Saturday, July 16, 2011

52 in 1: WEEK 8 - pretty jewelry display





We were at my in-laws' house a few weeks ago and my SIL Laura (Aunt Lolo to some, who moved home from CA a few weeks ago, YAY!) showed me this amazing jewelry display/organizer she had made and hung on her bedroom wall. She had taken an old window with a screen, painted it, and stretched pretty fabric across the back. She hung her earrings in the screen holes and attached a small cork trivet for a place to display stud earrings. Brilliant! The whole thing was gorgeous and I vowed to recreate one myself.

I was delighted to find the old shutter at the junk shop my mom, cousin, and I visited a few weeks ago. I knew it was perfect for my future jewelry organizer. I had been looking for something (be it a window or shutter) long and narrow to hang above my dresser in our bedroom.

I started out with the intact shutter in my driveway. Poor thing, do you think it knows it's about to be attacked by a crazy lady with her husband's multi-tool thingy with the saw(ish) attachment?!



Forgive the blur! That thing was wild!




Don't worry, I saved the wooden slats... you never know!




I decided on painting the wood with a leftover dark grey from Mac's room adventures.  I started with full-strength paint, using a brush.  The result was definitely too heavy for the look I was aiming for, I wanted more of a "wash" so the chippy paint would show through.



I mixed together about 1 part water to about 2 parts paint...



and used an old rag to basically wipe the paint/water mixture all over the wood.  So fast and easy!



The paint/water mixture absorbed into the wood quickly and I was left with a "stained" grey look... perfect!




Then as the paint dried I took no less than 1000 pictures of my kids.  I still have daily moments of "I-can't-believe-they-are-mine-and-I-get-to-be-their-mom"... breathtaking.




Brother was so engrossed with Sissy blowing bubbles that I couldn't get him to look at me, let alone smile!  Even Aunt Leah (who is visiting for almost a week... we are so spoiled by all these Kirnan visitors!) couldn't get Boo to look!



After I let the paint dry and I whisked the kids upstairs for naptime, I got down to business, and took zero pictures of the next few steps.  I had purchased a roll of screen at Lowe's and cut it down to fit in the empty spaces on the shutter.  I then got out the staple gun and attempted to attach the screen to the wood.  My first attempt at doing so was a perfect example of trial and error, error being the key word.  I tend to be so rash in doing projects, mostly because A. I usually don't have a lot of time and B. I am not patient. I know patience is a virtue but I usually save up any patience I can muster for things like parenting and general human interactions, so I don't have a lot left for silly projects. ANYWAY. It's kind of hard to explain, but I had originally wanted to staple the screen to the inside of the front of the shutter (gah, that makes no sense) but I stapled way too close to the edge and stapled through the front of the shutter in a few places.  So I ended up ripping all the staples out (and repainting a bit) and just stretching it across the back and stapling it to the back.  Wow, this really doesn't make sense.  Pictures next time.  Anyway, it ended up looking like this with the screen attached to the back:



I had tons of fabric left over from Alyssa's baby shower that was just BEGGING to live in our bedroom (where I've used a lot of yellow and grey).



The winners.



I stretched the yellow fabric across the back where I had attached the screen and stapled it on.  Then I cut out a couple pieces of cork, stacked them, and covered them with the medallion fabric.  I nailed the cork circle on and covered the nail heads with a few pretty flower cabochons.





Somebody approves.  He also almost ripped the cork circle off in about two seconds flat. 



Pretties! 



Voila.



{I apologize for the poor lighting, I tried to get as much daylight in the room as possible but living surrounded by trees hinders my lighting situation a bit. Plus I am so not edit-savvy!}








A girl can never have too much pretty jewelry storage (or jewelry)!




I am so happy with how it turned out.  It's exactly what I had envisioned.


Todays Creative Blog

Visit thecsiproject.com

12 comments:

  1. That is stinkin' amazing. It looks awesome! You should sell those too. I am so jealous of your extensive jewelry collection. Look at all those earrings!

    I originally thought you were going to use the shutter to make one of those card holder things that has been floating around pinterest. I want to make one of those when I find an old shutter.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Beautiful! I wish I had that many fabulous earrings! And the fabric choice is AWESOME!

    You left a comment on my daughter's Sesame Street birthday and I followed you over here! And now I have spent 20 minutes getting lost in your blog!

    I'm going to follow you so I can keep up with your 52:1! Brillant idea!

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am in love! Another amazing project friend!

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is SO amazing! You did a wonderful job and thanks so much for sharing this tutorial! What a wonderful jewelry display.

    Stopping by from the Creative Bloggers Blog Hop!


    ~Blessings to you!

    ReplyDelete
  5. I LOVE your flower stud earrings. I know of some similar ones you may be interested in. Here is the link: http://www.etsy.com/shop/CattailsStudio?ref=seller_info

    ReplyDelete
  6. I used to be a Silpada Designs representative so have lots of pretty jewelry and have been trying to figure out a way to display/store it...you've given me some great inspiration!

    ReplyDelete
  7. I'm so grateful that you linked up in this week's Creative Bloggers' Party & Hop :) This awesome post totally rocked the party!

    ReplyDelete
  8. what is the name of the fabric you used over the cork circle?

    ReplyDelete
  9. That's is awesome. I love it. You did a fantastic job. Thank you for sharing your wonderful tutorial.

    ReplyDelete