Two of the biggest challenges for LEGO fans as their collection grows are to store their LEGO pieces, and to display their LEGO creations. We talked extensively about LEGO storage and display ideas in the Care & Feed of LEGO section, and today I would like to show you one more way I just ran across recently that I really liked and I thought you might like too! 🙂
Cool, huh? The above picture has been circulating around the Internet as a child’s LEGO room, but it is in fact the LEGO lounge at Café Boobah, a Brooklyn, New York based eatery that caters specifically to families with children. The LEGO wall was added by I-Beam Architecture & Design, who decorated the interior of the cafe adding many awesome family and kid-friendly features.
So how is this relevant to older LEGO fans? I believe a LEGO wall is an excellent option to any LEGO room where space is limited, or when you want to add an unusual and surprising way to display your LEGO creations.
Find the green baseplates for your LEGO wall a bit too bright? I do like the green ones, but if you prefer another color don’t worry; LEGO baseplates are available in other colors as well. Although baseplates come as large as 50×50 studs, those can be hard to find. The most common, most widely available baseplates with the largest color selection are 32×32 studs. They are available in blue, brown, two shades of gray, two shades of green, red, magenta, tan, and white. Check Bricklink or the Online LEGO Shop.
Although covering a whole wall with LEGO plates is really cool, you may not want to do that. You can also just ad a strip of baseplates (or even just one baseplate) to an area that you would find most appealing; like maybe above your desk so you can always have something to get creative with while working without cluttering up your work-space.
So what can a LEGO wall be used for? Well, I leave that up to your imagination, but here are some ideas I thought of:
➡ LEGO wall for displaying a minifigure collection. Just ad a plate behind the minifigures’ legs and stick them to the wall. You can arrange them and re-arrange them any time!
➡ LEGO wall for building mosaics. Having a whole wall for LEGO mosaics would allow the mosaics to dynamically change as you come up with new techniques and ideas, and would also allow to view them from a distance to make sure they look right.
➡ LEGO wall for building with unconventional techniques like sideways building and other SNOT (Studs-Not-On-Top) techniques. Or even forced perspective techniques. You can basically build up a whole landscape on your LEGO wall and display it like a mural.
➡ LEGO wall for displaying LEGO sets. A vertical wall would be great for displaying LEGO spaceships or other sets where the vertical display area would be to your advantage.
So what do you think? How do you like the LEGO wall idea? Any other ways you could think of using a vertical LEGO building area? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below! 😉
You might also like to check out the Care & Feed of LEGO section for more storage and display ideas or select from the following related posts:
great idea, I might try that
how did they keep it on the wall
glue? 😕
I think so.
me to i really like the idea for the minyfigs i relly like minyfigs but i don’t really like the idea of glue but tape would be good be cause you culd take them of
I’m not sure, but there are several different options I can think of; double-sided tape, blutack, velcro, even nails…
Wow I want my room like that
Hey guys! New sets came out where I live! They have the one with Dr.Octopus, Spiderman,and Ironfist. They also have those little planets for Star Wars. They have a battle pack with 2 stormtroopers and 2 endor soldiers. They also have a battle pack with an Arc Trooper,regular clone trooper,and 2 droids.
Awesome! Those are all great sets! Are you getting any of them? 🙂
Yea,i’m planning to get the set with the Endor soldiers and the storm troopers. I really like space themes like Star Wars and Galaxy Squad so I plan on getting some of those. (as you know i’m a huge Star Wars fan so most of my MOCs don’t have wheels)
Yeah, Spce themes are awesome! I especially like LEGO’s own Space themes like Galxy Squad and Alien Conquest as they have more freedom for interesting designs. But I love the Star Wars sets as well. Especially the minifigs! 😀
Hey I like the One-palte for arranging minifigures idea… might try that at work.
We did something similar in my sons room, except as a border about midway down the wall, rather than the whole wall, so that if sometime he decides he doesn’t want it, we can remove it without redoing the drywall.
We nailed a thin wooden border strip to the wall and then glued green plate pieces to it, so we weren’t gluing directly to the wall.
Zark, thanks for sharing that! The woden strip is a great idea! It both protects the wall and also probably easier to glue on. 🙂
AWESOME!!! I just put super glue and base plates on my shopping list! 😀
I wouldn’t suggest super glue as it would destroy your baseplates, but something more gentle and removable. 😉
Well I couldn’t find anywhere better to put this, but here’s a great picture of the S10 minifigs, including the golden fig:
http://www.brickshelf.com/gallery/grogall/Minifigures/71001/c_71001_detail_1.jpg
Yeah, I was reading about that this morning! Awesome, isn’t it? Although I had other plans for tomorrow, I think I will write up a post about Series 10 so we can discuss and see how TBB readers like them. 😀
you can get velcro tape that would be perfect for this 🙂
Chris, yes, I also think Velcro would be perfect for this! 🙂
that’s a great idea!!
I’m not chris ,I’m just someone else who’s name is Chris O.K.
How would Velcro be used?
Jodi, you would use one strip of Velcro on the wall and one on the basepates. Quite easy! Actually what I would use is the Velcro dots – I think it would be easier to apply and reapply than a whole tape, but would still be quite strong. 😉
Glue Velcro to wall and BasePlates?
Jodi, no you don’t need to glue the Velcro. Velcro already has a sticky back that will stick to pretty much anything without permanently damaging the surface, and will also stay removable (always test it out though on different surfaces). 😉
Can you build out from the wall using regular Legos or do you need a special kind? How far out can you build? Do they pull away from the base plates since they are vertical? Thinking about building one for the kids at a school.
Jean, that’s a good question. Baseplates actually have somewhat less of a grip than regular bricks, so that is going to be the weak link. Having said that, you could strengthen the connection between the baseplates and the bricks by giving the structure you will build on top of the baseplates a larger footprint. It is something that you can let your kids can experiment with. I just tried it myself and I could build out by 10 bricks stacked on top of each other with no problems. I was using simple 2×2 bricks, so the footprint was only a 2×2 square. The “tower” didn’t fall off. Have fun with your project! 🙂
So who actually has tried to adhere the baseplates to the wall yet? If it was successful what did you end up using and did it hold well enough to actually allow the child to build vertically?
Thank you!
Steph, I don’t have kids, but I do use this method for displaying minifigs and other things, and it holds up well. I use very strong two-sided tape (the one that can hold up framed pictures and stuff).
great idea, i grew up playing with lego and i recently had something really horrible happen in my life , i now have PTSD as well as depression, anyway, lego has been my savior , so i will def b useing this idea, thank u so much.
Gee, thanks for sharing, and wishing you the best in your healing journey.
Your site guided me thru making a lego portrait for my grandson (after we saw the great Wei Wei exhibit at Alcatraz) . Now I need to attach the 11×14 baseplate to the back of the shadow box. Glue or double-sided tape? Velcro was too bulky. Thanks.
Barbara, if you use double-sided tape, make sure you get the really strong one. There is some that you can get for attaching pictures to the wall. That is really good and the one I use.
I don’t have double sided tape what else could work good with it?
Chase I think you should probably use one-sided tape and tape the corners.