Baseball Room

I was looking through some old posts, when I realized that I had post bits and pieces of the boys' baseball bedroom redo last summer (quilt-red, quilt-blue, pillows, coat rack, curtain rods) , but I never posted pictures of the finished product. So I thought it was high time I posted some.

As a reminder, this is what my boys' room looked like before. This is the same fishy/nautical theme they've had since they were newborns.

And this is the updated baseball themed room that we did for their 5th birthday! They LOVE it!

I got the blue black out curtains (it stays light really late in Indiana) on clearance from Walmart.com. I got the posters from Posters.com (and had a 25% your whole order coupon) and the poster frames from Menards. My parents ordered the little red locker-style night stand from Amazon.com. You can't see the alarm clock too well, but it has rainbow colored numbers! I got that from Target. The little lamp is also from Target, but that has since been replaced with a Lillian Vernon baseball lamp from my husband's parents.

We already had the shelves (Menards), but we decorated them some of my husband's old gloves, cleats, and trophies and some of the boys' balls and trophies. What you can't see behind the door is a we hung another old baseball bat and glove, along with and a framed sheet of IU baseball cards (Go Hoosiers!). The wall on the left side of the closet (which you can't see either) is basically a mirror image of the wall on the right, with a shelf on top and filled with double white metal hooks (from Menards) hanging ball caps. (My kids have a lot of ball caps!). I believe we got the baseball piggy bank from Target (or maybe Walmart, I don't remember).

Baseball Bat Coat Rack

One of the first things I added to my Boys' Room Re-do Ideas pinterest board was this baseball bat coat rack from Potterybarn ($75):

We decided to make our own version.

1. I asked Superman's dad to dig in the basement for one of his old wooden bats. He brought me a very old one with a small crack in the back (making it unusable). The color was not great, so I cleaned it really well, then put a quick coat of stain on it from just a random can we had in the garage. ($0).

You could choose to spray paint if you want a bolder color.

2. Then we ran to Menards and picked up some all purpose hooks: three packages of 2 hooks at $4 each.  ($12)

And a pack of hangers from the picture hanging sections. ($3).

3. Then we measured out then drilled 6 holes evenly across the bat. Then we screwed the all purpose hooks in. (We did have to cut down two of the hooks for the skinniest area/handle of the bat.)

4. Then we attached the hangers (show above) on the back.

5. The hung the bat.

6. Then hung the boys' robes and towels on their new baseball bat coat rack!

Voila!  Total cost: $15.  Total time to make: about an hour.

Trading Spaces Myself

Once I decided it was time to re-do my boys bedroom, changing it from the fish/underwater theme we'd had going on since their nursery, to a more little boy-ish baseball room, I've been pinning ideas like crazy onto my Boys Room Re-do Ideas board on Pinterest.

One of the things I really wanted to do was this:

http://sassyscarlett.blogspot.com/2011/01/baseball-curtain-rod.html

But #1 Superman was not excited about drilling a hole in a ball ("it will unravel...blah...blah...blah...excuse...blah...blah...blah") and #2 the longest dowel I could find at Lowe's was 48" and Thing 1 and Thing 2's windows are 45.5 (add the bracket and what you insert into the ball, and trust me it wasn't long enough.

I started looking into other curtain rods, but I wasn't impressed with the quality (read: sturdiness) or the price of the ones out there.  This one from Sears.com was 19.99 a piece plus shipping, and look how thin the actual rod is!  My boys would break it with one tug of the curtains.

Then inspiration hit.  I went on to Lowes.com and found these plain white curtain rods for $11.66 a piece.  Solid wood with 1 1/8 inch barrels.  And pick up from the store was free.  And the rods were ready for pick up 20 minutes later.

I brought them home and put them up.  They fit perfectly!

Then I pulled them back down and using a red sharpie marker, I free-handed stitching around each round finial.  

And voila!!  They look fab, if I may say so myself! :)

Next step: decide on curtains.  (These are just placeholders until I find what I really want.)

Homerun!

And the crowd goes wild!

This week, I finished Thing 2's baseball quilt to match his brother's for the impending baseball themed bedroom.

7th inning stretch

I did it!!

It's been almost two months since I first pieced together Thing 1's baseball tshirt quilt, but I finally finished it.

I decided to take a summer class this year, and seeing how I haven't taken a class since my May 2005 graduation, I have felt a little overwhelmed and haven't had much free time to work on my sewing.

But this week I got ahead on my work for my class, and decided to reward myself by busting out the sewing machine.

And the result is one super-sized twin quilt (it is long enough on the sides that I won't be needing bedskirts) in a baseball theme.

I hope it's not another two months before I have the time to finish Thing 2's quilt.

Batter Up: 2nd Innning

Thing 2's baseball quilt is now all pieced together.

Next step: quilting both quilts.

Warning: this is going to take a while. :)

Batter Up: Update

After seeing the first draft (pre-quilted) version of Thing 1's quilt, Superman insisted I make one addition.

And when I say he insisted, I mean he insisted.

At first, I just thought he was kidding.  But then he made it very clear that he was 100% dead serious.

So I made the addition.

Batter Up!

Most of my craft projects lately seem to be projects I'm doing for somebody else.  Either because they are paying me to do it (Yay!) or because I'm making it as a gift.

So I'm happy to take a break and work on a project for me (well, really for my kids, but still...).

My twin sons will be turning 5 in June.  And their room is still decorated using the theme we chose for their nursery.

We have finally decided the time has come to update their room to a little more mature theme.  We (with their help) chose: baseball.

A few months ago, I started looking for baseball linens for their bed, but I was disappointed that I could only find either a specific team or general sports together (baseball, basketball and football).  But I wanted something that was just general baseball.

It was also around this time that I started making t-shirt quilts.  So Superman, being the brainiac he is, suggested I make them t-shirt quilts using all baseball shirts.

Ding-ding-ding!

I started by raiding his closet.  Then surveying shirts that Thing 1 and Thing 2 had almost outgrown (unfortunately I'd already given away all of their smaller size shirts).  Then, I hit up our local Goodwills.  Multiple times.

And finally, I had enough t-shirts to make two twin size quilts.  So this past week, after I finished Laya's quilt, I started cutting and laying out both quilts.

So far I have only sewn together the top for Thing 1's quilt:

Next I will work on Thing 2s.

And then, my favorite (for creativity) and least favorite (time-consuming) step: quilting.