General Forum

I've got the opportunity to build out my own hobby room / home office from scratch and I'm looking for any inspiration or ideas from the community. The room figures to be about 9' x 9' plus a closet that will probably be used for non-hobby related items. We can have things built-in or installed ahead of time and/or bring in furniture. If you have any examples of your own setup or links to products you're using or YouTubers with room tours you liked I would appreciate any input! The space will be heavily baseball / Yankees themed and primarily for my hobbies. 

A few of my current ideas:

1) Using an appropriately sized wooden bookshelf to house my binders of which there are around 20. With more space this will certainly grow and probably double before long. I have them on a wire shelf now with a divider stand to keep them upright. I'm not sure if it is a better idea to go taller or wider with a bookshelf but I will continue to use these stands either way.

2) Wall mounted shelving a foot or two from the ceiling around the perimeter of the room for knick-knacks and other display items.

3) Display case(s) or curio(s) for memorabilia and favorite / the coolest cards. Out of direct sunlight and UV protected glass of course. 

4) Photo wall for framed black and white 8"x10" prints of classic shots (players, stadiums, moments, autographs etc.)

5) Wall mounted TV

6) Desk / workspace for computer and printer

7) Hat rack for my way too big hat collection

8) Something to keep the cats occupied when they inevitably get in the room

9) Couch

10) Mini fridge

Thanks again for any help, guidance or inspiration. Hopefully I can document my process here and share my results with you all!

I guess I'll get the ball rolling here...

I also want to have a cork board for enamel pins or tiny pennants or whatever

I've got a 9x12 office with closet and sometimes it feels crowded, especially when sorting large purchases. I do not have built-ins so that probably will help you with that.

I'd say go for it, but measure the proposed items to use the space efficiently.

Got lots of ideas but I’d say your best bet is Pinterest or Google images on baseball card room. One thing I would suggest from a lot of the horror stories I’ve read. Try to keep the cats out of the room. So many stories of cats knocking stuff off the shelves, breaking, and peeing on them lol. , 

9' x 9' will be tight for sure, but I'm currently confined to a corner stand-up desk of about 3' x 3' so I'm pumped haha. Planning will be key for sure. Options for where I live are pretty limited so I'm thinking custom builds will be they way to go if I can come up with good designs. 

Yeah I've been searching around the web and found some inspiration for sure. Just trying to cast a wide net. The cats have been well behaved so far. If I'm in my current card area they always want to be around me so we have a little shelf system for them to climb on and lay around on. Works well enough but maybe there's something better for them that could keep the hairs out of my penny sleeves haha 

If you don’t like the look of the wire racks, I use the larger cube style shelves which look nice and offer the support needed for heavy binders without the shelves bowing. Theres a trade off in some visual breakups of a nice continuous row but it looks nice and holds up

https://www.walmart.com/ip/Better-Homes-Gardens-12-Cube-Storage-Organizer-Gray/590914726?wmlspartner=wlpa&selectedSellerId=0&&adid=22222222228590914726_156457154049_18594900705&wl0=&wl1=g&wl2=m&wl3=674288077599&wl4=pla-1013196504199&wl5=9018799&wl6=&wl7=&wl8=&wl9=pla&wl10=8175035&wl11=online&wl12=590914726&veh=sem&gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAADmfBIq7-uStrd_CbZamTBGbzKQ7n&gclid=CjwKCAiArLyuBhA7EiwA-qo80LDWHFygCEzQCuUpns6_RxxP6Slb4_45TDPCn_fRrPl2uMgdCgcBZhoCgA8QAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

This is my card room before i made it my card room.  Its my  living room on the 2nd floor of my house. Where the pick is showing the balcony there are book shelves that hold all of my for trade cards.  If yiu look to the right it is a 12 foot long walk in closet that holds my collection 

https://photos.zillowstatic.com/fp/a80d56c61c7230a2e4195991ba0af672-cc_ft_1344.webp

I'm still a good decade or two away from having a dedicated hobby room, but one thing that I find really cool that my dad had when I was growing up was framed Star Tribune front pages for when the Twins won the World Series. Obviously, if you're a Yankees guy, there will be many front pages, but it's still a cool piece of memorabilia that I don't see as often. Personally, my dream card room organizer is one of those old library card catalog cabinets, preferably one made of nicely aged solid wood. I've seen pictures of those repurposed for sports cards and it's a great combination of beauty and practicality. That's my big suggestion, I suppose: balancing beauty and practicality. I'm currently living in a college dorm in my last semester of school, so my card storage is one (soon to be two) sturdy cardboard storage boxes balanced on top of my laundry hamper so it's tall enough that I can easily access the cards while sitting at my desk. Anything that you end up building is gonna be better than that.

Love the thought of it and catch myself daydreaming about what I'll for mine one day.  I used to have a full man cave in my bonus room, but has since been turned into a bedroom.  I now move from place to place as necessary... one day it'll be the dining room table, one day the computer desk, one day the kitchen countertop... gets old and frustrating.

One thing I did want to do in mine was make a custom wall-mount display 20 cards wide x 20 cards tall and fill it with the full set of Topps Project 2020 cards.  I don't own any currently, but the market is great for starting a collection of them.  

I'd also want a L-shaped desk in one corner and a square island in the middle of the room for sorting.  Of course, a couple smaller TV's to flip on some games to watch/listen to.