Family Command Center

I am FINALLY starting to hang some stuff on the walls in the new house and wanted to share our Family Command Center.  This is where we put mail, to-dos, and other important items that we don’t want piled up on the table.  I still believe in an “old school” wall calendar and am going to share how I made that too.  It’s looking super empty right now since we just moved and have no friends or plans yet!  Hopefully that will change soon 🙂

Personalized Calendar:  I designed this calendar on Shutterfly and just took a special picture from each month last year, made it black and white on PicMonkey, and they used my Bamboo Capture Tablet to hand write all of the months myself on the pictures in Photoshop Elements (which comes with the tablet.)  I LOVE how it turned out and it makes me realize how far we have come in one year and remember some really fun days.  (I know it’s already mid-February but on Shutterfly you can choose what month you want to start with)

These are my 2 FAVORITE pictures from the whole calendar:

DIY clipboard:  I took a square piece of wood from Michael’s Craft Store and aged it by mixing coffee grounds, steel wool, and vinegar over night and then (wearing gloves) rubbed the steel wool on the wood.  It’s pretty cool how fast it goes from brand new to vintage!  I used painter’s tape to create the chevron pattern and then stenciled on my design.  Use lots of thin layers so the paint doesn’t go under the tape.  I bought some vintage clipboard clips and screwed them in.  All done 🙂

Mail Organizer:  This was from World Market a few years ago and I saw it the other day in stores but can’t find it online.  Might have to make a DIY version for a giveaway!

Painted Cork Squares:  I found these Cork Tiles the other day and they were just a little impulse buy but I think they will be a great place for pictures and little notes.  I painted them using one of my favorite patterns, the chevron ikat!  I am working on a tutorial to show how to paint all of these fun patterns on just about anything.  Use the Velcro Picture Hanging Strips so that you can remove them easily or re-position them after you hang them.

Chalkboard:  I bought this from Hobby Lobby a few years ago and it has been used for all kinds of different things and is on it’s third color already 🙂  I use the Bistro Chalk Marker and it just wipes off with water.  I like these because there is no mess and you can write and draw detailed doodles.  (Try these in the corner first because some boards work better with these markers than others.)

Paper Garland:  I made these for my son’s birthday party last year and loved how cheerful they were.  I included a few pictures so you could see how to make them.  First I used a paper Circle Punch because there is NO WAY I’m cutting all of those out by hand!  I lined them up in the order I wanted them to be right on the sewing machine and just started pushing them through.  I allowed a little space between each circle so they would hang nicely.  You might want to change your needle after you make one of these because the paper can make the needle a little dull.  I kinda want to make these and just string them up everywhere 🙂

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Do you have a family command center?  Which part of my wall is your favorite?  What would you add to make the perfect family wall for you?