Katelyn Brooke

DIY Jewelry Organizer

newlyweds· tips and tutorials

17 Nov

I haven’t been overly motivated to decorate our apartment.  It’s a tiny one bedroom apartment, and our stuff doesn’t really fit so it’s really cluttered and cramped.  But recently I’ve decided that if we’re going to live here for almost two years, our apartment can at least look its best.

In college I had a really small room, and I came up with a way for organizing and displaying my jewelry that was cheap and helped decorate my room.  I don’t know about you, but I really like how jewelry looks.  So why not hang it on the walls so that you can see it and make it easier to access?

My college room had all white walls, so I bought some cheap acrylic paints to match the rest of my room and stamped a different design in a different color on four cork board squares.  I bought some pins with fake pearls on the end in the sewing section at Michaels, hung up all my jewelry, and called it a day.  Easy!

I decided that I wanted to recreate this for our new apartment.  It’s just too cheap and functional to pass up!  Our bedroom is dark blue.  Normally, I would consider painting it but first of all, it’s DARK.  I’m scared of how many coats it would take.  Second of all, the trim in our room is very almond.  Whatever paint color I would pick it is not going to go great with it, and there is no way I’m painting trim in a rental apartment.  So blue it is.

This means that I wanted all the patterns on the cork boards to be white.  I was able to reuse the cork boards from my college room and I bought an extra set to make one for my aunt, who liked mine so much that she wanted me to make her one too.

This picture of the supplies I used is a little deceptive.  I wound up using a different brush, I only used the craft acrylic paint on the right, and I didn’t use the stamp set on the far left.  I only used two of the stamps on the right, and I went to Wal-Mart and picked up a cute set of stencils that worked just fine.  You can really use any stamp or stencil you want.  You could probably even use tape to make stripes or a chevron pattern.

Do you ever go to repeat a project, remembering it to be a piece of cake, and then because you think it’s going to be easy, it’s not?  That totally happened to me.  The final product is far from perfect.  I messed up a few of the patterns and whatnot, but for the final product I think the project is fairly easy.

By far the hardest part for me is figuring out the spacing of the stamp or stencil you are using.  You just kinda have to figure out how many fit across the square, and remember that you can always go off the square to make it look continuous.  Below are some photos of the process and a few lessons I learned along the way.

Lesson #1: make sure you have a foam brush.  A paint brush with bristles doesn’t do the trick for this project.  I managed to find one in a bin somewhere after I realized this.

Lesson #2: Sometimes the cheap paint is the way to go.  You’ll see in the supply photo that I have (cheap) art acrylic paint and craft acrylic paint.  Both are old (the craft I’ve had since I did this project two years ago) and I thought the artist stuff would be better.  It wasn’t.  It was too thick and got in all the cracks of the stamps instead of staying on the surface.

Lesson #3:  Look for cork boards with as big of particles as possible.  My original set had large particles than the second set I bought, and it took the paint much better.

Lesson #4: Stencils create much more contrast than stamps because you are painting directly onto the cork. This is okay if you do all one or the other, or if you alternate them, like I did in the final photos.  I like the variety in alternating them, but it’s just something to be aware of.

Almost there…

Corkboard Jewelry Organizer

Ta da!

See?  It’s very blue.  You can definitely fit more jewelry on there, I was just going for the uncluttered look.

Thanks for reading if you made it this far!  Let me know if you try this at home, I would love to check it out!

28 Comments

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Comments

  1. Savannah says

    November 17, 2011 at 1:12 pm

    This is such a cute idea! I recently hung cork board on the inside of our cabinets to hold recipes, notes, etc. but didn't think to paint them. You have inspired me!

    Reply
  2. Halina says

    November 17, 2011 at 2:02 pm

    Well done! These are gorgeous!

    Reply
  3. Carrie says

    November 17, 2011 at 6:26 pm

    What a great idea!
    Style in the City

    Reply
  4. BeckyJo606 says

    November 17, 2011 at 10:58 pm

    The jewelry organizer looks amazing–I like the patterns that you've put on them so much! And, decorating and organizing for small spaces is really challenging, but I've seen some really clever things on pinterest!

    Reply
  5. alicia says

    November 19, 2011 at 1:28 am

    such a cute idea!

    Reply
  6. Lindsey Leigh says

    November 19, 2011 at 5:05 pm

    it looks GREAT! Love it!

    new follower here!

    http://www.keepitclassyalabama.blogspot.com

    Reply
  7. Kirsten says

    November 21, 2011 at 10:14 am

    So cute!

    Reply
  8. Amber says

    November 25, 2011 at 5:31 am

    cute idea!

    Reply
  9. Veni Vidi Vici says

    December 3, 2011 at 3:43 pm

    I organize my jewelry like this too, but I did not think about painting them the way you did. Love it!

    Reply
  10. Jessica says

    August 21, 2014 at 12:01 am

    I tried this idea so I could see my jewlery and wear more of it and I love how it turned out. I got a mirror from hobby lobby and I had an extra bookshelve for underneath it but thank you so much for the idea. I have a picture if you would like to see it! Thanks again for the idea!!

    Reply
  11. Arianne says

    August 21, 2014 at 9:29 pm

    Super cute, but wondering what you used to attach them to the wall?

    Reply
    • Connie says

      August 30, 2014 at 8:17 pm

      I am wondering the same thing.

      Reply
      • Kate says

        September 1, 2014 at 12:17 pm

        Sorry for the delayed response, ladies! I used those sewing pins with the pearly ball at the end to hang the jewelry, so to attach the squares to the wall, I just hammered one of those flush with the cork into each corner.

        Those are good for hanging things in a temporary housing situation- they hold more than you’d think and they leave really small holes. Hope that helps!

        Reply
  12. Marie says

    January 1, 2015 at 12:17 pm

    I’m so glad I found this post! I can’t wait to get started on this project. =)

    Happy New Year!

    Reply
    • Kate says

      January 7, 2015 at 10:26 am

      Yay! Happy New Year to you too!

      Reply

Trackbacks

  1. My Art Favorite Supplies says:
    November 14, 2012 at 9:02 am

    […] and comes in a million colors. It works great for, well, crafts (I bought the paint above for my jewelry organizer and it worked just […]

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  2. 25 Easy DIY Jewelry Organizer Projects | Sparkle & Love ♥ says:
    June 30, 2013 at 6:39 am

    […] 15. DIY Stencil Cork Board Jewelry Holder […]

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  3. more clever jewellery storage ideas | peacock & lime says:
    January 29, 2014 at 9:47 pm

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  4. 35 Smart DIY Ideas to Keep Your Jewelry Organized | Buzz + Inspired says:
    April 2, 2014 at 3:42 am

    […] katelynbrooke.com […]

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  5. Put A Cork In It: 4 ways to use cork in your room • Relate Magazine says:
    August 27, 2014 at 2:28 pm

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  6. Smart Ways to Kick the Clutter Out of Your Room / naturamin says:
    November 24, 2014 at 8:37 pm

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  9. 10 Awesome DIY Jewelry Organizers! | Boho Berry says:
    June 5, 2015 at 12:00 pm

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  10. 8 DIY Projects to Dress Up Your Cork Boards says:
    October 20, 2015 at 11:47 am

    […] board doesn’t necessarily have to be used exclusively for photos, papers, and office notes. Katelyn Brooke made these beautiful cork board tiles with white stencil patterns to hang her jewelry. I Heart […]

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  11. 4 Ideas para organizadores de prendas - Creadores Creativos says:
    February 5, 2016 at 3:49 pm

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  12. 21 DIY Jewelry Organization Ideas - Love and Marriage says:
    March 1, 2016 at 8:58 am

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  13. 12 Pretty Jewelry Display Ideas You Can DIY – Team Colors By Carrie says:
    January 2, 2018 at 6:24 am

    […] option is this one made from Cork Boards, by Katelyn Brooke.  I really like this idea, because you could make one large one, or several […]

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