TRANSFORMING A ROOM

When I set out several years ago to convert an empty room in my house into a display showcase for my collection of cars, my wife tried in vain to get me to buy a fancy wallpaper border with various kinds of old cars on it. She thought the border would look nice stripped across the top of the walls. I'm sure she was right, but I had another idea.

"I don't need a border," I insisted (over and over again). "I have my own plan to create a border."

Part of the appeal of many smaller diecast cars (1:64 scale) is that the cards they come on often feature artwork that reinforces a particular theme to the car. Johnny Lightning is perhaps the best at creating cool cards to accentuate its themed releases. Anybody who has seen, for instance, JL's Monopoly, Pez, Cat in the Hat or Coca-Cola series knows that the creative and attractive cards are almost as interesting as the cars inside. The packaging becomes an integral part of the product and worthy of display.

My idea for the room was to use those cards with the more interesting artwork, with the cars still inside, to create a border all around the top edge of the ceiling.

"It will be really cool," I told my wife.

EXPERIMENTING

I stripped the walls of old wallpaper and before doing anything else decided to plan how I wanted to arrange my displays. I wanted to try out ideas on unfinished walls first to see if what I had in mind would work.

Part of the plan included how exactly I was going to mount the packs to the wall. Tape was out because it could mar the backs of the cards, thus reducing the value of the unopened packs. I thought about sticky-tack, but I was concerned that eventually it would lose its adhesiveness, and the packs would eventually fall.

Since the packs are designed with a built-in hook for hanging on rods in the stores, I thought the best way to put them up would be to hang them from small nails. (Yes, that's a lot of nails in the wall.)

But I discovered it works quite well, and the nails really aren't that visible. I also found the trick to using nails is to measure so the pack is flush to ceiling and to the pack next to it, and then pound the nail at a slight downward angle. That way the cards stay securely in place. If the nails are just straight, the cards can slide.

My room is approximately 9x9, with one small corner inset (1.5x2.75) that covers a chimney.                                       

Besides Johnny Lightning cars, my collection includes unopened packs from Hot Wheels, Matchbox, Revell, Siku and Ertl. Obviously with various brands comes various sizes, so I wanted to make sure my plan allowed for the variations but still look attractive and at least somewhat organized.

A sizable segment (about 90) of my collection includes Coca-Cola vehicles, so I thought I'd start with those for one corner of the room.

Then I sorted through many of my other non-Coke Johnny Lightnings to determine which ones I wanted to include in the border.

Once I had those picked out and in place, the rest of the border was easy. I had just enough Hot Wheels in the packs to fill one section above a window.

For two shallower areas above doors, I used Siku, Hot Wheels and Matchbox vehicles some in packs, some in small boxes. In another area, I used Revells, older Johnny Lightnings and a few Matchbox. And for one small section between the doors, I had just enough Johnny Lightning Thunderjets. (I still have one small section with nothing, but that's OK because it means I can still add to my collection).

With the border planned, the rest of the room was easy to organize.

BEYOND THE BORDER

A couple of other interesting points about my display:

For my Coca-Cola section, I found a couple of nifty Coke shelves, benches and boxes to hang on the wall.

My collection also includes a fair amount of loose vehicles. To display some of those, I found wooden boxes, trays and shelves. Three of my favorite display boxes are Boeing boxes, once used for tools by the airplane company. All I had to do was mount brackets on the back. 

Other features of the room include:

• An old, wooden sewing machine with cars spread out on top. I took out the drawers, put brackets on the back and mounted those as shelves on the wall.                            
• A small corner shelf (from my grandmother's house more than 25 years ago) for a small collection of Herbie vehicles.
• Two sections with carded cars displayed in racks.
• Two small curio cabinets with loose Hot Wheels.

And the centerpiece of the room is an antique china cabinet I found at an auction. Its five shelves are filled with larger scale (1:18, 1:43) models, most in diecast but some also in tin and plastic.

I also have an old easy chair that's been in my family for at least 50 years.

One of the cool things about the room is that I can change the displays easily as I add to my collection.

One more point: If you've looked closely at the photos, perhaps you've noticed that my entire collection is made of that hippie-era staple known as the Volkswagen. No, I've never owned a real one, but for some reason as a child, I was fascinated by them and somewhere along the way started collecting them. Many of the newer additions to my collection, including much of the shelving and boxes for the room, came through eBay auctions.

A PLACE OF REFUGE

I love my car room. It was a blast creating it, starting from a junk room and turning it into a fun place to find retreat. (It was also a bit therapeutic doing this project during a challenging time in my life). Let me also point out that I'm by no means a handyman, so everything involved in transforming this room was rather simplistic.

Since it's been finished, many friends and family members (and some strangers) have seen it. Everybody seems to like the room, but what amazes me more than anything about their comments is that they all seem to point out the border: "I love the border." "That's a really good idea to use those for a border." "That's a really cool border." "How'd you think of doing that border?" "What a great idea."

Even my wife agrees. And our teenage daughter takes great pleasure in showing off my room to her friends.

Enjoy this guide. Enjoy the photos.

And if you have a collection (of anything) stuffed away in boxes, perhaps there are some simple suggestions here to inspire you to create a wonderful display and a place to find refuge surrounded by something you enjoy.