DIY Painted Wood Frames for Sports Pictures

 

This is my middle son’s room, and despite many unfinished projects in our house, this room is nearing completion as far as its decor.  I have had this frame project in the works for quite a while, and finally this week finished up these DIY painted frames to display some of his soccer pictures above the beds.

 

 

I, like many modern moms, have a son who is a soccer fanatic. A recent conversation with my son involved him debating who he loved more–me or soccer? He was obviously feeling guilty when he confessed it might very well be soccer! I am OK with him having something in his life he finds so enjoyable, and he works very hard at it. I took some pictures of him warming up before a game last fall; {a sports photographer I am not–boy, that is a skill!} because I wanted him to be sure to have some soccer pictures to personalize his room.

 

 

Of course, I had to find a way to make them fit in his decor, and wanted something to break up the expanse of gray wall above the chair rail in his room. These were a really easy project, and I can swap out new pictures as we get more or if my sports photography skills improve!

I started with plain 12 x 12″ boards from Michael’s. In hindsight, I would have used larger boards or just had a board cut down had I been thinking ahead.  These actually look fine in the room but looking at the photographs they do seem a little small in scale for the space of the wall. There is something to be said for just buying the craft boards all ready cut and ready to go.

 

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I first painted the whole board white with a couple quick coats of white spray paint, but you could also paint them the old-fashioned way if you like. Then I taped them off using some painters tape to add the gray stripes.

I used Annie Sloan chalk paint in Paris Grey for the stripes and painted these when I was working on our console project. I have been working on these frames bit by bit for a few months, I know my son thought these would never be done!

After that, I used these simple and super cheap frames {you see below} which I grabbed at the craft store.

 

 

I only used two of the metal clasps that keep the frame holding the picture in and the glass together and it worked fine.

 

 

I simply hot glued the back of the clasp directly on the painted board, super easy.

 

 

To hang them, I just added these simple brackets {below} to the back and after a little measuring {and the requisite extra holes in the wall} had them hung above the beds.

 

 

I still love his Pottery Barn Star bedding, it dates from back when my boys used to share a room. Now the extra bed is very rarely used for sleepovers. We’re discussing if he wants to remove it to have more space but for now he wants to keep it in here.

 

 

Clearly, I am still working on his bookshelf between the beds (the middle shelf is MIA, it went into the black hole void during our last move}, so I still need to replace that. I also purchased some lights to hang on the wall to go over each bed at my last trip to IKEA, only to realize they take special bulbs! How did I not know IKEA lights did that? I plan to install them anyway, but I haven’t gotten around to it since I can’t light them up until I get back to grab the bulbs.

 

 

The other side of the room is just his closet, so you are pretty much seeing it all in these shots. I would like to convert his closet in to a desk if I can figure out how to store his clothes, when he gets older he’ll need the workspace. For now, this space is well-suited to him, and I think he really loved seeing himself framed in all his sporting “action”.

 

 

One last look before this room returns to its lego-covered, dirty-soccer uniform-pile normalness any minute!

 

 

Thanks for stopping by!