Years in the making….

I’m not sure if they have one in every Red Robin restaurant, but I’m pretty sure in every Red Robin I’ve been to they have an American flag made of baseballs. That was my inspiration for this project. 

The difference between the ones in Red Robin and the one that I made is that every ball in mine is from an MLB game, Spring Training or an Arizona Rookie League game. My boys and I have been collecting these balls for years. We finally got enough this past year and so in February I began putting this together.

It took longer than I expected and wanted to put it all together,  but I finished it and got it hung up this past weekend. While there are many imperfections and lots of changes I would make if I did it again, I absolutely love the end result.

I didn’t pay for a single ball, but materials still ended up being around $150. I used a peg board, so the holes were already there for me. If I did it again I would just use a solid piece of wood. The bulk of the cost was spray paint. I think I used 5 cans of red, 3 blue and two black (my measurements were off just slightly, so I had to buy and paint tow different peg boards). There was also three boxes of screws, some a yard and a half of black felt, the French Cleat and a package of screws and anchors.

It super heavy and required at least two people to hang it. I estimate it at 100-120 pounds. I had four people helping when we put it up on the wall. I used a French Cleat rated at 300 pounds to get it on the wall. 

So glad to be done with this project and to be able to enjoy it.