DIY Jewelry Organizer

I have a lot of jewelry.  Not the fancy kind, but the fun, dress-up-a-boring-outfit jewelry most likely purchased at Anthropologie or somewhere similar.  I love big, bright necklaces.  My jewelry box I've had since high school hasn't been cutting it and the jewelry tree that I bought to help store my stuff was at capacity.

I turned to Pinterest to see what other DIY options were out there.  SO many to choose from!  I dare you to run the same search.  I found this blogpost and it was exactly what I wanted, but on a larger scale.  My friend and I dedicated all afternoon on Sunday to our craft.  Our first stop was to Anthropologie to get some of their gorgeous knobs and handles.  They have SO many to pull from, I could have spend hundreds of dollars.  We also bought some knobs and handles at Home Depot and Jess made a stop to World Market to get one or two as well.

Once we had our knobs we went to The Home Depot to get some plywood.  We bought a 2'x4' board and had them cut it in half for us so we're both working with a 2'x2' square.  We decided to cover the board with some thick, solid fabric and a decorative ribbon so we headed to Hancock Fabric and Michael's.  I went with a grey/lavender fabric and some yellow and black ribbon.

I borrowed Stephen's power tools for this project - a drill and a staple gun.  I was working faster than Jess so I made a few mistakes that she was able to learn from along the way.

Construction Steps:

1. Layout all of your handles and knobs on the board.  TAKE A PICTURE OF THEM so you know how they should lay out once you move them to start drilling your holes.  I recommend spacing them out so your long necklaces can hang and have space.  Also, on the back of the board, mark what side is the TOP. 
2. Measure the holes precisely for your handles.  They were by far the hardest to put into the board once the fabric was in place.  
3. Once everything is marked on the board, start drilling your holes.  (you'll see in the photo that it can look like a big mess if you don't label them!)
4. Cover the board with the fabric using the staple gun.  Start with the top, staple it down, then go to the bottom and staple that side down, pulling tight.  Then go to the sides.  Don't trim the fabric until everything is stapled in place.  (I used one yard of fabric to cover my board.
5. This is where it gets tricky.  You'll have to mark the holes you made on the fabric so you can push through the knobs/screws.  I made marks with a Sharpie, Jess just pushed through a small screw driver from the back of the board through the front, through the fabric.  I recommend her technique.  

1. Then it's time to start screwing in your knobs and handles.  

This is what my Jewelry Organizer looks like with all the knobs and handles in place!  The handles will be used to hold earrings and the knobs will hold my necklaces and bracelets.  The upside-down drawer pulls are perfect holders for small earrings and rings, top left.  

I still need to glue gun (a new Christmas present from my sister!) the remaining fabric to the back of the board so it stays in place and add a picture frame hanger to the back of the board so I can hang it from the wall.  It's pretty heavy as it is and will only get heavier as I add stuff to it.  To prevent the screws from scratching the wall when it's hanging I'm going to cover them with my remaining fabric or some styrofoam.  

The last step will be to add the ribbon to the top for decoration.