Building the war room of my dreams

I’ve managed to use the entire bucket of paint on the table. The black marker text I had used to help place the pieces is still a bit visible.We’ll have to wait and see what it looks like when dry.

At one end I’ve added a cable holder (model ‘Signum’ from your local Scandewegian furniture store). Time will tell if that is overkill.

Technically the table is ready for its first game, but it still needs to dry.

In hindsight a colour other than white might have been easier to paint, but I can add another colour on top of this one. It’s something to think about.

The room itself is not done yet and I’ve got plenty of stuff to move from storage still before I can actually use it.

Things to do at this point in time:

• replace curtains
• add my airbrush & gear and lights
• fix the doors for the in-built storage of the room (those elephants got to go)
• change the light (it’s not bright enough at night)
• add decorations

A tiny quality of life improvement for storage.

Using a simple coat hanger to store my headphones.

I will be adding a bit of cable management next as well as find a place to mount the control for the led strip.

A few thoughts on building the Kallax & associated storage :

• use a small drill to create pilot holes when there aren’t any.
  Usually there’s a hole where screws need to go, but for the additional options like the doors there isn’t one. Doing this makes life much easier.
• those tiny things that are used for getting the inside to fit at the exact distance ?
  Those are also handy when mounting the doors because getting them fitted just right is a real pain in the posterior.

I know. I did say I was going green, but I needed practice so that’s my excuse and I am sticking with it.

Improvements have been made, the frame is now almost fixed into place.
The additional bits of wood will also serve as anchoring points for the tabletops.
The plastic I-beams have been glued to the center frame.

The white paint is supposedly a ‘all in one’ thing designed for kitchen surfaces.
As a result a coat of primer isn’t needed and it is supposed to have a matt finish when dry. Ye old “two thin coats” mantra does apply, but even a single coat does cover the dark brown of the kallax unit. If this was to be the real surface I definitely would be adding a second coat.

Paint :

“Flexa Mooi makkelijk”
Colour : matt white

A bit of Googling tells me that this would be “Dulux Easycare Kitchen” in the UK.

Parent brand is “Akzo Nobel”

The lightstrips are mounted at a 45 degree angle pointing towards the storage space.

Of course things didn’t go quite as smoothly.
I did manage to almost break one lightstrip … but after a bit of old fashioned percussive maintenance things appear to be in working order.

After testing the lights I noticed that the bottom row of the cubicles doesn’t get enough light. As the drawers do get enough light when opened the solution kind of presents itself. I will be adding drawers to the bottom half of both Kallaxes (or Kallaxi?).

There I was thinking that choosing a colour would be hard, so I got a generic white colour today.

Then I saw the weekender …and I knew I was wrong.

It should be green … goblin green ideally.

So back to the DIY store it is.

I think I still will use the colour I had for the first layer.

https://www.beastsofwar.com/featured/cult-of-games-xlbs-rough-riding-horses-on-yer-bike-get-kitbashing-instead/

First of the new lights has been added to the table.
These give me better light when looking at the storage underneath the table as well as some flashy effects in sync to whatever noise or music may be playing.

A few moving pictures for clarity :

https://app-h5.govee.com/share/community?client=0&postId=199193&t=1719132714384

I couldn’t help myself testing the lights I want to install on my table.

The gear used :

• 1x Govee M1 lightstrip (2 meter)
• 1x Govee Gaming Lightbars
• 1x Govee Curtain lights v1
• 1x Govee Music sync box

All of this allows for some pretty trippy lighting effects :

https://app-h5.govee.com/share/community?client=0&postId=199061&t=1719052437504

As an experiment it was a success, but until I can find a way to make the lights part of the surface the entire concept will have to wait a bit. Definitely worth a shot in the future though, because I do like the idea of using the lights to mark areas on the board.

Oh … the music in the video is this :

Using T-beams did the trick, as expected to be honest.

Several things need to be done :

• fix the tabletops to the frame
• fix the frame to the Kallax, to ensure it doesn’t move
• move the table a few centimeters to the perfect spot in the center of the room
• prime & paint the wood (probably black or dark brown as that’s what the Kallax units are)

So it’s not quite done, but the most important bits are.

I must admit that I am quite pleased with the result.
It isn’t as perfectly square as it could be, but then I’m no carpenter and this is my first big 1:1 scale terrain project.

With the table (almost) done I can focus on the rest of the warroom.

In no particular order

• the sliding doors for the storage space need to look better
  The previous owners of the house had used wallpaper to cover them. It looked ok from a distance, but it doesn’t quite match the theme of the room now.
• replace curtains
  Left by the previous owners these things do their job, but I need something a little less red and flowery
• add airbrush/hobby tables & storage
  I am waiting to finish the rest of my house before moving everything from my previous apartment. The airbrush, paints, etc. are amongst this.
• more thematic lights ?
  This is an unknown. I had installed a basic light fixture but I am not sure if this will be good enough.
  I have plans for lights underneath the table, but that’s for atmosphere.
• Additional decoration. There’s a few posters in storage that could work, but maybe a few additional things? Time will tell.

So … not done yet.
And of course the table demands games … but like so many things that’s all in storage at the moment.

This is not the end. Things will improve and evolve.
Suggestions are welcome.