Family Charging Station | Diy Decor Ideas

How was your weekend my friends?! We had less on our weekend schedule than we have in a long time and both of our girls got invited over to friends' houses on Sunday afternoon so I snuck in some painting and an easy DIY project that's been on my to-do list for weeks - creating a family charging station.

We have several rules in our house when it comes to our daughters using phones, iPods, iPads, etc. One of those rules is that all devices must stay downstairs when they go to bed. But somehow we always seem to be misplacing the cords and adapters and we end up having to hunt around the house most nights to find them so that we can charge everyone's electronics.

Problem no more! I created a simple family charging station where the cords will now stay 24/7 and the electronics will have a home for overnight charging. If you peek behind the charging station, you'll see my favorite part of the project - an outlet that we converted to a 4-port USB charger:

You can now say bye-bye to those ugly adapters!

My husband and I rarely mess with anything electrical but this project was as easy as it comes. We used Leviton's 4-port USB charger, which was in stock at our local Home Depot. You can also order it online from Amazon {here}. The faceplate is not included so add that to your shopping list if your existing outlet has a different sized one.

For installation, first we turned off the power to the outlet at the circuit breaker and tested it to be certain that the power was off. We then removed the faceplate from the old outlet, pulled the outlet out of the box, and removed the wires from it. The USB charger comes with three colored wires connected to it - we connected these wires to the same colored wires coming out of outlet box, twisting the strands tightly together. We then screwed on the plastic connectors, secured them with electrical tape, and mounted the USB charger device in the wall box. Done in under five minutes!

A few things about the installation:

The Leviton USB charger is fairly deep and fits into standard electrical wall boxes but some older boxes may be too shallow to accommodate it. Make sure your wall box measures at least 3" x 2" x 2.5”
I am NOT an electrician – our install was very simple but your wiring may be different. Read the instructions included with the USB charger and consult an electrician if you are not sure about any part of them.

Creating the actual charging station was just as easy because I cheated and started with this $14.99 open wood organizer from HomeGoods. Most HomeGoods stores carry loads of these in different sizes and finishes. I wanted one where I could fit four iPhones/iPods across the front row and an iPad in the middle. I'm not sure what I'll put in the three slots in the back but I figured they would come in handy for something or other.

Once I got it home, I figured out where I wanted the holes for my cords, which would be coming up from the bottom. I drilled small pilot holes first to make sure they were in the right place and then drilled bigger holes that would fit the smallest sized end of each charger cord:

Then I added circular pads to the bottom - they create just enough space for the cords for go underneath the charging station and plug in at the outlet charger behind it.

And I typed up a little "Recharge" label to add to the front:

We bought a few extra cords so the ones that are in the charging station STAY in the charging station full time! No more searching for cords. No more excuses for the girls to not have their devices charging downstairs where they belong.

So glad to have one of our little daily dilemmas solved! Now I'm off to get the second coat of paint done in our home office - so far, I'm loving the whole black and white look (you can see my Instagram sneak peak {here}). Hope you have a good start to your week!