We had a large empty wall in the boys’ playroom. I thought briefly about making a big bulletin board to hang their drawings, but thought they’d have much more fun with a basketball hoop! I wanted to make my own backboard, I just needed to find a used hoop. I hopped on Craigslist and found one for $10.

This project cost me less than $50.00 to make. Some of the stuff I already had leftover from other projects like the paint and stain. All you need is:

• 12 qty. 1in x4in x8ft furring strips. This is very inexpensive lumber with imperfections and knots. I wanted my board to look vintage, so it worked out perfect. 

• 1.88 painters tape

• stain

• paint

• nails

• 4 heavy duty screws

• basketball goal & hardware to attach to backboard

• Various tools: saw, hammer, drill, paint roller, etc.

From the furring strips, cut 17 pieces at 42 inches and 3 pieces at 59.5 inches. Use the longer pieces as the horizontal back supports and line the short pieces on top vertically. Go to town nailing them together as seen in the diagram.

Next, stain the entire board and let it dry. Use painters tape to create the stencil for the goal lines. Paint over everything with white paint. Peel up the painters tape. Distress with sandpaper. Attach the hoop.

To hang, I used 4 very heavy duty screws and drilled directly through the board into wall studs. That’s it! The boys absolutely love it, and I think they will get years and years of use out of it. Usually my husband is pretty “meh” about my projects, but this he was really excited about. Fingers crossed they don’t get too rowdy and break anything. Only soft balls allowed in the house!