Anyday Adventures

So Lego has been part of our lives since Christmas 2019, so a bit over six months. We now own half a dozen Lego friends sets, with more on the horizon I’m sure…. Missy Moo (5) just loves it.

But, as is often the case, it was starting to get to be a bit much. As she would build, destroy and want to rebuild we didn’t have much of a system in place. We separated by colour into random shoe boxes and Tupperware containers, which worked, but it wasn’t pretty. I wanted (needed?) a better long term solution.

Now if her birthday wasn’t in January, if we weren’t in the middle of a stay home pandemic, I probably would have saved this for a birthday or Christmas present. But given the circumstances, we just went for it now.

Ta da!

Firstly, the price. The table and all the bits (excluding the Lego base plates) came to $102. Once you add on the base plates it came to $145. I think it is important to separate those costs out but I’ll explain why in a minute.

To get everything I needed I jumped online and headed to IKEA, Kmart and eBay. I’ve seen posts like this before, but they’re never ever specific enough with what you need to buy. So let’s spell it out!! FYI every heading is a link, so click away as you need…

From IKEA I got

1 x LACK table for $39 (comes in three different colours)

2 x KUNGSFORS rails for $5.99 each (that didn’t come with screws? Annoying!)

3 x SUNNERSTA containers at $1.99 each (you might recognise these from our Art Cart)

1 x VARIERA storage box for $9.99

Next stop Kmart!

5 x Narrow & Small Roller Storage Compartment(s) at $7.00 each

(I also grabbed some socks to hit the $45 free shipping limit)

Total so far of $101.94 (plus $9 shipping from IKEA as I am not heading to the shops during all this Covid crazy).

Now that’s everything you need except for the base plates. I think base plates are optional, depending on if your child likes them or not. Despite them being optional, I also think they can be pretty so I wanted to get some.

Kmart have base plates for a measly $3 each, however if you buy online you get the colour selected at random.

Kmart even sell a 5 pack for $12 which is 2 x green, 1 x blue, 1 x beige and 1 x grey.

So you could get your 6 base plates for as little as $15 if you’re not precious about the colours.

But, well, I am precious… no denying it.

So I went to eBay instead.

I just searched “Lego base plate” and heaps came up. I added in searching only by stores located in Australia, and with free shipping. All the colours were $7 a piece, except for pink which was $8 for some reason. Total spend was $43. So triple Kmart prices, but I’m cool with that.

If you’re wondering the eBay quality base plates were totally fine, no issues at all.

Then to constructing the table.

As with all IKEA furniture it was pretty straight forward. The table took about 10 minutes or so, then probably another 20 minutes to attach the rails and measure them correctly etc.

The base plates are just blue tacked down, as I knew Missy Moo would want to rearrange the colours, and created her own ideas. I wasn’t wrong… this was almost the first thing she did when she started playing with it.

The Kmart containers sitting on the shelf underneath are a little snug, but do fit. There’s a little lip on the back of the containers which we might chop off if getting them in and out is annoying for my girls… but for now it’s OK. The containers fit on the shelf OK, just the ones between the front and back legs are a little squishy.

BUT I love the containers. I love that the inserts can be moved/removed so some colours can get extra space. This was perfect for me.

The Variera container was my favourite find. I wanted somewhere for her Lego manuals, and her Lego subscription magazines. I may eventually put a plastic pocket folder or something in here if they start to get worn… we’ll just see. An A4 size folder would easily fit with room to spare. Oddly the hangers on the back of it are not symmetrical, so take extra time when you attach your rail… you’ll want it off centre.

Then just the sunnersta containers on the other side and we were done. I expect she’ll fill these with people, animals, or just little things she might be working on.

The only other thing I considered was labels, but decided not to bother. I want this table to grow and change organically, so didn’t want to “limit” it, with labels on what goes where.

So that’s our LACK hack Lego table!! I’m super proud of it, and my kids are really happy. They like to play Lego on the floor so they’re just pulling out the containers and playing happily, sliding them back in when done.

Oh… and one more thing, these containers even stack. We don’t need them too, but a great feature!

Hope you feel inspired to give it a go and get your Lego collection organised at your place. Happy online shopping!!

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