Making the best use of space

[Gunbird]

As related to the height of my future games table http://leadadventureforum.com/index.php?topic=75960.msg929106#msg929106 I've been planning my new hobby room.

My wife and I agreed that after a few years, the girls would move from their babyroom to our current hobbyroom as it is bigger. Originally planned to move when they hit 3 years old, by the end of this year the girls will be 2 and we kinda decided to move around November-December ish this year so we don't have to change beds yet (planned for 3-4 years as their current cots can convert to a small bed). Anyway, been planning the move since last year and made a few sketches to see if I like the set up. The current set up:
feels cramped due to my habit of piling stuff next to my desk, having a wall right behind me so I can hardly move my chair backwards and because the room is still a bit of a mess with all the stuff that needs to be sorted and sold.

The plan for the new room is to downsize the collection and our personal effects, even though the room is just half a metre less wide and deep. As you can see in the top plan we have 7 bookcases and 4 sets of drawers combined, but at least 3 bookcases have stuff in them we hardly ever use and 1 is full of scenery that I want to move to the attic anyway. Also, 2 PC's, 2 printers, 3 extra HDD's, it is all a bit much when we can share them (Kim uses the pc maybe once a week, usually less, I use it every night) so we can downsize that to 1 PC (and maybe a laptop if she feels like it), 1 printer and drop 1 HDD that can go straight to the media player. After a bit of drawing and planning I came up with something she finds acceptable, namely this:


SWMBO has been kind enough to point out the door actually swings the other way.  :blush:

Desks side by side up against the window, 3 bookcases on the left, 2 bookcases and the drawers on the right, her little set of drawers is actually too big so ignore that, it will be replaced. PC and printer on the right desk. Whiteboard on the right hand side as well. We'll put all of our paperwork in one combined bookcase, and most of our personal effects like books can go up in the attic (she has 2 bookcases almost 90% full of literature and I've never in 3 years seen her read a book).

Notice the big open space in the not-to scale drawing. I can move my chair backwards now.

Which brings me to the 2nd part of my plan. Before moving in with my gf I made 3 100x200cm tabletops to be used as a wargamestable. They are still in my storage, never used, so I'll probably sell them. Gaming downstairs isn't an option atm due to the kids, I can't leave anything on the table. So, gaming in the hobbyroom....I feel I can put in a 120x120 table with removable boards inthere. If I use a mobile 80x80 base and put that where one of the bookcases fits (preferably one of the 80cm ones behind my side of the room) I will hardly lose any space. If I make the base out of storage units I won't even lose storage space. So in comes the Ikea folder.

I'm looking at either 4 of these (cheaper option):


or one of each of these (more practical):



and to this I need to add a 80x80 base, top, and 4 wheels. I've budgetted it at 500 euros max including two 120x60 boards and paint. This gives me a solid base that I can slide in and out, keep my gaming supplies (dice, rulers, counters, some scenery) and modeling supplies (stuff for the airbrush mostly) in. If I slide it agains the desks there will be plenty of room to move around and we can keep the dice, drinks and food on the desks as well. I can set up a table during the day and slide it to one side of the room (blocking the cabinets and 2 bookcases) and pull it out for a game, then clean up the next day and slide it all back again. And of course a small skirmish can easily be played on the bare 80x80 base, which will also double as a sorting table and photography stand. And that's about it really.

Anyone who made a table before, or has one in their room, and has ideas or room for improvement for my idea, let me know.  :hello:

Update

Small update and new drawing as I managed to make the door swing in the wrong direction and forgot about the lightswitch next to the door.  :blush:



Due to the location of the lightswitch it turns out that location is better for the 80x80 table. Now I'm working on a good tableheight as I don't want to bend over too far all the time and have additional storage space underneath the table. Right now I think 110 cm's would be a good working height.

Update

All this doodling is fun, and I have no problem putting it into 3D in my head, but explaining my plans to my other half is a different matter, so, why not use one of the readily available online roomplanners? And so I did. I used floorplanner.com to create mine, it could be useful for you too? You have to sign up using your email, and it is a bit limited, but it lets you change quite a lot of the basic items in regards to height, width and depth. Scale wise the drawing is 100% accurate in dimensions now, so it is much easier to see how it fits in relation to each other. This made it pretty easy to drag the gaming table across the room to find the best place to park it. Anyway, see for yourself.



Looking North, the 3 sets of drawers in the left corner, and the 80cm and 40cm Billy side by side (this is the only bookcase the program has so visually it is off, but sizewise it is correct. My hobbydesk is visible in the top right corner.



Looking South-West the 2 80cm Billys are in the corner with the 80 cm moveable table base parked next to the door. There is space above it, maybe for a nice flat railway display case as those are very useful for displaying miniatures. Whiteboard in the left corner with the PC desk. There is room for a small cabinet for Kim, and possibly we can put the printer on top of that, or we'll put it on the desk and put in a slightly taller cabinet.



Top view. It is roomier then I had imagined from my earlier sketches. Btw, both table are easy to lower or raise so Kim and I can change both easily to our needs. Ours desks arent black btw, I changed the colour 3 times to beachwood but it stays black. Oh well. The 3 sets of drawers have plenty of headspace to put some boxes of scenery on and my miniatures cases.

So, how does it look with a table deployed?



Well, like this! I moved the table around and there are 2 places that give easy acces to 3 sides and use of chairs. 1. What you see here, and 2. Slided against the 2 bookcases on the South wall. There is even enough room to build the table in advance, slide it against the hobbydesk and still have easy entry and acces to the pc.

Well, those are my thoughts for today. Let me know if you like the idea, I doubt the table will be made up more then a dozen times a year, and yes, it is sort of blocking 1 bookcase, but that one will be for mutual paperwork and we won't open that very often. And even if so, the wheels should roll pretty freely as a combined set of 4 wheels can take 220 kilo's, and if my math is right it won't even come close to that (65 for the combined kitchen cabinets and around 5-10 kilo's for the 3 sheets of wood needed.)

And yes, I'm very happy with this

[eilif]

Some good ideas you have there. 

One small suggestion I would make.  When looking at cabinets for wargaming stuff, I would always take a door and shelves instead of drawers.  You actually loose quite a bit of storage space when using drawers.  If you pick good sized boxes to go on the shelves, you can make the best use of cabinets with shelves and it's easier to get things in and out of them.   The exception would be very shallow drawers for the storage of miniatures standing up on their bases.

Best of luck with the new arrangement!

[Gunbird]

In my list I've replaced the 131 euro cabinet with a 78 euro cabinet with 2 planks and 2 doors for scenery and boxes. The more expensive one has the same drawers as my sets of drawers that I use to store my miniatures and vehicles in. Excellent suggestion none the less