DIY Family Command Center

Here's my latest attempt at getting our busy family more organized:

For as long as we've lived in this house, I've wondered if I should do something with this little sliver of space at the end of the kitchen cabinets:

Our kitchen cupboards are beadboard, and this cabinet end was nicely finished. Yet it seemed that this space could probably be put to some purpose. . . I just never could figure out what that purpose should be. For awhile I thought that I shouldn't do anything to make this space too informal, since it's right beside the door into our dining room. Then it occurred to me that, since this spot is where our dog's food bowl sits, the atmosphere there was already pretty informal.

So I created a planning center. And here it is:

The frames were both thrift store finds. The large one held a painting on hardboard, so at first I made it into a chalkboard, which was cute:

But we needed a corkboard more than we needed a chalkboard, so I cut some foamboard to fit the frame, then glued on a sheet of cork. Now we have a place for our calendars with some room left over to pin up other important papers.

I used the smaller frame to make an attractive white board.  I found a magnetic white board and pen in Target's One Spot.  To make it fit the frame, I had to cut about an inch off the white board, but that was easy to do. The note card and pen holder is magnetic, so I just stuck it onto the whiteboard.  We use the white board only occasionally, but we use that note card holder a lot.  I keep blank 3x5 cards in it, which cost about 50 cents for 100 cards.  No one ever has to search for a piece of paper to leave a note or make a list.

The tin sign I found at Hobby Lobby, on sale for $4.99. This wall is one of the first things you see if you enter the house through the garage or the side door of the front porch, so I like this little blessing. My middle son says it's a little too reminiscent of the inscription at the entrance to hell in Dante's Inferno ("Abandon all hope ye who enter here"), but he's 16, so he's supposed to say things like that.

Maybe having this planning center will make me much more organized than I've ever been before. There's plenty of room on the large weekly calendar. In addition to appointments and due dates and practice times, I could plan and post menus! Or schedule my blog posts! The possibilities are endless.

Okay, maybe for those goals I should abandon all hope. But overall I'm very pleased with my project.

One more look:

I'm happy with it!  What do you think?  Do you have a command center in your home?

I'm linking this to Thrifty Decor Chick's Before and After Party 

and Metamorphosis Monday at Between Naps on the Porch.