DIY wall jewelry organizer from a printer's typeset drawer.

Wall Jewelry Organizer from a Printer’s Typeset Drawer

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Re-purpose a typeset drawer and transform it into a DIY wall jewelry organizer to keep all of your favorite pieces visible and organized.

Disclosure: I received an Elmer’s Spring DIY kit and compensation to purchase other products needed for this project.

UPDATE PART 2: My Jewelry Organizer won the Elmer’s Spring Creation Contest. I’m absolutely thrilled.  Aside from receiving a visa gift card for winning, I also had the privilege of drawing 3 more winners from the comments via random.org to each receive an Elmer’s DIY kit.

Remember when I made the jewelry organizer for Marisol’s bedroom? I recently received an email from Elmer’s reminding me about it being that time of the year for spring cleaning, organizing, and makeovers. They wanted to challenge me to create something either on my own or using their Spring Creation Guide as part of an Elmer’s Spring Creation Contest. The only stipulation being that I had to use their newly improved Glue-All.

I’m always up for a good challenge, especially when it comes to DIY projects so I happily accepted and set to work making this:

DIY wall jewelry organizer from a printer's typeset drawer.
DIY wall jewelry organizer from a printer’s typeset drawer.

I didn’t have a pretty jewelry organizer like my daughter, instead, my jewelry looked a little like this:

Yes, I’m hiding my head in shame.  Terrible isn’t it.

DIY wall jewelry organizer

Supplies

  • Printer’s typeset drawer
  • Elmer’s Glue-All
  • Wood sealer
  • Paint (in 2 colors) and a paintbrush
  • Crackle
  • Varnish
  • Hooks, eye-screws, and small decorative holders

Instructions

In my head, I knew how I wanted to organize it, but it was a matter of finding the right supplies. I briefly considered picking up a few drawer organizers that I had seen at my local craft store and sticking them together, but the thought of spending over $20 per organizer was not going to be a cost-effective way to tackle this so I decided to hit up my local antique mall to see what I could find. Tucked away in a corner, I found this fabulous typeset drawer for only $15.

a printer's typeset drawer
Printer’s typeset drawer

It obviously needed a lot of work. The first order of business was to break out that Glue-All and set to work making repairs to the cracks and sections that needed to be stuck down again.

Making repairs to a printer's typeset drawer using Elmer's Glue-All
Repairing a printer’s typeset drawer.

Next up was to cut a piece of wood using my X-Acto knife to the length of the tray to attach to the top with Glue-All, I also reinforced it with a couple of nails.

Adding a wood top to a printer's typeset drawer.
Adding a wood top to a printer’s typeset drawer.

Crackle effect paint

Now we are onto the fun part. I wanted to keep with the antique feel of this typeset drawer so thought I would try my hand at creating a cracked finish. I’ve never done this before, but it was actually much easier than I thought, albeit a little time-consuming.

Step 1: Apply a sealer to the wood. Set aside to dry.

Step 2: Apply your first color – I used walnut. Again, let it dry.

Step 3: Apply the crackle. Don’t dry completely, but allow it to dry enough that it becomes tacky.

Step 4: Apply a second color of paint – I used coral. Within minutes you will see the cracks starting to appear. By the time the paint is dry, it looks fabulous.

Step 5:  Apply a varnish.

A collage detailing the repurpose process of turning a typeset drawer into a wall jewelry organizer.
How to repurpose a printer’s typeset drawer into a wall jewelry organizer.

The final step is to attach hooks, rings, and eye-screws to hang your jewelry. I found most of these at the craft store.

Hooks, eye screws, and decorative rings being added to a wall jewelry organizer

Now you have a beautiful space to hang all of your jewelry.

jewelry hanging on a wall jewelry organizer

DIY jewelry organizers

You can see how I organized my large bangles too with a DIY bangle holder.

diy jewelry organizer and bangle holder
DIY wall jewelry organizer and bangle holder.
Please pin this post for later:
wall jewelry organizer Pinterest image
Tonya Staab
About the author
Tonya Staab
Head Start Teacher. Lifestyle Blogger. Content Creator. Author. Photographer. Memory Maker. Mum.

91 thoughts on “Wall Jewelry Organizer from a Printer’s Typeset Drawer”

  1. i absolutely love this idea. i found a type set tray this past weekend and am ready to get crafting. i cannot seem to find any hooks or eye screws that are not silver, and i have had no luck in finding rings. any suggestions?

    Reply
  2. Thank you so much for letting me know, I have reported them and noticed they have stolen posts from other craft and diy bloggers too.

    Reply
  3. I love this idea! Pinned it a while back. Today, when I was on Pinterest, I found a project I was interested in and went to the site. I saw several projects I was interested in on the side bar. And almost all of them I’d seen on Pinterest. Including yours. I know this seems odd to write and tell you about. But, your post was there, word for word. I’m sure there’s some type of copyright issue. But, mostly, I hated to see other people’s work stolen.

    I hate a thief! I had a blog for a while and would have been really annoyed if someone did that to me. Here’s a link to the site so you can check it out. I promise, I’m not a spammer!

    Reply
  4. I am so excited to do this but just stopped in to a local antique mall and their typeset trays were $45!! Ugh! I’ll keep searching! Thank you for sharing!

    Reply
  5. I got one of these for my Girlfriend…
    And for the life of me I cannot find an easy way to screw in the eye hooks into the tiny compartments….

    Any words of wisdom or ideas???

    Reply
  6. Hi Mike, the best way I found to do this is use a a small pair of pliers and put a lot of muscle behind screwing them in.  I found it worked much easier to screw them into the back of the typeset tray as opposed to screwing them into the top of each little section.  I hope that helps.

    Reply

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