When you run out of room...MAKE ROOM!
My favorite vacation of the year is the week of July 4th. My family and I stay home, enjoy our house, backyard pool (sized up to 12' this year!), and go to Summerfest and a few parades. I also take the opportunity to make any furniture or shelving we need in the house. This year I made 2 shelving units for my gameroom. I'm starting to run out of space, but the units pictured below have given me at least a few months of breathing space.
The first is a replacement for the ancient cabinet I had holding some systems next to my entertainment center. As you can see, it couldn't hold a 5200, and left a lot of wasted wall space above it:
I actually built 2 parts, a set of NES shelves out of 1" x 6" pine and a console rack out of plywood, and bolted them together to make the unit. In addition to the scads of NES games I was able to unbox and display...there's now room for my 5200, Gamecube, TG-16 w/ CD expansion and a system to be named later.
The second unit was needed to house my growing Genesis collection. It had long since outgrown the custom unit (on the left) I had built 2 years ago, and also had (awkwardly) filled a pressboard bookshelf as well. The games had to be stacked vertically to fit in the bookshelf, and were a pain to get to. So I duplicated the spacing of the first unit, and extended some shelves to hold the other junk in my room (most notably the custom-made neon I picked up at a rummage last month for $5.00!)
I'm now storing my PS2 & GC games in the bottom of the original unit, with room to further expand my Genesis collection. Some of my McFarlane figures will soon be joining Mr. Moon (Buzz Lightyear's days may be numbered though).
Using stain, hardware and backing boards I already had around the house, both projects cost about $80.00 total in new wood, and took about 16 hours of total construction time over 4 days. In terms of efficiently using available space, it's hard to beat shelving you make to your own specifications. That makes 8 custom units in my gameroom now (if you count the closet I converted to shelving). I guess it's tiime to update my gameroom photos as well!
Measuring twice and cutting once (Thanks, Dad!),
Rich
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Originally Posted by digitalpress
Didn't stay empty long, though. :/
