framed earring display tutorial

So in addition to all my sewing and knitting this summer, I've had another goal that I've been feverishly working on: organizing the house. Part of it was motivated by necessity (e.g. I came back  from our big road trip out west with my late grandmother's china which needed a place in my kitchen display cabinet, hence forcing a purge/reorg there), part of it was things just driving me crazy. My jewelry organization tutorial is the result of the latter! I had been using two jewelry stands from Pottery Barn for at least eight years now, and they worked fine but not great. Add a little girl who wanted to "admire mama's sparklies" and it became a tangled mess! Every single time I looked at it it just bugged me, and this summer I finally decided to do something about it. One thing that always bothered me about the old jewelry stands was that pin back earrings got lost in the shuffle, since they rested in the trays. And I always seemed to not notice everything I had. So that was the first thing I wanted to correct: I wanted everything visible, so I could see my collection at a glance. I also wanted something that would look pleasing on the wall, so I knew I wanted something framed.

Supplies (for both projects):

• 11 x 15 " open wood frame (Hobby Lobby)
• 12 x 12 " burlap covered frame (only $4.97 at Walmart!)
• one can of spray paint that coordinates with your home decor
• one 12 x 12 " cork board tile for your pinback earring board
• a package of screen door/window repair material (Lowe's)
• staple gun
• kitchen shears

How to Make Your Dangly Earring Display

Step one: cut a rectangle of screen door material that is approximately two inches or so larger than the actual opening of your open frame. I was able to easily cut my screen door material with good kitchen scissors. Be careful though: the cut edge of this material is sharp!

Step two: using your staple gun, carefully begin stapling the wire screen door mesh to the back of the frame. I started on one side, and then pulled tight to make the mesh taut when stapling the opposite side.

What your finished staple job will look like:

Step three: using your kitchen shears, trim off the excess wire screen door material.

Step four: start arranging your dangly earrings in a way that appeals to you!

Ta da!

How to Make Your Pinback Earring Display

Step one: unwrap the burlap off of your burlap covered frame. (holy cow, this was the biggest bang for my buck of the entire project--$5 for a 12 x 12 frame, plus the burlap material to cover the cork board!)

Step two: spray paint the frame your desired color and allow to dry fully.

Step three: Do an initial trim of the cork board tile to fit the interior opening of your frame. (but don't go too crazy trimming, you'll fine tune your fit in the next step. Gently wrap the burlap material around your cork board tile, but don't adhere it yet. You'll need to easily access the tile to do some trimming in the next step.

Step four: Wiggle your burlap-wrapped cork tile into the frame and test the fit. If you have sections that bow out from being too long, pull everything out and carefully shave off some more cork board to achieve a better fit. (this is honestly the trickiest part of this project)

Step five: Once you are happy with the fit, adhere the burlap to the back of the cork board tile. I just folded the excess material and pinned it, but you could use a spray adhesive for a neater finish. Now you're all set to add your earrings! (I put the earring backs in a tray in my jewelry box on another dresser)

 Ta da!

For those of you who are super observant and noticed the necklaces in the "before" picture, here's what I did to better store them. A shadow box! This one has a magnetized door, and I found it at Hobby Lobby (just wait for a 50% off sale or take one of their great coupons!). Needless to say, these display boards make me soooo much happier than my previous storage solution!