Which Phone Charging Station Do You Like?

Have you ever driven away from your house, and realized you forgot your phone? Do you start calculating if you have enough time to head back home for your phone, or decide you'll enjoy the day better being offline? As we add more portable electronics to our households, the choices for integrating a phone charging station into our homes is growing.

My favorite phone charging station is one shown above, which I saw while touring luxury homes at the 2015 International Builders Show. What made this charging station perfect was it's location. It was positioned off the kitchen and right next to the garage door. That's the perfect place to help you remember to drop your phone there when you arrive home … and grab your phone any time you leave the house. It's also a shelf so you can leave tablets and other electronics there, all in one place.

Is a Built-In Phone Charging Station in Your Future?

Then I found this phone charging station in a drawer, so now you see it and when there's too much clutter, you can close the drawer. This makes perfect sense when you're adding this feature in a room where there are a lot of competing activities. You already have a lot going on in the kitchen, laundry room and mud room, that you don't need to add more loose gadgets to these crowded spaces.

Look at this lovely command center with a charging station right next to the door, from EngelsmaHomes.com in Grand Rapids, MI. The nook is elegant, yet functional. Don't you love the chalk board for notes, the cork board to pin real paper like what the kids bring home from school, and a phone charging station that will hold every family member's phone? This builder didn't sacrifice style, but rather wrapped this wonderful family command center with trim to match the personality of the house.

How about this novel family communication center, built into a narrow kitchen cabinet in what's often unused space. At the top there's a power strip with a shelf below it, to hold gadgets that need recharging from phones to tablets or camera batteries which I find just as challenging as my phone. Then there are hooks for keys, bags and white boards on the inside of the doors for family members to leave notes for each other. It's taking the old “front of the refrigerator” clutter and hiding it in a place where it gets the job done!

So here are a few more built-in phone charging stations, some bigger than others, but all get the job done … once family members remember where to leave their phones. The first one is really practical as the phone charging stations are built into the half wall.

Then there's a charging station that's built into the wall cavity, similar to other ways to use hidden space in your home (Read: Wall Storage Ideas for More Space). The next photo shows how all you need to do is add a power strip to an existing cabinets, or you can place a power strip in (or behind) a drawer.

So where does your smart phone get juiced up?

PS Here are some more phone charging ideas, that are portable until you can build one into your house.