Creative Ways to Decorate for a Pool-Themed Celebration

Pool balls' unique hues and round form lend themselves well to party decorations, with balloons and balls serving as ideal accents for a billiards-themed event. With paint, colored paper, and some craft effort, you can make one-of-a-kind decorations that guests will remember.

Tables for Dining

For dining and serving purposes, pick rectangular folding tables. After setting them up, drape them in green felt. Take measurements of the felt and trim it so it covers the table neatly, leaving extra material that can be taped underneath the table's edge. Arrange racks of pool balls and put a single rack in the center of every table as a focal point.

Foam Pool Balls Made of Styrofoam

From a craft store, get polystyrene foam balls. Decorate them with paint to resemble pool balls -- a few with stripes, others solid. Using a fine artist's brush, write the numbers on them. Suspend them from the ceiling using fishing line. You can also use them to indicate where guests should sit: give each attendee a pool-ball number and put the matching ball at their place.

Lanterns Shaped Like Billiards Balls

Make your own paper mache lanterns styled after pool balls. Take colored tissue paper or newspaper and cut it into strips, then submerge them in a glue mixture and layer them over the surface of a blown-up round balloon. Once dry, burst the balloon. Take out the balloon and slice off one end, leaving a bowl shape. If newspaper was used, paint the bowl in pool ball hues. Put a flameless tea light inside the bowl. Near the rim, make two small holes on opposite sides and thread fishing wire through them to create a hovering look, or use string to suspend the lanterns.

Accents and Extras

Use helium to inflate balloons in pool-ball colors. With magic markers, add numbers and stripes onto them. Group them together in clusters, or attach individual balloons to the backs of chairs. Drape streamers in colors that match. Get Magic 8 balls and miniature pool table games, which work as both table decor and party favors.

A Cake Inspired by Billiards

Until dessert is served, the pool-table cake can be shown off as a centerpiece. Following the instructions, bake a rectangular sheet cake in whatever flavor you like. Combine green food coloring with white frosting until the green matches the felt of a pool table. Cover the cake's top with the green frosting and its sides with chocolate. Place round chocolate cookies to represent the pockets, add gumdrops as the pool balls, and use chocolate-covered pretzel logs as cue sticks.

As another dessert option, bake cupcakes. Using food coloring and white icing, create the colors of pool balls and turn each cupcake into an individual pool ball. Arrange them in a triangular rack.