Running Medal Holder with Display Shelf
Back in high school running was my life. I did cross country, indoor track and track for all 4 years of high school and I loved it so much! In my 20s running was my way of exercising and when I needed to get into shape, I would immediately start running and I loved it. Once I got to my 30s I joined a gym and I was working out and getting exercise in, so running took a back seat and I really didn’t run much. I would go years without going on a single run. One year I decided it was time to change some things up and I signed up for my first half marathon in September 2018. This was my first half marathon in 9 years. It was terrifying and I didn’t do too great but the fact that I did it was huge. Once I did that race, my anxiety of races started to go away and my love of running and doing races gradually started to come back. So I started to sign up for more races to motivate and to get me to run more. In 9 months time, I did 3 half marathons, 2 10ks, 2 5ks and a 12k. Running and racing has now become a part of my life, so I wanted to make something that could help me celebrate the accomplishments that I had achieved. I wanted to display all the running medals that I gotten and I wanted to do it in a fun way, rather than just getting a metal medal holder, I wanted to have a full display with pictures and running signs. Each race has a story and a memory and I want to remember them, the good and the bad. So I made up this running display for my bedroom. I love it so much! I love looking at it and remembering how far I’ve come and how hard I have worked this past year. My kids love it too because they have been on this journey with me and have done several races themselves and love the memories that they have from the races.
The first half marathon race I did was in Garden City, Kansas. I was 23 years old, only had 2 kids and running was really easy for me (that’s not the case anymore). In that race I actually won it for the woman. So instead of a medal, I got a plaque. I really wanted to display that plaque because chances are I will never win a half marathon again. I am really proud of that award so I wanted to build a shelf that I could display the award on it and then also put pictures on it.
This is how I made the display shelf for the pictures and plaque.
I started with a 1 x 4 and cut two pieces 32 inches each. Then I cut a 1 x 2 to 32 inches. You can make this as big as you would like, 32 inches is what fit the space in my bedroom the best.
Once the pieces were all cut, I then nailed the 1 x 2 front piece onto one of the 1 x 4’s. I put in 4-5 1 1/4″ nails with a nail gun.
Here is what it looks like with the front nailed on. Make sure the bottom is flush with the front piece.
I then put on the other 1 x 4 piece onto the bottom piece, once again making the bottom flush with the back piece. I wanted the middle of the display shelf to make the full 3 1/2 inches so I could have more room to put things onto it, that’s why I had all of the pieces flush at the bottom, so that the shelf could be wider.
This is how the shelf looks all nailed together. Seriously it was so easy to make, just a few cuts and then nailing it together.
I then painted the display shelf white. I used spray paint because I was in a hurry that day but any paint works. I then used some wood filler and filled in the cracks and holes in the front of the shelf.
I used a french cleat to put the display shelf onto the wall but you can easily just use screws and screw it directly into the wall. And that’s it, the running display shelf is done!
I wanted to put several things onto the display shelf, so I have two rows. I added another piece of the 1 x 2 wood and put into the shelf so the back row as raised a little bit so I could put more pictures and decor onto it. I paint the wood white also so it blended in with the shelf. I then added some pictures onto the wall above the shelf. I put those on with command strips and they are just the cheap frames from IKEA. I also put a few pictures into some clear standing frames, I got those from Walmart.
Here is the whole running display wall, I love it so much! It makes me so happy.
Under the running display shelf, I added a metal medal holder that I found from Etsy. I love the saying of this one and the style of it. I put all of my medals on it and then added a couple signs too. One to hold my running bibs and just a cute running sign that fit perfectly in the space.
This metal medal holder is so awesome. It’s heavy duty and holds 11 medals or more, you can easily add 2 or 3 to each hook. To put it onto the wall, I just used dry wall anchors and screws.
I love keeping my running bibs and safety pins, so I wanted to make some kind of display for the running bibs. This is what I came up with.
All I did for the running bib holder is painted a 12 x 12 canvas gray and then added a couple cup hooks to it. I didn’t have a small enough nut for the cup hooks, so I put a little hole into the canvas, screwed the cup hook through it and then added some glue to the back of the cup hook to make sure it didn’t fall out and move. It worked pretty well. I also added some adhesive vinyl to the bottom of the canvas. I cut the vinyl with my Silhouette CAMEO and used the colors key lime pie, celadon and powder blue. I have a free Silhouette cut file and SVG file for the design, you can get it here:
I had some space to fill, so I wanted to make a cute running sign that said 13.1 Cuz I’m only half crazy. I found this cute little sign at Walmart, I got it from the clearance Easter section for only $.96. I just spray painted it and then added some middle gray vinyl to it. Super easy and I bet you could find a similar sign in the decor section in any store, including the dollar store. I have the cut files for this running sign too, you can get them here:
UPDATE: I have loved this display, here is what it looks like today. Since I made this, I have run 7 more races, including my first marathon :).
My kids have been doing races with me too, so we made them their own medal holder boards. You can see all the details about that post here.
Check out my other home decor ideas!!
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