do-it-yourself jewelry storage

Okay, yes, I'm on a storage kick these days. Have I mentioned that our house is kind of small? With very few surfaces on which to put stuff? I bought a much-needed jewelry box the other day, and when I got it home I realized there was no place to put it. Seriously. The only real surface is our dresser, which is now in the baby's room serving as a changing table. So I started thinking about alternatives, and came up with an idea for the jewelry frame, above. I found an old frame at the Alameda Flea Market, and bought the other supplies at our local hardware store: 1/2 plywood backing cut to size, hooks and screw eye hooks, a couple screws, 1/4" wire mesh and wire cutters, stapler, gorilla glue, some scrap molding for the box and white paint.

I started by measuring out the layout, considering the length of the necklaces I had, how many earring hooks I wanted, and where I wanted the mesh screen placed.

Then I screwed in the hooks, staggering the earring hooks and necklace hooks so that they wouldn't interfere.

 

 I made a little box for post earrings and rings out of the scrap molding, and glued it together with gorilla glue and clamps. Then I screwed it to the backing. The screen was stapled to two small strips of the molding and then glued to the backing (I painted underneath the screen area first).

I glued the plywood backing to the frame using the gorilla glue, and then painted the whole thing white. I really like the way it turned out, and now I finally have a convenient, accessible place for my jewelry that doesn't take up surface area!