The Beginnings of a Minecraft Room

We are T minus 3 weeks till we move into our new house! Woohoo! 4 bedrooms, an office, separate living and play rooms, 3 baths, a backyard... It will be heaven after this 1000 sqft apartment. Oh, the space we will have!

The most exciting thing? Each of the kids will have their own rooms for the first time ever. No more baby Sydney in the corner of the master bedroom. No more Jake and Kyle fighting and/or playing at bedtime. Everyone in their own corner of the house, tucked in snug and ALONE at bedtime! The simple things my dreams have been made of for the past 5 years... 

We haven't even moved in yet but I have the whole house decorated in my mind. The projects have been planned; furniture is being search for on Craig's List and at garage sales as we speak! I have been planning, prepping and researching for a house for the past 3 years. I am ready for this!

I am going to start with the boys' rooms. Jakey wants a Lego Movie room (more on that later) and Kyle wants a Minecraft room.

I am a bit of a gamer myself but with three kiddos plus all the animals I have not had time to get into a game as complex as Minecraft in a while. I will occasionally play with the kids linked together on our home server so I know the jist of it. For those of you that don't here it is: Minecraft is a game built up of pixilated blocks. You mine the blocks, build stuff with the blocks and sometimes run away from zombie like creatures called Creepers. It's a little bit like building with pixelated Legos which is why it is so popular, I think.

Luckily, Minecraft is very popular so there is a ton of cool DIY projects and decorating ideas on Pinterest. I will probably use a few! ;)

To start with I bought this Minecraft torch light at Target:

I am keeping my little projects a secret from the kids as best I can so I am very excited to show the light to Kyle when I reveal his room to him. The light its self is pretty cool, the bottom part flips down to make it stand out against the wall like a "real" Minecraft torch would. My husband and I both thought this is prefect for Kyle and his room.

I got these sheets from Target:

Not quite Minecraft but the sheets do have "blocks" and that pixelated feel to them. Walmart had a bed set that I liked better but the color scheme just wouldn't work with the colors Kyle wants for his room, blues and greens, and I plan on making a new quilt for him. The Marvel quilts just wont cut it in a Minecraft or Lego room.

I also purchased an Ikea Kallax shelving unit on Craig's List to build Kyle's new bed out of. I'm planning on making a bed similar to this Ikea Hack:

The square shelves just scream Minecraft! With a few bins or drawers painted in a Minecraft style it will be perfect!

That is all I have for the moment, I am working on a few DIY projects right now for the room. Stay tuned!

DIY: Mario Lego Lamp

There are a few things in our household that remain ever popular: Legos and Mario. A while back I found this pin on Pinterest.

Yep. That is an 8-bit Mario lamp made of Legos. Pure awesome. The boys wanted this lamp for their bedroom so we spent the morning recreating it. 

The construction of the lamp is pretty basic as it is just all different sized bricks. We ended up using lots of 1 bump brinks. 

At first we started with bricks that were 2x’s but soon we ran out of those and were using 1x’s. This lamp takes a lot more bricks than you would think! It is 21 Lego layers high not including the top portion that houses the light bulb. 

Supplies:

Lots of Lego bricks in white, green, red, black, orange (or light tan) and yellow.

One lamp cord with plug, like this one

Bulb (I suggest getting an LED bulb if children will have access to the lamp, the first thing my boys wanted to do was stick their Lego guys all over it but the bulb was hot!)

Four 1x8 pieces in yellow

Four 1 bump pieces in yellow

Now for the instructions:

Not pictured. Make a square 10x10 bumps all green

Step 2

Leave one small brick open to run the lamp

cord through.

Step 3

 Step 4

Step 5

Step 6

Here is where we started to run out of 

2x's bricks and started using the 1x's

Step 7

Step 8

I used a mixture of 2x's and 1x's

Use whatever you have most available just make sure

the outside colors match the picture below.

Step 9

Step 10

Step 11

Step 12

Step 13

Step 14

Here is what your lamp should look like now

Mario:

Luigi:

Step 15

Step 16

Step 17

Mario and Luigi should now be completed

Step 18

 Step 19

Step 20 and 21

Each is just a layer of yellow bricks

Now take your lamp cord and run it through the top of the lamp all the way to the bottom.

Remove the green brick under the small opening.

Insert cord.

Put the green brick back.

Build the top as needed to fit your bulb. Mine ended up being 

4 pillars of 2x2 square bricks stacked 8 high.

Take the four 1x8 yellow brick pieces and bridge the pillars. The 1 bump single pieces should fit right in the corners. I did not have enough 1x8 yellow pieces to complete my lamp. You can see where I substituted a 1x8 gray piece and a 1x8 blue pieces.

To make my lamp more stable I made a second layer of yellow pieces in 2x bricks.

There you have it! Turn it on and enjoy the 8-bit Mario and Luigi/Lego awesomeness!