I’ve amassed quite a little collection of mix and match jewelry. Between pieces I loved from other artisans, pieces I’ve made for myself and assorted chains (I need options!), I have a nice little selection and I was not satisfied with leaving them all sitting on my dresser. I haven’t liked any of the organizer options that are commercially available, so I decided to make my own.
I went with a geometric design in white, gold and dark brown to match my bedroom, and used painters tape to get crisp edges. You can leave this plain or decorate it any way you can think of. Once your done, you’ll have a neat little place to keep all your pieces nice and organized! Leaving them exposed to air will not prevent tarnish (whereas keeping them sealed in something airtight with an anti-tarnish tab will), but silver is easy to clean – see my recent post about it here.
This organizer is made to hang on the wall, and is based on a piece of craft wood from the craft store, though a cork board would work as well. I purchased most of my supplies at Joann Fabric, with the exception of a few odds and ends I had on hand. They include:
- 12×12 craft plywood sheet ($5.99)
- Decorative upholstery nails, 5/8″, pack of 18 ($2.99)
- White craft paint ($2.49), plus some acrylic paint I had on hand
- Small wood storage box with drawer ($4.49)
- Push in picture hanger (bought elsewhere for another project)
- Painters tape (only necessary if you choose)
- Sheet of felt
- Mini hot glue gun and sticks
- Hammer and pliers
- Ruler
- Pencil
Keep in mind that the major craft stores often offer great coupons! For Joann, Michaels and AC Moore, printable coupons 
can be found online as well as circulars in many newspapers. I had a 20% off entire order coupon, so my supplies were very affordable.
I wanted a little pocket on this that I could use to store business cards and extra pieces, so I bought a small wood storage box with a removable drawer, which was the perfect size and shape with the original bottom attached to the plywood.
This is one of those great projects in that once you see the basis, you can adjust it in any number of ways. Use little hooks instead of upholstery nails, decorate as you like, hang it with a ribbon, etc. Basic steps and photos to show what I did are below.
- Prepare your plywood sheet or cork board by painting, stamping or otherwise decorating. Let dry. If you will be using an additional piece, decorate that as well.
- Decide how many nails you’d like to add and mark where they will go with pencil. Mark center back about .5-1″ down from the top for hanger.*
- Working on a surface that is in no danger of cracking or marring (I used my portable anvil and rubber benchplate), hold each nail in place and hammer until it is far enough into the wood to be stable (for me, these stuck slightly out the back).
- Position press in hanger in the spot you marked on the back and apply enough pressure to make it sink into the wood (you can use pliers here, but be careful not to have it come out the front – mine is slightly visible).
- Heat up hot glue gun and glue the wood box where you’d like it, allow to cool for a moment.
- If your nails stuck out the back at all, cut the felt to cover and glue it around the edges on the back so nail points sticking out are not sharp and a danger to your walls.
Things I would have done differently: (* and **)
Did you notice I put little asterisks above? If I did this again I would either glue the box to the center, or use two hangers, one on each side rather than a single one in the center. The extra weight of the box makes it hang slightly unevenly if not positioned just so.
Corkboards are not as rigid, but are thicker, which may eliminate the issue of anything coming through the opposite side.
I hope this helped! If you make your own DIY jewelry organizer, please be sure to share what you did!