#LEGOwall – Miss Meg's Library

I wanted to make a post about the Epic LEGO Wall that I implemented to the library at the end of summer 2017. Idea courtesy of Diana Redina, from Renovated Learning. If you would like to see the original post (with comprehensive instructions) for how this project is completed, click here.

I have a *very* limited space in my library, so I did not have a large wall space available for the LEGO base plates. After much deliberation, I decided I was going to put them on the (then blank and empty) end caps of 4 of my shelves.

Below is the finished product!

So really there are 4 small LEGO walls! I think this makes it a little easier when several kids are using it, because they don’t have to be right on top of each other to reach.

This project took a fair amount of work, but I really think it was worth it. Below I will list the things I purchased/used for this project (also via Renovated Learning and the above link).

LEGO (or good off brand) base plates (the ones I used are no longer available)

Liquid Nails

Calk gun

Wood screws

Dry-erase board coated wood (the white sections on three sides of each LEGO wall)

**I asked around for LEGO donations for this project. You need a lot of LEGO on hand to set the plates, and even more for your kids to really enjoy this project. Some LEGO I had to buy (certain colors, like orange and pink) but MOST were donated. Don’t be afraid to put the idea out to your community!**

This project was completed during the week the library is closed for cleaning (school custodians clean the library and we are so busy with summer reading that we close for a week when it is over so they can clean before school starts). Because of this, I had a lot of help from my parents, in-laws and my husband.

My dad got the dry-erase backdrops screwed into the end caps.

In order to make sure the base plates got put together as closely as they needed to be to snap LEGOs across them, we first set them out on the floor and snapped LEGO on all the seams to keep them close together. That ensured that they would fit as tight as possible when they went up on the end caps.

My mom and mom-in-law getting the base plates all snapped together.

After that, we used the calk gun to squeeze liquid nails all over the back side of the LEGO base plates. We got them lined up and pressed them against the dry erase board backdrop. In order to prevent sliding, we used tape to hold the plates in place by taping them to the wood part of the shelves.

I let the liquid nails dry for two days before I took the tape and seam LEGO off. That was a little longer than recommended in the original LEGO wall post, but I was very nervous!

After that we were good to go! I sent the photo below to my dad to show him that all his hard work paid off. 🙂

The cart in the above photo is from Amazon and it is PERFECT for this type of project. I ended up getting so many LEGO donations, that I had to buy a second one!

Later, I made/printed labels using LEGO clipart and ran them through a sticker making machine so they would stick to the drawers. One of the rules is they have to put the LEGO back in the right drawer, so they don’t get all mixed up. Sometimes they do and sometimes they don’t but it saves me from having to re-sort all the time.

I made up a couple of fliers with rules, one to sit on top of each LEGO cart. Generally they are good about following them. I do lock the brakes on the carts though so they can’t roll them!