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Baseball Room
by Becca Williams, creator of WallNutz Paint By Number Mural Kits
www.wallnutz.com
The season has begun, baseball fans! It’s time to hit a homer by using this plan to decorate your little guy’s room. He’ll have everything from a baseball diamond to a scoreboard; the only thing he’ll be missing is the hot dog vendor!
Wall Color
Semi-gloss latex is your best choice for painting his walls. You certainly want him to leave his mark on the world, but not necessarily on his walls, and this is the best type of paint for wiping away hand prints. Choose a white or light blue and paint the entire room, leaving the trim white.
Baseball Diamond Mural and Scoreboard
Once the background color is completely dry, paint a baseball diamond on one of the walls using the simple WallNutz Baseball Mural Kit pictured to the right.
On a different wall than the mural, trace out a rectangle 4 feet long by 3 feet high. The bottom of the rectangle should be approximately 3 feet higher than the baseboard. Use black chalkboard paint available at most craft stores to fill in the rectangle. Write “Home” and below it “Away” on the left side of the chalkboard and draw two rows of boxes horizontally across the board to show the score in each inning.
Border
Now let’s make a border to wrap around the room. You can use the Baseball Mini Mural kit, or find an open tennis ball can or other round object of about the same size.
Trace around the can with a pencil, then draw two concave lines inside the ball to resemble a baseball’s stitching. Move the can a couple inches diagonally down from the first ball and repeat tracing. For the third ball, go diagonally up from the first ball. Continue tracing in this random pattern until you’ve wrapped around the room.
If the room is white, trace around the balls using a black Sharpie permanent marker with a medium point. You can again place the tennis ball can on your traced circle for a perfect edge. Using a red Sharpie marker, trace along the concave lines to create the “stitches.”
If your background is light blue, you will use white acrylic craft paint (available at all craft stores and Wal*Mart) to fill in each circle. Before painting, trace over stitching lines inside each ball with a red Sharpie marker. Now paint the inside of each ball with white paint. Retrace the stitching lines with the red Sharpie marker.
Window Treatments
This valance created using wooden bats will add a fun finishing touch to the room and is sure to be a hit! You’ll need to find a wooden bat or two depending on the number of windows in the room. One bat decorates two windows.
Take red, blue, yellow, green, orange, purple, black, and white ½” ribbon and cut into varying lengths between 6” and 9”. Stick the ribbons vertically with sides touching to a strip of sticky backed Velcro that is as long as your curtain rod. Then stick the opposite side of the Velcro to the curtain rod. Stick the ribbons to the curtain rod. Next, cut the bat(s) in half lengthwise. (If you don’t have the equipment, find a carpenter to do this for you.) Screw the flat side of the bats into curtain rods covering the top of the ribbons. The ribbons should hang down behind the bats.
Finishing touches
· Replace dresser drawer knobs with baseball shaped pulls. (Available through Target.)
· Buy an unfinished pine coat rack from a craft store. Paint the knobs white to look like balls, then paint two red concave lines on the inside of the balls to resemble stitching. Finish the coat rack by varnishing with a clear finish.
· Hang team pennants around the room.
© 2001 Becca Williams. All rights reserved. Article used by permission.
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