Full disclosure: I'm terrible at DIY projects. I long to have the talent of those Pinterest sorceresses who magically turn random craft supplies into beautiful works of art. When I look for projects I usually search "kid friendly" to make sure it is within my scope of abilities. My largest limiting factor is patience. When I start a project, I just want it to be done, I don't want to wait for the paint to dry or to carefully cut out anything. Can't I just buy one? I needed a DIY project so easy that even I could do it. 

This idea to attempt my own DIY project stemmed from the fact that my current race medal holder is full and I saw one on Etsy that I loved for $75. It was gorgeous, but $75? It looked easy enough, maybe I could do that. I may not be good at DIY, but I had a backup plan...hubby! 

He actually had another big project going on around the house and my medal hanger was probably the last thing he wanted to focus on, but I think when he saw my sad DIY-self trying to spray paint chalkboard paint, he felt pity for me and helped...err...took over. 

MATERIALS

Shopping for supplies? That I can do. 

I walked all over Home Depot looking for the perfect piece of wood and actually ended up buying a particle board shelf because it was already primed and just about the perfect size.

From Home Depot I bought the shelf, a can of chalkboard spray paint, a wooden dowel rod, a couple of hooks. About $13 total

From Hobby Lobby I bought wooden letters and metal clips. $7

Does the teal color look familiar? It's leftover from the #Shredshed.

THE PROJECT

Hubs helped me tape off the board so I could spray the chalkboard paint. I was seriously annoyed when he told me we had to wait 24 hours for the chalkboard paint to dry before we could tape it off to paint the other side. Seriously? Ugh. Waiting. 

We (I use the word "we" liberally) painted the dowel rod white and cut it down to size. (Probably not in that order) Hah. 

I painted the letters, but I painted them on a magazine and that was a terrible idea. Don't do that. The paper stuck to the letters and I spent years (slight exaggeration) cutting the paper off the edges with a razor blade. I also used a paintbrush which was terrible idea number two. Hubby did the 2nd coat with a mini roller. 

Once everything finally dried and I cut off all that paper, hubs helped attach the clips, screw in the hooks and glue the letters. 

The idea was for it to say "RUN GOALS" and then I could write my current run goals in chalk under the letters. My super crafty-talented friend is going to help me paint the letters GOALS in white paint in some fancy hand lettering under the word run, but we haven't had a chance to get together on that yet. 

I know what you are thinking, For a DIY project, there is not a lot of "Y" going on. So maybe it's a DIYH (Do it Your Husband) or HDI (Husband Does It).

I'm grateful to have a hubby willing to help me with these types of projects, otherwise I might have had one of those Pinterest-fail pins to share. 

I think it turned out cute and best of all it was made with love. Perfect. Now I just need to add wall hangers on the back and find a spot for it in the #shredshed.

What do you think? Are you a DIY Queen or DIY-deficient, like me? 

Do you display your race medals? 

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Coach Lea