All Tied Up In Jewelry

An old tie cabinet is the perfect home for ALL my jewelry. Which is saying something.

Knot A Problem

As you can see, I have quite the jewelry collection. This vintage tie cabinet I scored at the Habitat For Humanity of Mesa County ReStore was such a lifesaver. With a little modification it handles not only all my necklaces, but earrings, too. I still have a box full of bracelets, but a girl can't have everything.

First, the find

This probably isn't an item that often makes its way to the ReStore, but if you follow the Golden Rule and Come Back Tomorrow, you may find one. Or maybe something even better-suited to your needs. A little imagination and lots of treasures can take on life in new and unexpected ways. Today's project is a little less how-to and a little more sharing bright ideas to inspire each other.

Make your own

It's hard to pull together a tool or materials list for this project since everyone's collection is so different. Let's just talk about what I did so it may fuel your fire for a cabinet of your own.

First, I repurposed some old drawer slides (the copper bars you see running across the cabinet) to serve as hangers for my earrings. You could use dowels or some other kind of metal bars and attach them in whatever way works for your project. I screwed mine into the cabinet using little screws and pre-drilling the holes since this is a very vintage piece and I didn't want to split the wood.

Before attaching the bars, I put my longest necklace on the tie hangers and tried to make sure there wouldn't be any overlap. As my collection has grown things have started to overlap, but initially everything had plenty of room.

(My favorite part about this cabinet is that it matches the 100 year old wood in my house. It looks like it has always been there. Love when that happens.)

Second, I left the bottom of the cabinet open to hold things like jewelry cleaners, ring organizers, etc. Having that internal shelf helps keep my jewelry off the dresser and in a safe place, even if I don't return it to exactly where I got it from right away.

Third, this cabinet came with hangers on the back, so I just installed some heavy duty hooks and hung it up. Your version of this project may not have hooks installed, so you'll want to think about whether you want your piece to sit somewhere or how you'll attach it to the wall.

If your version of this project doesn't have tie hangers either, you'll want to find another solution - cup hooks, more horizontal bars, a similar system to the tie rack I have, etc. I will say it's very nice to open out all the tie hangers to find the necklace. Everything stays so much neater that way.

Here's hoping you find a tie cabinet or other treasure of you own some day so that disaster of a jewelry box can become a prized piece in your DIY portfolio!