My eldest child, my daughter, is heading off to Big School in just under 3 weeks. 

I cried in the Uniform Shop! LOL

Anyway, we seem to have a bit of an issue in the mornings... you know, the same struggle nearly every parent in the world faces...

Getting the kids out the door
​on time in the mornings. 

Over the holiday period I started thinking about how to sort out this "Morning Battle" issue and it occurred to me that organisation (and my apparent lack thereof) played a big part in our arguments and the constant and oh-so-totally-irritating lateness.

So I decided we needed a "Command Centre". 

You know - a central location near the front door of the house where bags, books, notes, shoes and all the other daily sundries can be dropped upon entering and grabbed upon scooting out the door en route to school / child care / work / whatever. 

So many of the amazing Command Centres I've seen online are very very cool - and very very pricey. 

We live simply and embrace frugality so I set myself a total budget of $150 - including EVERYTHING and decided it was time to do some DIY magic. 

Ha! 

I purchased and gathered everything about a fortnight ago now but then started back at work almost full time and things got forgotten.

Today I decided was THE day!

I started putting together the LACK TV Stand first - simple. A cinch! 

Next came the Hemnes Hat Stand which was to be a make shift bag rack and bench for papers etc.

That did not go so well... 

I botched it by putting the dowels in the wrong place and two peices in the wrong place then when I tried to reverse and fix it all I realised...

... the dowels weren't budging.

So I had to make do and create a sort of IKEA Hack-Type solution for it to hold together.

Fast forward an hour, 4 screws, a broken drill bit, a screaming child, a cranky Mum hankering for a gin and it was done... and reasonably solid. 

Then came the REAL fun - mounting the thing to the wall... by myself. 

I toddled off to the hardware store determined to do this right. 

I spent $14.85 on some cool bits of screws and stuff to ensure my clever design didn't come off the wall as soon as it was mounted. 

Get home, unleash the HAMMER DRILL [such a fab piece of machinery that one though upon reflection perhaps a little large and over-eager for my meagre DIY job...] and set about fixing special plasterboard screws that clamp open behind the plasterboard ensuring you don't end up wearing your latest bit of decor on your head.

They say ...

Now I know why.

My wall has more pock marks and holes in it than the local firing range target board!

I measured once - drilled twice - and got the spacing wrong. I decided to reverse drill out the special plasterboard screw bit thingie and re-drill it right next to it.

Bad idea.

I went through the wall, created a hole the size of a 20c coin and lost the special drill bit INSIDE the wall!

I then got very cranky and shoved the drill into the wall and made another hole just above the first one!

So I had 4 holes in my wall - none of which were in the right spot and all of which were clearly visible.

​My wall was not looking great. 

By this time there are chunks out of my wall, my son is screaming in fear of the drill and I am really thinking that its time to down tools and have a Gin.

Sadly I was all out of gin and only 45 minutes away from collecting my daughter from day care with nails, screws, scissors, drill bits, more drill bits, drill, hammer and goodness knows what else strewn all over my lounge room.

​I remember thinking...

Press on Louisa! Press on! Get it done woman! Just get it done!

I press on and manage to balance the Hat Rack on one knee, up on top of the Lack TV Stand and re-position the entire thing to cover up as much of my damaged wall as possible.

I measured twice - three times to be safe - drilled in the second [very expensive] packet of plasterboard clampy screw things and voila! 

The damned hat rack was hung! 

A bit more fiddling with the Magnetic Black Board, key rack and we were finished in time for the school run and with a minimal of swearing and NO gin!

 I am very happy with the outcome - not so much the pock marks and holes in my wall though.

I did spend an inordinate amount of time shifting furniture around trying to see if I liked it somewhere else only to decide over and over again I liked it best where it was.

So....

When you factor in I was handling a screaming baby, and balancing rather awkward pieces of furniture on one knee with one hand, whilst holding a very heavy drill in the other hand AND I moved half my house around...

The time taken was about 2.5 hours in total.

Designing and picking out what I wanted to use took about 10 - 12 hours and the shopping run to IKEA Marsden Park with BOTH kids took the same amount of time as to build it.

​Hmmm...

I love IKEA.

So there you have it!

So there you have it!

My DIY Disaster Turned IKEA Hack Budget Command Centre!

Do you have a Command Centre or something similar in your home? Share details below with our readers!

Let's be honest - what Mum WOULDN'T use a Command Centre anyway?! 

​

Love and broken drill bits :-/