Weary, I don't have any pics but way back in the day when me and my DB were kids, he won so many trophys that my mom wound up getting a etagere type standing shelf and displayed that way. The trophys were coming fast and furious and she wanted to honor DB but also wanted to keep them from taking over the house and his room.

This was discussed over in the organizing forum. Before you figure out where to display them, you first have to figure out if they are meaningful to him or if you are the one who wants to display them.

Some kids like trophies and if he does, then by all means figure out a display option. Creating a shelf that runs around the perimeter of the room at the same height as the top of the window can be a tremendous amount of display space w/out compromising the play space in his room.

If they aren't meaningful to your child than get rid of them. You can donate them to youth programs to be reused if you can't stomach tossing them. My older child received a participation trophy for every baseball, soccer, football, and lacrosse season. Participation trophies are meaningless to him. We neither keep nor display them. He received a couple of golds for karate tournaments. These he kept because they were earned. Medals received for top finishes in cross country races are kept as are trophies received when his travel lax team wins a tournament. There may come a time when these, too, will hold no meaning for him and then it will be time to purge them.

I had DH make a shelf the width of the room to put all DS's trophies, team pictures and sports memorabilia on. You mentioned black shelves - my advice is that white painted shelves show a lot less dust than black (or navy) shelves do!

etagege---funny you mentioned that! I was looking in a catalog and saw one, and thought to myself "hmmm--that might be a possibility." I will continue to ponder that route!

lax---these are all earned trophies and awards, although he does have a "participation" one from t-ball that sits on his desk. I forgot to mention cub scout pinewood derby 1st place trophy and prize car!

riff---I love that idea! Unfortunately, we have that space taken up with a lionel train that runs the perimeter of his room! I think you might be right about the white shelves, though. The train is on a white shelf; I just didn't want it to look too girly or something with too many white shelves. His desk, dresser, headboard and footboard are all maple. What do you think?

The trophies of all three of my children are displayed in card board boxes in the basement. lol When we moved, I tried to give them to each child and nobody wanted theirs. I am glad to know that there is someplace to donate them.

My kids are older, and they've elected to ditch all but the most meaningful (finals, special games, All-Stars, etc.) because everyone got a trophy. But when they were little, I just used a shelf around the top of the room. Easy to install, easy to take down.

I wonder if those in charge of the participation trophies comprehend how many of those things end up in landfills.

We are just at the beginning of earning trophies...DS is 7.

I just realized why I had black shelves stuck in my head. Duh...the train sits on a white shelf, but the only other thing on his wall so far is an autographed poster of Monster Truck stuff in a black wooden frame. His furniture is all walnut.

Could I use some black and some white shelves? Alternating them or something? What do you all think?

I think that using both black AND white shelves would look wonderful!

Perhaps you could add black-and-white photos around the room of your child playing the sports/games/activities that helped him win the trophies? :)

Jan

Thanks teacats! I'm off to ponder black and white shelves, and black and white pics are a great idea to go with them!