Where’s all the baseball fans out there??

Fans of the big leagues or the little leagues will love this barnwood baseball wall decor that’s simple and inexpensive to make. We made this from some reclaimed barnwood, but in case you don’t have that just laying around in the garage.. no worries! You can make this out of any scrap wood or the new shiny wood from the good folks at Home Depot or Lowe’s.

Baseball season is approaching y’all. We have a little baseball fan in the family now and she’s got a swing that will knock your socks off. That’s right… I said SHE!! So for her 7th birthday, we wanted to decorate her room in her favorite sport ’cause you know we are her biggest fans! 😉 Let’s start with some reclaimed barnwood.

We actually got all this wood from our neighbors! If you read my last post, I mentioned I’m in a new house now. Right up the road is a little farm with a TON of barnwood just sitting there. Sitting. There. Farmer Sherman was so generous to let us have whatever we wanted. I truly don’t know if Sherman knows what a treasure he has around him, but to do him honor, we are going to put this reclaimed wood to good use! Let’s get busy building!

I gotta tell ya.. our plans involve a lot of “eyein” it and measuring til we reach the point of  “yeah, that’s about right.”

But for what it’s worth,  we used 6 planks of wood with two planks behind them to brace and cut a circle measuring about 24″ in diameter.

Or if you’re not real good with measurements and diameters and angles and such, you can always just grab your workshop fan, take the cover off, and you have handy template for a barnwood baseball! It’s how we roll…  😉

Time to cut this baby out!!

Disclaimer: Here at Creatively Southern we believe in safety first. Always wear your safety goggles when working with power tools and feet first… first time when jumping in the pool!

Once your done cutting you either have a fantastic barnwood serving tray (hey, there’s an idea!) or something that resembles a baseball. Now we just need to draw some laces on here. Given that I have little to no artistic ability, I let the expert handle this. He has an eye for this stuff but if you need a little help, grab a baseball to get some perspective and guidance on this one.

We could stop right here, slap some paint on, and call it done, but then where’s the fun in that!?

We were going for an authentic look here so that meant real laces. The laces are my favorite part of this wall decor. Well, maybe it’s the barnwood… It’s a toss up really. We drilled holes on both sides of each line drawn. Then we took this to whole different level…

We decided to we would cut our baseball in three separate pieces.

Wait, what?

You’re going to cut this perfectly round circle of fabulous barnwood in pieces? Here’s the point of no return y’all! Go ahead and cut again along your lace line that you drew. It’s okay, you got this…

See those rustic edges? Sets it off doesn’t it? We used the this fantastic little Dremel tool to sand down the edges where we cut to smooth it out. It adds dimension and any excuse to use the Dremel will do!!

Next we grabbed a can of our favorite spray paint and sprayed a light coat of Rust-oleum white satin over the wood. By light coat, I mean long swoops of spray paint 1 to 2 times across. You want some of the wood to still show through.

For the laces, we picked up some parachute cord at Michael’s craft store. Which by the way they just opened up a new better and improved Michael’s here in Knoxville. Ummm… let’s just say I was in awe when we went thru the front door. Two times the size and shiny crafty stuff EVERYWHERE from wall to wall. Pretty sure I got a glimpse of heaven that day, *sigh* …but I digress. Pick up some parachute cord at Michael’s for about $5 and you’re good to go! (Dare you to go in there and only buy the one thing you need!!) 😉

Here’s the tricky part. Tie a knot in one end of your cord. Push that up through one of your drilled holes on the end of your baseball.

Then you’re going to take that end and run it through the middle of your two cut pieces. and back up through another drilled hole on the opposite side.

Clear as mud right?

Hey, if you can lace up your tennis shoes, then you can lace up this barnwood baseball.

After lacing a small section, we went back and tightened up the laces to see how it was coming along. Not bad… not bad!!

Keep your patience and your wits about you and don’t give up!

Once you reach the end of one side, tighten all of your laces and tie a knot underneath to secure it. Then… rinse and repeat on the other side! 🙂 In the end, you will have an authentic barnwood baseball wall decor!!

We had some picture hanging hardware that we mounted on the back so it could hang on the wall. Then you’re all set!! One of us got really creative and freehandedly (that is a word!) cut out a baseball bat to go along with the theme. Then we used our well-oiled Silhouette cutting machine to create the “Louisville Slugger” label.

There ya go folks! Do you think Farmer Sherman would be proud of what we’ve created so far with his ol’ barnwood? Let’s just say that it passed the approval of a special 7 year old slugger and that’s really all that matters now isn’t it? And just in case you’re not the DIY’er but would love to have one for your very own, you can purchase a custom handmade barnwood baseball in the colors of your choice in our online shop! Leave me a comment or share if you know someone that loves barnwood or baseball! In the meantime, we gotta a few curve balls to brush up on! 😉