Jewelry Organizer Tutorial

I've been acquiring a good bit of costume jewelry lately... mostly because I can't afford "real" jewelry and well,   I just like a bird I can't resist 'shiny stuff'.  All that glitters isn't gold though... it's usually gold or silver plated or just good old fashioned plastic beads.  Whatever the material I just like it. 

I suppose I'm becoming a collector... or an addict possibly since dear husband said to me the other day "Why do you need all this stuff?  You never wear any of it."  Well... I wear it to church sometimes and I always wear earrings (unless I'm sick in bed dying) and there are always those expensive trips to Walmart ya know...  Yep, that's pretty much it... I NEED it to go to Walmart.  I refuse to become one of the "People of Walmart" wearing my pj's or waaaay too small underwear while forgetting my pants but remembering my fuzzy slippers, and a wife-beater shirt.  Yep I NEED all this stuff to avoid a paparazzi!!!  BTW have you seen the "People of Walmart"????  www.peopleofwalmart.com  (be forwarned, it's NOT pretty, but it's great for hours of entertainment!

To make a long story short I have a growing collection that is getting harder to store or at least find what I'm looking for.  Since I'm borderline OCD... okay, I admit it... Queen of OCD, I NEED to have all my stuff in order.  I NEED other peoples stuff to be in order too but that's for another post.  I had one of those cutesy little hanging organizers with all the clear little pockets for all my baubles but my collection 'outgrew' it and I just needed to do something else.  Necessity is the mother of invention and this evil genius has a plan....

I had most of what I needed already but did need to make a quick trip to gather a little more hardware but here's what I used:

I used a piece of pine board it's about a 1"x4"  This one was about 7 feet long so it needed to be cut smaller to fit in my closet when it was completed.  I used a 20" long section for this project.
Dear husband always wants to 'help', so I let him cut the board for me.  He cut a total of 3 for me because I have big plans :) (you can make yours longer or shorter)

Of course I want my project to be pretty so I decided to decoupage (Mod Podge) some scrapbook paper to the board before getting started on the functional stuff.

I also needed a few tools and lots of little bits of hardware - a hammer, awl, needle nose pliers, a ruler (or tape measure), some picture hanging supplies, eye screws and cup hooks

After collecting everything I needed I Mod Podged the paper to the board in little design

This is what it looked like when I was ready to move to the next step (not a good pic but you get the idea)

Next, I got that ruler out and with a pencil I lightly marked where I wanted the rows of eye screws to go.  I wasn't anal about it - just a rough guide to keep stuff in a straight line (sort of).  Then I measured and popped a little hole about every inch in the semi-straight line for my eye screws to go.  You can do just one row if you like but since I was doing two rows I staggered the second row so the screws wouldn't line up under the top row or I wouldn't be able to easily see or access my earrings once they were hung up and I have a LOT of jewelry.

I did the same thing along the bottom edge of the board except the hooks are going to be 1/2 an inch apart

Next I flipped the board over and put the hangers on the back - these are just the kind I had on hand but you get the idea

I used 3 of the hangers because the jewelry is going to make this pretty heavy when it's all hung up and I only have 1 stud in the wall.  I know the drywall can't handle it unless at least 1 catches the stud in the wall.  I'd hate top go to all this trouble to have to walk in the closet in preparation for a trip to Walmart and find holes in the wall and all the jewelry jumbled up on the floor!

Next, I flipped the board back over and started screwing the eye screws in to all those little holes I started with the awl.  Some of the holes I had to go back and tap the awl with a hammer to get the eye screw to get started easier.  I also needed to use the needle nose pliers when they got hard to screw in by hand.

you can see in this picture how the second row is staggered or off set from the first so things don't hang right on top of each other

just another view :)

Once I got all of the eye screws in I flipped the board on it's edge and did the same thing with all the little cup hooks (these are 1/2" cup hooks) (you can space yours differently if you like)

and then....
I finished putting in all the cup hooks and hung it on the wall inside the closet.

Not the best picture mind you... It's hard to get a good picture in a closet while you are being attaked by your clothes!  I did hang this at my eye level and I used hooks that would hold well in the drywall - I know... they show, but this is also for practicality not just a play-pretty and I may hide those hooks with some matching bows/ribbon in the future.

Keep in mind that I went from this box to the finished project:

DRUM ROLL PLEASE.........................

Just one problem.... I think I need another one!!!!


AND... I still have to figure out something for the post style earrings AND all those infinity scarves!

Hopefully I will have a tutorial for those projects in the near future.  My evil genius is still just in the brainstorming phase for those projects, but it WILL happen... eventually.


So... What do you think?  And how'd I do on my first ever tutorial???