make. Find the supply list and instructions at Michaels.