Building a Lego wall can be one of the most fun parts of setting up your building area. Some are totally decorative, while others create building or storage space. If you are looking for inspiration or ideas for your Lego wall, then you have come to the right place. I am going to show you all kinds of great Lego walls that other builders have used in their homes.
How do you make a Lego wall?
The most common Lego walls are covered in studs and designed for building and art. this example is in the office for Vonage. They have covered it in 10x10 baseplates and turned it into a creative space. You can create a similar space in your home in just 1 day.
Before you start to build your Lego Wall there are a few things to decide. First, do you want it to be movable or not? The Lego Wall above was built by gluing baseplates directly to the wall. If you end up removing them down the road there will be a significant amount of work repairing the wall behind it. If you are unsure there are some great mobile options as well.
Second, how large will it be? This isn't just about the space you have available, but also the cost. Building your wall may require a large number of baseplates. These cost between $6-8 for genuine Lego plates and $2-3 for compatible knockoff plates. Plates are 10"x10". That means you will spend approx $10/sqft for genuine Lego baseplates and $3.50/sqft for knockoffs. Make sure to factor this in, otherwise that 10 foot long Lego wall you dreamed of, might be a $1000 mess you really can't afford.
Moveable Lego Walls
Making your Lego Wall movable has many important advantages. It allows you to take it with you if you decided to move or change your Lego area. It also allows you to use it on the wall for vertical building and on the floor for regular.
The picture above shows a very small version of a movable Lego Wall. This is easy to build in an afternoon, and can be made for under $50. It uses a standard 24x36 whiteboard and 6 baseplates. Frugal Fun 4 Boys offers detailed plans here.
This is an example of a larger, yet still moveable Lego Wall built by CoffeeChug. It was designed to mostly hang on the wall as a vertical building space, but can be moved. Instead of fixing the baseplates directly to the wall, they attached them to a sheet of plywood, then hung the plywood. This gives it a nice solid feel of a traditional Lego wall, but allows you to rearrange and move it.
If you build a wall like this, make sure you paint your background before gluing down the baseplates. You will need to leave tiny gaps between the plates so that your bricks fit across different sheets. This will leave a little of the background color showing through. Detailed plans for this build are available on Instructables here.
If you want to skip all of the work and go strait to building then Creative QT has a solution for you. This is a fully assembled Lego wall board which is ready to hang. It comes in 2 sizes (24"x34" or 34"x44"), 3 colors (blue, green and grey) and is available on Amazon for $140-$180. This is the easiest option, but you pay a lot more to get a pre-assembled one. (almost $25/sqft)
Secure Lego Walls
Secure Lego walls are normally attached to a board that is mounted directly to the wall. This is to give them a solid backing to hold onto. If you try to attach your baseplates directly to drywall they will often pull apart the paper coating when you try to remove bricks. This leaves a big mess and is hard to fix.
Custom Lego walls like these can be large or small and shaped to fit into unique spaces. They can also be made with different colors of baseplates to create background patterns. This gives you lots of flexibility to make something truly unique.
You will want to plan your wall out very well before beginning. The picture above shows how to use Lego bricks to make sure you have the proper alignment and spacing for your plates. Missing this step is the easiest way to mess up your Lego wall. There are great plans for a wall like this at Renovated Learning.
Keep Your Storage Flexible
What you build and how you build is likely to change over time. Don't spend a ton of money on a wall system that can't change. Find the best options to stay flexible in our Free Lego Sorting Guide.
Lego Wall Storage
There are 2 main kinds of Lego wall storage and we will look at both. The first is Lego storage. This is where you attach bins, totes and organizers to the walls of your building space. It can be a great way to store lots of bricks in a small space. The second type of Lego wall storage is for finished builds. This can be anything from simple shelving to elaborate lighted glass cases.
My favorite Lego storage wall comes from Mother Daughter Projects and you can see all of the plans here. They started with a metal pegboard system. Once this is attached to the wall, all of the other bins, boxes, shelves and containers attach to it. You can easily attach a Lego organizer and move it whenever you want. This gives you lots of flexibility to rearrange and change out sizes as your collection grows. They even included a few open shelves at the top for custom Lego sets.
This Lego Wall display was built by Geek DIY to display his impressive Star Wars collection. This impressive display looks like something you would expect in the home of a Lego master builder. It is made with acrylic instead of glass for weight and safety. His design features 4 levels, lighting, and magnetic panels for easy access. If you are looking for a Lego display wall this is a great way to go. It will take some time and skill, but this whole project was made for under $500. If you want to make one, please read the whole 5 part series detailing how it was built.
Lego Wall Boards, Baseplates, Panels & Tape
To build any good Lego wall you need a way to attach studs (the little bumps on top of Lego bricks) to a surface. Fortunately there are lots of options out there. Often called wall boards or panels, Lego baseplates are the main way builders create their Lego walls.
These are standard 10"x10" squares that come in lots of sizes and patterns. Some have plain plastic backing, while others have a peel away sticky surface. They cost $2-3 for the plain knockoff brand up to $10 for official Lego plates. Amazon seems to have the widest selection and best prices for most of these.
Recently another option has come along in the form of brick tape. This is a flexible rubber strip covered with studs. It may seem like a great option but this tape is more trouble than it is worth. The rubber studs stick to bricks fairly well, but the adhesive backing doesn't stay stuck. If there is a spot in a build that you really want a bending brick surface, then gluing this on will probably work. Personally I find the rubber surface makes it hard to build anything large.
Lego Wall Art & Decor
If you are building a Lego room for one or more children, then adding some Lego room decor is the last step to complete your journey. Sorting your bricks and setting up the building/storage area is like baking the cake. The decor is the icing on top that brings it together. Fortunately there are lots of easy and great options out there to add to your room.
Colors alone can go a long way. Sticking to bold bright colors (red, yellow, blue, green) will give it the pop you are used to on your builds. Adding some custom bedding and wall art make it clear what the purpose of this area is. Be careful with too much of the same bright colors. The room above feels a little intense for somewhere to sleep.
One of my favorite ways to add the Lego vibe to a room, is simply adding studs. As you can see in the picture above they have taken normal cabinets and added small raised circles to them. The pattern and sizing aren't really important. I find it actually looks stranger to have studs in the same proportions/placement as real Lego bricks. 1 - 3"'x36" dowel rod costs about $20 and this can be enough to make an entire room.
This Lego room posted on Houzz added a number of great details, while balancing colors very well. The small panels with studs allow them to keep the doors mostly neutral, but add some contrast. The built in Lego table creates a nice dedicated workspace. They filled the back wall by the desk with baseplates, keeping the room more green and calm. The closets are perfect for tucking away your boxes and Lego sorter. Finally the addition of the Minifigure wall art and brick lighting complete the package.
Lego Clocks
If you want to add a timepiece to your Lego decor here are a few of our favorites. The three above all come from Lego and are available on their website or Amazon. The batman clock stands 9" tall, battery powered and is fully movable. This makes him a fun toy as well as a clock. (Your kids will find lots of ways to include him in their play stories) The clock on top is also from Lego, but this will work a little better as a timepiece, since it won't be played with as much.
You can also make a custom Lego clock for very little cost. The one above was sold on Etsy, but can be built using a small baseplate and a few bricks. There a lots of DIY clock kits on Amazon for $5-10 each. These will require a small drill bit and a little glue, but can be easily completed in an hour.
Lego Wall Stickers and Decals
When it comes to Lego wall stickers and decals Etsy is by far the best option. You can get any print, color and size you can imagine. The Batman Minifigure decal is part of a series, so you can choose the pose and character that fits your room best. The Noah sign is a custom decal created with your child's name. Lastly the brick evolution in green is another inexpensive decal which fits really well above shelving and closets. Each of these cost between $10 and $20. Don't skip this step. A few Lego wall stickers will totally transform the room for less than the cost of one set.
Lego Wall Blocks & Dividers
Finally if you really want to go big and create some real Lego Walls and Dividers there are these oversized bricks from EverBlock. Each brick is "6 tall and comes in a variety of great colors. You can create some amazing life size builds with these blocks, but warning... they are pricy. Each brick will cost between $5-10 depending on how many you buy at a time. Just a small 3'x4' wall section will be over $100. They are wonderful quality and come in lots of great colors and shapes so that you create whatever you imagine. Just make sure to plan your space first so that you can figure out exactly how much it will cost before ordering.
Thanks for joining me today. To see the latest articles make sure to check out the Lego Blog or for some great holiday activities make sure to browse our page on Lego Christmas.