From a strike out...

...to a home run.  Well okay, maybe only a triple, but that does not sound near as exciting!

I was checking out one of my local Goodwills the other day, looking for a lamp to make over for my spare bedroom (last detail needed in there).  I did not find a lamp that day, but I did find this:

It was your basic, baseball shelf that needed some TLC.  It had scratches, and some of the "wood" was chipped off on the corners of the shelves.  I sent the picture to Melissa to see if Thomas would have a place for it in his bedroom, and she was sure he did.  The cost was $5.99...probably more than it was worth, but I saw it's potential, so I picked it up.

My first thought was to sand the bats and stain them to look like old wooden bats.  But let's be real, Thomas (who is my absolute favorite grandson...okay, my ONLY grandson) is only 7 years old...does he really even know what a wood bat looks like?!  So I went to plan B (I always have a plan B in my arsenal).

I took the shelf apart to work on it.  I used wood putty to fix the "gotcha's" and sprayed all the pieces with primer.  I used some black craft paint and painted a small portion of the bat handle...when it was dry, I taped them off.  I already had some Rustoleum, Matte Brush Nickel in the garage, so I gave the bats a couple of coats.  FYI, don't think that the Rustoleum, Aluminum, will look like an aluminum bat...it won't, it was much to shiny!

Anyhoo, we decided to keep the shelves blue, but just changed the shade a little.  I picked up a couple little baseball shaped wood accents at Michaels for $.59 each, and added them as well.

This is what it looks like now!

How about that cheesy smile?!  Let me just tell you something about this little guy...you could seriously give him a cardboard box, and he would be excited about it...unlike his little sister, who is slightly harder to impress!  Remember?  I had to build her an entire kitchen, lol?!

Cost of shelf, $5.99, cost of supplies $7...his amount of excitement...priceless!

He proceeded to tell me that his "Nana" can do a lot of things...but she is the best at making cookies!  Love him!!