DIY Deadline: Custom Jewelry Trays

There's a deadline looming in our house.  One that will change everything. 

I'm a girl who works best if I have a deadline.  Now there are some out there that may label me a procrastinator.... but, I just choose to say I work well under pressure.  So now that we are past the half way point in this pregnancy, it seems like we need to get down to business and get things done.

There are tons of things I'd like to get done before the baby gets here: the nursery, painting our closet, some outdoor projects, deep cleaning, etc... but one thing I'd like to get done is to finish up some of these looming DIY projects that I have sitting around waiting to be tackled.  So, from time to time, I will be bringing you a post called DIY Deadline where I show you one of these projects that has been sitting around waiting to be completed. 

This time... It's all about these jewelry organizers I have been wanting to make.

Last March, Michael and I were at the Habitat ReStore and I saw a huge stack of shallow drawers.  As soon as I saw them, I knew instantly what I wanted to do with them.  I knew we could make them into jewelry organizers.

So we bought four of them, with the idea that they would fit seamlessly into our IKEA closet system that we had just purchased and assembled.

And then they sat in our basement for 9 long months, waiting for us to get to them.

One of the biggest issues was how we were going to transform them from empty drawers into organized jewelry trays. 

Then this Christmas we decided to invest in a beautiful and magical piece of equipment called a miter saw.  Once this wonderful machine entered our home, the answer was clear. We'll cut some scrap wood and glue them down to create dividers.

So working on this project became a nice excuse for Michael to play with his new toy. 

Here is the before...(The bottom one was an old bamboo kitchen drawer organizer that we used in our old apartment kitchen drawers, but no longer need in our new kitchen. The top were the shallow drawers that we got from the ReStore) 

 ...and here are the new jewelry trays...

To do this, Michael sanded and cut some wood trim that he found at the ReStore to make the dividers and then glued them down with liquid nails. Some of the gaps were a bit large so we just used some caulk to fill them in. 

Then I painted them.   ....three times... that was fun. 

I mixed up some chalk paint using this recipe, that way I didn't have to sand or prime them. 

And here we are!

Each drawer cost us $2 since we bought them on a 50% off day. The tray separators were made from wood trim we also picked up at the ReStore for around $6 total.  So for all 5 custom drawer jewelry trays, we spent $14!

Looking online, you can spend anywhere between $10-25 a tray.  So I'm thinking we saved about $40 some bucks by making them ourselves.

 And I love how they fit in my closet. 

I put felt pads on the bottom of them and just slide them out when I want a piece further back in the tray.  I love them!

One Project down.... lots more to go!

linked to: On Display Thursday, Week's End, Thrifty Decor Chic -Before & After Party

Don't miss a beat.  

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