This post is in partnership with Rathskellers.

During the process of redesigning our living space to meet our family’s needs, one thing we always knew we wanted was a good size coffee table we could play games on. 

We found a few tables that we liked that we thought could work well for this purpose, but they all felt a little off in some way; a compromise and not a true fit. We knew that with a family of our size, we wanted this table to truly be a beautiful piece of furniture that would anchor the room. The type of furniture that we could make memories around and that would last our family for years. 

This led us to Rathskellers!

One of the biggest struggles for any hobby gamer is finding a way to store your board games. Everyone has a different threshold for how many games they want to collect and keep in their home, but no matter what that number is for you, finding a way to store them can be a challenge.

We live in a smaller home and don’t have the option to create a dedicated board game room. That would be a complete dream, but for now, it’s not a reality.

However, I didn’t want that to stop us from creating a space that is both beautiful and functional. Kallaxes might work great for some, but for me, they are just not the way. I wanted to create a space that was ready to host the best board game nights that didn’t scream “BOARD GAMES” to every guest that walked in our house.

So the plans began to create a secret game room in the living room.

For days when you’re stuck inside, every parent needs a good set of screen-free activities that kids can do on their own.

As a mom of 5, these activities help function as a tool to give me a break so that I can quick throw in another load of laundry, keep some kids busy while I present a homeschool lesson to another child, or just give me a break from the millions of questions kids ask all day long. (Honestly, they are non-stop!)

While you know we love games around here, I want to share with you a few of my favorite solo logic and puzzle activities that help this stay-at-home mom make it through the day in case you find yourself in need of a few “mom-not-required” activities.