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DIY Man Cave Basketball Goal Side Table


You may have seen this fun table in my One Room Challenge reveal of my husband's Modern Rustic Home Office a few of weeks ago. It was really important to me that this be HIS room, full of what he likes and his hobbies. He is a huge basketball fan so a few basketball related things had to make their way in!



He found two of these NBA regulation breakaway basketball goals (he told me that's what to call them here) on Craigslist for $20 each a few months ago.  He used one to build our basketball court outside, but the other one has been sitting in the basement ever since. He wanted to incorporate it into his office somehow, so this little table is what we came up with.


We started out by cleaning up and repainting the goal itself with Kubota Orange Tractor Paint.



This particular basketball goal is very heavy, about 26lbs, so it needed a pretty substantial base to hold it up.  If it was a lighter-weight rim, the base could've been less beefy.  We used a 2"x8"x8' board to make it.  The back support board that the goal is screwed to is a 20" long piece.  We fit the goal up on the board to make the height of the top of the table 20" and then traced the mounting holes for the bolts.


He drilled the 3/8" holes for the bolts.  I took pictures.


And then counter-bored the back side of the holes at 1" to sink the bolt heads. That way if it happened to rub up against a wall, the bolts wouldn't scrape up the wall.  Also, it looks cooler that way.


To get the taper on the legs of the base, he made a 10 degree taper with the miter saw on a scrap of wood and screwed it to the leg as a guide.



That made legs like this:


Since the legs needed to come off the back at angles like this,
he trimmed the end of each leg with a 10 degree cut on the miter saw.



Everything got a good sanding.  (And our basement really needs a good cleaning before our next project.)





He drilled pilot holes for the screws for the angled legs at 10 degrees.


Then we screwed the legs in from the back side of the board with 1-1/2" screws.


Now is when I take over.  We are a good team. We design together, he builds, I finish.  I gave the whole thing a coat of Rustoleum Protective Enamel Paint. It's my favorite black paint for pieces that I want a glossy finish on and will get a lot of use.


After it was dry, we attached the goal with carriage bolts, a washer and nut.



And here it is all done.


Then I was on the lookout for a piece of glass.  Remember those three-legged decorator tables we used in the 90's with a table cloth and round glass on top?  Thankfully, a basketball goal is just a little bit smaller diameter as that piece of glass.  It took me a while to find one because Walmart and Target don't seem to carry them anymore; but our local Rose's, Big Lots, and Dollar General still do!


I think it makes a fun addition to an otherwise very traditional-feeling corner in my husband's office.  He really likes it a lot and that makes me happy.  It also got one more thing out of the basement and that makes him happy.


Thanks for checking out our DIY Man Cave Basketball Goal Side Table!  Let me know if you make one too!