DIY Command Center on Fridge

17 Materials
$50
1 Hour
Easy

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Life gets crazy. It just does. To do lists, renovations, DIY projects, work schedules, juggling children between working parents, organizing child care, keeping up with the household chores…not to mention, you will probably be asked what’s for dinner 1,427 times today. It literally makes my head spin. With back-to-school right around the corner, I’m sure you’re feeling the pressure to get your life a little more organized too! This guide on how to create a command center on fridge to organize your life will help turn your overwhelming schedule into an organized “at-a-glance” view of what’s going on with your family. Also…it’s cute.


Before you hop right in to create your own command center, it’s important to take a step back and really think about why you want a command center and what you want it to feature. For instance, do you need to organize mail, control paper clutter and round up the kiddo’s homework or do you want to plan your meals and create a family calendar? Here’s what we were looking for when we created our command center on fridge:


  • Weekly calendar to plan out work schedules and meetings
  • Weekly meal plan
  • Visual to-do list for major projects

This is what our fridge looked like before we added our command center. Messy… cluttered… and a little bit boring.

Step 1. Measure & plan your command center.

We wanted to create a large, chalkboard weekly calendar on the top of the command center. I measured the area on the freezer door and determined the size of my calendar.

Step 2. Clean fridge door

Before applying the vinyl to the door, you definitely want to have a nice clean surface. Remove all magnets and wipe it down with a multi purpose cleaner.

Step 3. Mark guide lines on fridge door.

Using a dry erase marker, draw in some guide lines where you will put the vinyl. Be sure to use a level to make sure they are straight.


Step 4. Cut vinyl chalkboard.

I used my rotary cutter for this and it was so simple to keep the line nice and straight.

Step 5. Apply vinyl to fridge.

Start on one side of the calendar and peel off a small sliver of the backing (about 1 inch or so). Slowing continue pressing the vinyl onto the fridge and pushing out all air bubbles as you go with your hand or a credit card. GO SLOW! Rushing will definitely create air bubbles under the vinyl, so take your time.

Step 6. Season your chalkboard.

Seasoning a chalkboard is simple. All you do is take some chalk, turn it on its side and rub the chalk all over the chalkboard and then erase.

Step 7. Frame out the vinyl with washi tape.

This part is optional, but I think it added some cute character to the command center. I just ran washi tape over all of the edges of the vinyl to create a frame.

Step 8. Add washi tape lines.

Here’s the quick math: the entire width of the vinyl INSIDE of the washi tape frame + the width of your washi tape, for instance 5/8 inch ÷ 7 = this is how far apart your lines should be.


Use your tape measure and level to make light lines on the vinyl chalkboard with chalk. Before putting down your washi tape, take a step back and look to make sure the lines are straight, the math looks great and count to make sure there are 7 days of the week.

Step 9. Write in your days of the week.

I totally freehanded this part. To start, I wrote out the words with regular chalk so I could make sure it all fit and looked good. Then I went back and traced the letters with chalk marker. I did this because I didn’t want to have to worry about the days getting erased all the time. The chalk marker can be erased with water if I wanted to.


The rest of the calendar that we fill in weekly is done with regular chalk so it’s easy to erase.

Step 10. Make your meal cards.

Cut out cute and color coordinated scrapbook paper into small rectangle for meal cards.

Step 11. Make two metal boxes for your meal cards.

I ended up finding these cute little metal boxes at the Dollar Tree in the kid’s section. They were obviously puzzle boxes, but they were perfect for what I needed. You could also use Altoids tins, but I think these were even cheaper at $1 each. I spray painted them with chalkboard spray paint and glued magnet tape pieces to the back. Then I just used my chalk marker to label the front. One box is for meals that we have ready…meaning we have all the ingredients for and one is for other regular meals aka “meals in the queue”. Ta da!


To learn more about how I meal plan for the entire month, hop on over to the full blog post.

For the bottom portion of our command center on fridge, I wanted to create a “To-Do” and “Done” board for weekly chores and bigger household projects we’re working on. Check out the full blog post (link below) to see how we completed the bottom portion of the command center with the "to-do" list.

Suggested materials:
  • Fridge Door
  • Repositionable Chalkboard Vinyl   (Hobby Lobby)
  • Chalk Marker
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Chelsea @ Making Manzanita
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  • Dana Dana on Aug 18, 2017

    Love it, so clever and organized!! Just one question...were you planning on trimming the washi tape on the outer four corners of the chalkboard to make them even??


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