One of my most vivid memories at the lake as a kid was the first time I got up on water skis. Not because I remember the feeling of finally figuring out the balance between pulling back on the rope and letting the boat pull me up or the sense of accomplishment of making it upright for more than a few feet, but because of the memory of trying to drop a ski moments after coming out of the water. You see, I have an older brother and had watched him for quite some time. If he could do it, why couldn’t I? Well, lots of reasons. I took a very big tumble that day, and both skis were firmly on my feet for a long time after that painful lesson. Those “Nash Jr.” skis got a lot of love over the years, and for that reason I wanted to incorporate them into the décor at the cabin. On the lower level one hangs with a lantern, whereas the other one serves to hold an extra throw in the bedroom. With the exception of removing the damaged, dirty boots from the skis, I left them as is. A lot of the cabin décor is painted, so I wanted to have these stay natural. More detail on the simple steps is included in the captions below.

I ordered these simple lantern hooks from Amazon (link here) and attached to the center of each ski (I later replaced one of these with a regular hook for the throw).
I used regular picture hanging hardware for the back of the skis.
I purchased a couple of traditional lanterns, but they were all too large in scale compared to the small ski. I opted to make one from a Mason jar with one I had on hand and rope from other projects. Cute, and zero expense!
Make the handle with one piece of rope, tying knots at each end. Then wrap the top with a few bands of rope.
Taylor helped me pick some rock from the landscaping outside to use in the base of the Mason jar.

Print Friendly