Featured Writer: Tonya Diehl
I purchased this old bat at an antique store a few weeks back on my shopping trip with my mom & grandma…
Well, I am so excited to show you what I did with it!
My mother-in-law gave me this plant stand that used to belong to her mother a couple of months ago. She was getting rid of it & wanted to know if I could use it for anything or wanted to use it for one of my blog projects….
This is what it looked like before…
Well, sort of…
You see I had my dad remove the leg of the table…I’m holding it up in the picture to give you an idea of what it looked like. I specifically asked my dad to take a picture of it before he removed
the table leg, but guess what…he forgot!!
Can’t complain too much…he works for free!
I had him replace the table leg with my new “old” bat!
Ta Da! Pretty cool, right?
Well, it gets cooler…
So I began sanding the feet & the tabletop to get ready for the primer…
I had holes to fill in from where my dad had screwed the bat into the tabletop.
I just filled them in with a little spackling…
I primed both the tabletop & the feet…
I left the bat as it was…
I then painted the tabletop white & the feet black…
I was trying to make the top of the table look like a baseball, so I
wanted to add some red stitching to the top as well…
I used the edge of a dinner plate to get the curve that I wanted.
I just used a pencil to trace the curve…
And then I free-handed the stitching part…
This is what it look like when I was finished…
My son’s room is done in sports,
but has a vintage feel to it with old sports decor…
which is why I LOVED the old bat! I wanted to make the tabletop & the feet look old & distressed as well, so I took some sand paper & went to work…
I sanded all of the edges of the table & then roughed up the tabletop in random spots as well…
I then took same antiquing medium & a sponge brush and began
to paint the antiquing medium onto the table top….
I just brushed on a thin layer over the surface of the table & then
took a dry cloth & wiped it off immediately after I applied it…
And this is what it looked like after I was done…
I just LOVE IT!!!
The antiquing medium really added the perfect touch to the
tabletop & totally gave me the look I was going for!
Here are a few more close-up pics to give you a better idea…
See…just like an old, beat-up baseball!
Exactly what I wanted!
I then finished the product by spraying a clear coat over the table top to seal it!
Once it dried, I took it into my son’s room & it now serves as his nightstand!
I dressed it up with the antique baseball books that I also found on our shopping trip & some other items I already had in his room…
Then I had a little photo shoot…
so you could really soak up the cuteness!
So, that’s it!
Hope you enjoyed this project as much as I did!
I am so happy with how it turned out!
Hi! My name is Tonya.
I am a part-time registered nurse/full-time mommy & wife. I have an amazing husband & two beautiful little boys who keep my days very busy!
I love all things DIY, decorating, & photography. You can find me over at, www.loveoffamilyandhome.net.
Such a great tutorial. I love how this turned out!
Lily, I know makes me want to go hunt down a good old bat.
What a perfect idea!!! So novel and I love how you made the rest of the table look vintage to go along with the bat. LOVE IT!
Toodie, thanks for stopping by and leaving a sweet note for Tonya. Yes, I agree it’s such a great idea!
What a great idea! I love the look of the top..wow! Megan
This is adorable. I am sure your son loves it. What a unique piece he can cherish forever. Maybe even pass on to his son one day! Great job!
that is beyond cool!!!
This is AWESOME! My baseball boys would love it! What a great idea and tutorial!
Barbara@ chase-thestart.blogspot.com
This is such a fun idea! Just pinned this! Thanks for sharing 🙂
I have been using this saw to cut granite floor tile for a DIY prcjoet. I bought a blade labelled for stone (at Lowes for 20 clams) and it works beautifully. It cuts very well, with no effort, and no chipping if you are light on the feed towards the end. I followed the advice in the manual to put the little pump into a buck of water and let it feed fresh water all the time, which worked well. This meant I had to work outdoors, as it makes a big mess. The dimpled table is a nuisance when the tile has some texture. I worried a lot about whether a saw at this price would be useful, and can easily say it is worth it now.
LOVE this!!! Did you have to flatten out the top of the bat to stabilize the tabletop or are the two screws enough to keep it steady?
I almost never comment, however I looked through some responses on Vintage Baseball
Table | Inspired By Familia. I do have a few questions
for you if you don’t mind. Could it be only me or does it look like like some of the remarks look like they are left by brain dead folks? 😛 And, if you are posting at other places, I would like to follow everything fresh you have to post. Would you post a list of all of all your social networking pages like your linkedin profile, Facebook page or twitter feed?
Its such as you learn my mind! You appear
to grasp a lot about this, such as you wrote the e book in it or something.
I feel that you just can do with some p.c. to power the message
home a little bit, however other than that, that is great blog.
A great read. I’ll certainly be back.
I was wondering how did you make the bat stick to the top and bottom ? How is it steady?
Hi Sam, I’m sorry I’m just seeing this. I’m sure you’ve figured it out by now but the contributor who wrote this article is no longer a part of our group.