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Updated: Apr 6, 2022 by Kris Jarrett

Trophy and Medal Awards Display Ideas

Finding ways to display your kids’ trophies, medals, and ribbons can be a bit of a challenge! I’m sharing two different possible solutions that I’m hoping will inspire you to get those awards out of closet and up on the wall! The first is a simple one for displaying a few trophies and several medals while the second one is a larger display that can be used to showcase 20+ small to medium sized trophies (post includes affiliate links – see my full disclosure statement {here}):

Love these ideas for displaying kids' trophies, medals, and ribbons! Click through for the how-to!

Let’s kick things off with a simple, smaller scale solution for displaying medals or ribbons and a few trophies. I created this display for my daughter after her first year of competing in gymnastics and it has worked beautifully (and was quick and easy to put together)! I started off with a 36″ distressed black ledge shelf that has a flat piece attached to the bottom:

A distressed back ledge shelf used to create a trophy display!

If you have a hard time finding a shelf like mine with a similar piece on the bottom (I found mine at Hobby Lobby!), you could DIY your own by buying a typical crown molding shelf and adding a strip of wood to it. The other thing I bought was several sparkly knobs that I knew my daughter would love (five large knobs and four smaller ones in a slightly different style) with a plan to use them in an alternating pattern:

Rhinestone and gold cabinet knobs used to create a holder for displaying medals

There are so many amazing knobs to chose from that you can definitely find something that reflects your child’s unique style. You can check out my favorite knobs and pulls in {this post} (links to all knobs and pulls shown below included in that post):

Kitchen and bathroom cabinet knobs and pulls that are stunners!

Once I got my shelf and knobs home, I did some math to figure out how far apart the knobs needed to be from one another in order to be evenly spaced.  I placed a length of blue painter’s tape across the bottom piece of my shelf and marked off the correct spacing:Use painters tape to mark off spacing for screwing knobs onto ledge shelf Next, I drilled holes for my knobs, being careful to create holes that were large enough for the knobs to screw into but small enough that they would stay firmly in place without need for screw nuts holding them on in the back. Before screwing in the knobs, I cut off a bit of each knob’s post so that once the post was screwed in, it would go most of the way through the wood but not protrude out the back. The easiest way to do this is with this handy too (found {here}):

The simple way to shorten the post on cabinet knobs (link to the exact tool included in post)!

Then all that was left was to screw the knobs in… done!

Rhinestone knobs added to a wall-mounted ledge shelf to create an awards medal display

We added my daughter’s gymnastics medals:

Ledge shelf with knobs attached to hold sports medals - love this idea!

and then her trophies and a framed picture of her competing in her favorite event – bars:  

Such a cute way to display your kid's trophies and medals - shelving for the trophies and knobs for medals!

Each knob is sturdy enough to support several medals so as she continues on in gymnastics, there’s room for plenty more to be added to her display. There’s also quite a bit more room for trophies on shelf – if it starts to fill up, I’ll probably remove the framed photo from the shelf and replace it with a canvas mounted print hung on the wall behind the trophies. So happy with how it turned out!

If you’re looking for an awards display that’s quite a bit bigger, I love this display that my sister created for her son who’s an amazing chess player:

LOVE this idea for displaying kids trophies and awards on the wall - trophies sit on open shelves with black and white framed photos surrounding them

She used three 24″ shelves on the top and sides and one 36″ shelf on the bottom. The really special part of her display is that she framed four black and white prints (frame sizes are 11″ x 13″) of her son along with a larger framed photo of chess pieces (frame size is 18″ x 18″) in the middle. I just love the balance of the framed photos with the trophy shelves:

Such a great way to display kids trophies along with photos of your kids doing their favorite sport!

The exact shelves that she used are no longer available but these are all good shelving options for creating a similar display (click/tap on images below to shop):

Just be sure that the shelves you choose are deep enough to accommodate the depth of your largest trophies. 

I hope that you found a little inspiration in this post to get going on your own awards display. Have a great weekend everyone!

 
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Categories: Decorating Ideas

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Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. chic Saturday by Kelly says

    July 09, 2012 at 11:59 pm

    Love the sparkly knobs…what a great way to showcase success! Thanks for sharing!

    Kelly {chicsaturday.com}

    Reply
    • Kris @ Driven by Décor says

      July 10, 2012 at 12:20 am

      Thanks for stopping by Kelly!

      Reply
  2. Aimee - ItsOverflowing.com says

    July 10, 2012 at 12:23 am

    This turned out fabulous! I’m totally a fan of Hobby Lobby, too. Those sparkly knobs are blasting!!! XO, Aimee

    Reply
    • Kris @ Driven by Décor says

      July 10, 2012 at 10:34 am

      Thank you Aimee!

      Reply
  3. [email protected] says

    July 10, 2012 at 10:03 am

    Loving this, Kris! A friend of mine was just wondering what to do with all of her kids’ awards…I’m sending her your link! Would be super delighted for you to link up with us over at Mop It Up Mondays: http://www.ishouldbemoppingthefloor.com/2012/07/mop-it-up-mondays-24.html {going on through Friday}.

    Thanks so much!
    {HUGS},
    kristi

    Reply
    • Kris @ Driven by Décor says

      July 10, 2012 at 10:34 am

      Thanks for letting me know about your Linky party – will do!

      Reply
  4. Christa @ Controlling Craziness says

    July 10, 2012 at 10:48 am

    What a great way to display all those medals. I love the sparkly knobs. Thanks for your kind comments on my blog.

    Reply
  5. Anitra Richardson says

    April 07, 2013 at 10:44 am

    Just the inspiration I needed. Thanks for sharing!

    Reply
    • Kris @ Driven by Décor says

      April 10, 2013 at 10:19 pm

      Glad you found it helpful Anitra!

      Reply
  6. Kathy Griffith says

    August 02, 2015 at 12:36 pm

    This is exactly what I need to make for those huge dated Christmas ornaments we get every year and are too heavy for the tree. Thanks

    Reply
    • Kris Jarrett says

      August 10, 2015 at 9:55 pm

      What a great idea!!

      Reply
  7. Annabel Yates says

    June 05, 2017 at 1:38 pm

    I hope you don’t mind me asking, but is it possible that you could maybe weigh one of your holders? I am doing my DT GCSE and need examples for my research page! I Love that the pegs aren’t all identical by the way!

    Reply

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