I’ve got far too many electronic gizmos and gadgets, and while they either are very functional or bring me oodles of pleasure, they all have to be charged! I’ve been in the market for a charging station of some sort for quite a while, but I coulndn’t ever find one that I really liked or would work how I envisioned it in my head.

This is what I wanted in a charging station:

• -Plenty of room for my stuff
• -Clean and organized
• -Not take up too much room OR also have extra storage
• -Very well ventilated things wont overheat
• -Classy looking/fits in with the decor
• -Not have the chords hanging in plain site or on the floor like a monster

I could not find anything to fit my needs. They all had some sort of deal breaker that made me believe that it wouldn’t work for me the way I wanted it to. So what do I do? Make my own of course.

I started with this bench from IKEA, it came from their bathroom department and at about $40 it’s not a bad price since the rest of my materials I already had. Though I’m pretty sure that I got it on sale.

Next I had to figure out how to configure all of my stuff that I needed to plug in. I’ve since gotten a new surge protector since this one seemed to have been around when the dinosaurs roamed the earth. Here’s what I’ve got plugged in: iPad, phone (blackberry), drill, quick battery charger, camera battery.

The great thing about using a bench is that I have plenty of room to stack everything on top and the slats allow for great ventilation.

I can’t have my stuff overheating or catching on fire, I would not be too happy.

I wanted the chords to stay in their one specific spot so the ends wouldn’t go flopping around everywhere or I would have to search around for the chord, so I needed to attach them to the bench but also make sure that I could remove them if needed for travel. To attach/organize my chords I used Velcro (both sticky back and non sticky) and rubber bands to tame the wild beasts that chords can become.

I lined up the chords to roughly the spot I wanted them, and then put a piece of sticky Velcro on the bench. To hold down the chord I used non-sticky back Velcro. Awesome. I can move the chords if needed for travel or some other such nonsense.

With everything attached with Velcro, there was no way to lose any of my chords!

I tamed the chords as good as possible with rubber bands, but it still is a bit of a mess.

For now my charging station is finished. I want to eventually figure out a way to hide the chords and surge protector, but it doesn’t look too bad. I’m thinking maybe doing a false box on the front around the chords, like have it only have 3 sides, keeping the top/bottom/back open for ventilation but just covering it from the front/sides so I can’t see anything.

I’ll keep you posted.