After getting my first medal from my 10k in St Augustine, I began thinking about how I wanted to display them. I googled around, looking at medal racks, but none of them really spoke to me, They were either too extravagant or too boring! The crafty part of me began wondering if I could make one myself – it would probably be cheaper, and more personal.
I let that simmer over the holidays and after the Princess, I began to think about it again. I went to Home Depot (to get a broiler unit for my oven), and looked at hooks and stuff like that. I began to formulate a plan!
I returned to HD a few weeks later (when I was ready to buy everything I needed) and got a piece of MDF (HD cut it for free, so I got a piece for my medal shelf, and two pieces I can turn into shelving somewhere later), some purple spray paint and 2 three-hook racks. AtWalmart, I got some Command wire hooks. On Amazon, I got a great vinyl decal. I already owned the hardware to mount it and some glue.
First, I painted the piece of wood with a few coats of purple spray paint. Once it was completely dry, I applied the vinyl decal. (You know how you usually use something like a credit card to apply decals like these? I used an old Key to the World card!)
The hardest part of all this was trying to decide on the layout for the hooks. I ended up doing a few different layouts and taking photos of each one, then deciding that way.
Once I decided on a layout, I used some LocTite Power Grab to glue the robe hooks to the piece of wood. Then let it dry.
Now the fun part – getting it up on the wall! I made sure it was level and screwed in the first screw to the robe hook, going through the robe hooks, through the MDF and into the wall stud. I repeated with the other 3 screws that came with the robe hooks and tapped in the little screw cover knobs.
Next, I screwed the top of the MDF into the wall. In hindsight, I should have drilled first so that I wouldn’t have any ‘blowback’ from the MDF, but it doesn’t look too horrible. I taped off the entire area and gave the two screws a hit of spray paint so that they would fit in and not stick out (the screw caps I bought sucked, so I didn’t use them).
Once it was up on the wall, I adhered two Command wire hooks (already painted purple) to the MDF. These were for my bibs.
I laminated my bibs, and used a hole punch to punch holes so that they could be hung. On the back of each bib, I put on a label that had the name of the race, the date of the race and my official time.
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| Just basic file folder labels |
All in all, I am very happy with the way it turned out. I wish I’d had room to center the bibs above the two robe hooks, but this way is good too.
I only have 2 medals – SO FAR – that I can hang on there,
but I plan on filling it up! For now,
though, it can double as a Bondi Band holder!
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| I have 3 more Bondis not shown here.... |
And now, some glamor shots of my awesome Medal Rack!
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| Before I put the bibs on |
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| Close-up of Bib Hanger |
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| Close up of completed project |
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| The Finished Medal Rack |
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