The Wall Mounted Basketball Display Hoop

In comes something I’ve never seen before, a wall mounted mini-hoop from Amazon.  I put the Amazon Affiliate link below here:

WALLNITURE Wall Mount Sports Ball Holder Display Storage Rack Steel Black

Very reasonably priced, way cheaper than the display cases.

When I got it in, it came with the hoop, 4 screws, and 4 drywall anchors.  Since I was only using the hoop for display where it wouldn’t be disturbed, I didn’t use the wall anchors and just used the screws (for now at least, if it weakens some then I may be forced to go the anchor route).

How does it look?  Pretty awesome in my opinion.  My son was also very happy with it.  The only thing I noticed that was a little weird is that the hoop didn’t seem to be perfectly aligned with the mounting bracket, which means to get perfectly level your screws might not be perfectly level either (or you could bend it possibly if that bothers you).  I just decided to mount it as is and just live with the slight screw unevenness.

I really can’t believe that nobody had come out with this product before, it’s really quite ingenious.  Probably the biggest downside of this is that your basketball will eventually get dusty, but so would a display case.

Ordering the Frames

The first thing I did was order 5 frames off Amazon.  I ordered these (Amazon affiliate link below):

LOCKABLE 98% UV Protection – Baseball / Football / Basketball / Soccer / Hockey Jersey Display Case Shadow box, (Black Finish)

There are some similar options are that a little deeper or have slightly different dimensions, but these were the ones I thought had the best bang for the buck.  They arrived in two different bundles, one of three frames and the other with two.  The frames are fairly heavy so it’s a good thing they were split up, if all 5 were together it would have been pretty heavy to lift.

Installing the Jerseys

Once I got them separated, it was time to start putting some jerseys in them.  I had 5 different jerseys I had gotten off Ebay, two basketball, one football, one hockey, and one baseball.  The basketball ones were really easy to do.  The case comes with a black hangar to do basketball jerseys with, so it was as simple as putting the jersey on the hangar and then putting it on the hook inside the frame.  After hanging you’ll probably have to tuck in the jersey a little bit (depending on the size and sport).  For the basketball one I just had to fold the jersey a little behind.

The football one though was a little trickier but still pretty easy.  The frame comes with a white cardboard insert that you put the football jersey around.  Once you have it over the cardboard, you can pin it to tighten it up if you want (pins are included) or you can just put it in the case and squeeze the fabric in.  The hardest part it just keeping all the fabric out of sides of the case when you’re trying to close it, if any fabric isn’t inside the case the case will have a hard time closing.

Hanging the Jersey Frame

Once the jerseys were installed inside the cases, it was now time to hang them on the wall.  Luckily, the cases come with three hangers preinstalled on the back to make it easy.  No screws are included though for putting it on the wall, you’ll have to provide those yourself.  I would recommend hanging these on a stud when possible, the heavy weight will make the nail/screw sag after a while if you don’t.

Fit and Finish of the Frame

The frame itself is really nice, it’s not an el cheapo product that you sometimes get with frames.  Evidently the front is real glass, or at least the box says it is.  Most of these frames usually come with Plexiglass, so glass is a step up.  I couldn’t really tell from touching it, all the edges that would give it away are hidden in the frame.

The back of the frame is a nice black velvety fabric that absorbs light very well, giving the jersey good contrast in the frame.  Whether you get this frame or some other frame, having a background that is light absorbent helps a lot.

Conclusion

Basically, the whole point of this article was that you can save yourself a ton of money by buying this frame or one like it from Amazon or another retailer.  Then just get a jersey off Ebay of your favorite star.  If you go to a local sports store, they’ll probably charge you double, triple, or quadruple what doing this would cost.  Save some money, do it yourself.  Then if you want to change out the jersey at some later point it’ll be 10 times easier as well.

I bought a Gran Board 2 Dart Board and it’s 22 inches across.  At that diameter, it didn’t fit into any standard cabinet I looked at.  Most of the cabinets were like this one at my Amazon affiliate link:

NFL Dart Cabinet at Amazon

Basically, too narrow on the inside to fit the dart board.  And if they were wide and long enough, often they weren’t deep enough for something like the Gran Board 2.

I finally got fed up with this and decided to make my own.  I knew that I needed to make it fairly large as I’ve seen how terrible a lot of people are at hitting the board, you usually need about a foot around the board to protect the walls.  Any less than that and you’ll end up with wall marks from time to time.

I decided to make mine 4 foot by 4 foot.  Since my dart board was 22 inches across, this would give me a little over a foot on all sides of the board to protect the walls, plus provide a nice aesthetic.  4 foot also provide a nice round number for cutting boards that normally come in 4′ and 8′ lengths, I figured that I could either cut 8′ boards or assemble 4′ boards with minimal effort and cutting.

I searched online for reclaimed wood, hoping to figure out some way to assemble the thing.  Lowes didn’t seem to have anything when I searched.  Home Depot though had exactly what I was looking for, a box of artificially created reclaimed wood for $25 a box (around 10 square feet).  I’ve linked the product below:

Weathered wood at Home Depot

I also bought an 8′ board of reclaimed wood that I used to make the cross pieces on the back.  Looking back at it, I probably could have used the same 4′ pieces from the box I linked above instead of buying a separate piece.  Probably the only advantage of the 8′ board is that it was a lot thicker than the other boards so my 1″ nails didn’t go all the way through both boards.

Once I had the wood, I went home to assemble it.  I was basically these steps:

1. Cut the 8′ board to 47″ pieces (they have to be slightly shorter than 4′)
2. Assemble the 4′ boards on top of the 47″ pieces to form a wall
3. Nail the 4′ boards to the 47″ pieces to complete the wall

That’s it.  I included a picture of what it looks like horizontally just in case someone was thinking about doing it that way.  I have a video below that shows more:

Once the wall was assembled, it was time to go install it in my Game Room.  This is probably the hardest part of this whole deal, since you have to try and get the dart board at the right height (and you’ll want the dart board to be centered on the wall, so there’s a lot of factors in play).

I first put a screw in a stud to hang the dart board wall on.  This allowed me to correctly situate the wall (on the wall, lol).  Once I had it level and in the right spot, I screwed both the top and bottom into the stud in the middle.  I thought two screws (plus the one it was resting on) would be enough for my particular setup since I used very long screws, however you may need more depending on your situation.

I have a video of the final installation.

Actually after I made this video, I installed a bottom shelf with one of the 4′ pieces.  I simply just screwed it into the bottom of the dart board wall.  I can now put all the darts and other things on that ledge while playing.  Here’s a picture of it:

The dart board I have in this video is the Gran Board 2.  I highly recommend it as it connects to your phone or tablet and then uses that as a scoreboard.  Much better than any other dart board I’ve ever played plus it offers online play and a ton of other games that aren’t available normally.  You can buy it from Amazon through my affiliate link here:

Gran Board 2 Bluetooth Electronic Dart Board

Hopefully this will help you in your quest to find a nice dart board backing.  The options are pretty lacking commercially but this is a good way to do it at minimal effort and cost.  If you have any questions post a comment or email me.

https://www.lowes.com/pd/AirStone-8-sq-ft-Autumn-Mountain-Faux-Stone-Veneer/50247201

Airstone is a product that looks like real stone but is really a very light stone like material (hence the name Airstone).  Instead of using stone tools to cut and shape it, you use a standard hacksaw or power saw (with appropriate blade) to cut it.  I did my Airstone fireplace wall with a hacksaw, if I had to do it again though I’d probably invest in a power saw.  I had to do a lot of running up and down the stairs to the garage to cut it, then run back downstairs to see if it fit (not fun).  On top of that, my arm got really tired after a while of cutting, if you’re going to do a big project using an electric tool would be totally worth it.

Installation

I used the Autumn Mountain veneer (pictured below).  It has a brownish hue to it that goes well with most things.  Airstone also comes in the colors Birch Bluff and Spring Creek.  Birch Bluff is kind of a light off white stone and Spring Creek is a grey ensemble.  When buying it, there are two different kinds of boxes, one with only straight pieces and one with only corners.  Depending on your project, you may or may not need the corner pieces but you’ll for sure need the straight pieces unless you’re just doing a square column.  I had two major corners with my Airstone fireplace that required quite a few corner boxes.

When assembling it, it’s fairly easy to start constructing your wall.  The hardest part is keeping your wall level.  You may want to draw some lines to provide a good starting point.  In my case, I put up a 2×4 horizontally across to build my first row, then built upon it after that.  That may or may not work for you depending on what you’re doing, if your wall has a lot of spaces the board thing may not work.  Letting your first couple rows dry will help with later assembly, the stone isn’t too hard to take off later if you make a mistake.  I linked to a video below that shows installation:

I used the adhesive recommended by the manufacturer, Airstone Interior Adhesive.  You can buy it here:

https://www.lowes.com/pd/AirStone-Interior-Adhesive-128-fl-oz-Stone-Veneer-Adhesive/3594596

The good thing is that it’s very easy to work with and if you make a mistake it’s pretty easy to correct.  The negative to that is that some smaller pieces may fall off eventually, some of the really small (1″) pieces I cut to fill in spaces fell off and had to be reattached.  Luckily they usually fell off in the first week, so if it makes it that long you’re probably doing pretty good.  The small pieces are almost always used close to edges, I had quite a few instances where the piece I was using was just a little too short and needed a small piece thrown in to make it work.

Additional Fireplace Items

At the front of my fireplace you can see I have a stone ledge.  You can get that from a local stone place, I believe it was called a flagstone.  It was VERY heavy and hard to move, I ended up needing a dolly to get it down my stairs.  I would guess that it weighed a couple hundred pounds or more.  The base I made was constructed from 2 x 4’s and then covered with Airstone.  It matched the Airstone really well, made it look pretty professional.

The mantel actually came off Amazon.  It looks amazing and 100% real but it’s actually hollow and fairly light.  It attached via a plate on the back and just sits on the front of the fireplace.  Putting the stone around my mantel was fairly challenging because of the lower wood pieces sticking out at the bottom, you have to do a lot of cutting in order to get all the pieces to look right.  The bottom pieces are optional though, you don’t have to install them if you don’t want.  It’s available from through my Amazon affiliate link here:

Pearl Mantels 412-72-50 Shenandoah Pine 72-Inch Fireplace Mantel Shelf, Rustic Medium from Amazon

It can actually support a decent amount of weight, you can see that I have a sound bar and a clock on it currently.  You can also see the side shelves, if desired you can easily add the 36″ side shelves on the wall to match the mantel.  I have little mini helmets on mine which were great until the Big 10 added two more teams and exceeded my shelf space.

The fireplace is an electric from Dimplex and it’s worked really well while I’ve had it.  I don’t turn it on very often, but when I do it provides some nice heat in the basement.  It has multiple settings, like high, low, and visual only.  The visual only setting is nice when you want the fireplace look but not the heat associated with it.  It comes with a remote which is nice to have so you can turn it on from you couch.  It’s available from Amazon here:

Dimplex DF3003 30-Inch Plug-In Electric Fireplace from Amazon

I’ve now had my fireplace up for a few years now, would I do it again?  Absolutely.  In fact I’m considering adding Airstone to my bar area now.  It’s easy to install, cost effective, and looks fantastic when done.  The only hard part is that there isn’t a good way to go around curved surfaces which I would need to do for the bar area.

Around the same time, I was also able to finally reaquire my old Corvette pinball machine that I owned for a couple years before lack of space forced me to sell it.  If you’re looking for an underrated game from the 90’s, Corvette is one of the best ones you’ll find. Good flow and shots, good rules, lots of combos, etc.  Here’s a picture of the neon turned on above the pinball machine.

So where can you acquire this neon sign?  I got mine off ebay for around $300.  The one thing you have to be careful of is that some of the signs are slightly different even though they look the same.  Some might be slightly smaller or missing a little neon that others have.  Mine is 24″ is 24″ for reference.

It’s one of my favorite decorations in my game room, and my only neon sign currently.  Hopefully that will change someday.

Searching for “Back to the Arcade Neon Sign” on ebay brings the sign up if you’re interested in buying one.

I think the frames I was using were some 40″ x 27″ movie poster frames from Bed Bath and Beyond I believe.  They’ve worked pretty well so far.  The downside of doing the alcoves is that in most situations you have to extend out the wall to make space for the posters.  In this situation, I’ve got a GU20 50w can light for the top light, and the spaces are framed out by 2″ x 6″ boards.  The curve was done with some bendable 1/4″ or 1/8″ wood in two separate pieces.

Obviously I got a Cornhusker one but there are ones for all the major NCAA teams.

All the other teams are available as well, but obviously being a Cornhusker fan I gravitate towards them.  Of course, being a Cornhusker fan has been a little bit harder lately after the beatdown we got from Ohio State.

It’s still available through here:

http://www.bestofbigred.com/3-Panel-Champions-Mural

It’s one of my favorite things in my basement, I’ve attached a picture to this article.  The dimensions are 6.5 feet by 4 feet.

Even if you don’t like the Cornhuskers, I’m sure there are similar things for every sports team.  It’s a nice alternative to posters and other cheaper items, it really brings an air of classiness to the basement.