While living in rental units and before buying our home I had a dream list of things I wanted to do once I OWNED MY OWN HOME. There were things on that list like hanging a nice, full length mirror on the wall (as opposed to the cheap mirror that is stuck to the back of most apartment bathroom doors), having my very own hammock to swing in while enjoying my very own back yard and HELLO chalkboard paint wall. One of those list items was to have a nice and permanent display for all of my necklaces.
(some of my favorite necklaces)
I consider most of my jewelry as wearable art, rather than just jewelry, and most pieces are not small or something that could easily be put away in a jewelry box. I’d like to have the pieces out and hanging in my bedroom. This way the pieces could be displayed as the artwork that they are, but also easily seen so I can decide which piece to wear each day.
In the past I’ve just hung all my necklaces from various random hooks, knobs and random nails that seem to be abundant in most rentals. I dreamed of a time when I’d have them all hanging on the wall, equally displayed. At first I pictured a straight line of nails, right into the wall. I think after renting for so many years I couldn’t even dream past the point of just owning my own walls that I could NAIL HOLES INTO IF I WANTED. It wasn’t until moving into our house that I started thinking beyond that and came up with this idea for a necklace display.
Last weekend I finally finished it and thought it might be something other people would be interested in recreating for their own necklaces. It was really simple and other than some assistance from my dad and sister (mostly because I needed their expertise, support and assurance) it could have been done in a day or two.
I went to the hardware/lumber store and bought a 2x10x8 and had them cut it down to 4 feet long and bought an a additional length of quarter-round, as seen above.
Lightly sand the wood, stain it and then treat it.
Using wood glue, glue the quarter round onto the edge and tape it into place and leave it to dry.
Mark the walls where the studs are and measure the height where the piece is to hang.
Put screws into the studs at the correct height, leaving them to stick out about .5″-.75″.
Place the piece up against the wall, directly under the screws and mark on the wood where the screws are located.
Drill holes into the back, slightly larger than the screw heads in the wall, that match the location of the screws in the wall.
Run two pieces of tape across the piece, horizontally, at 1″ and 4″ down. Then mark the tape every .75″, alternating on the 1 and 4 inch tapes.
With a hammer, nail penny nails into the board at the marked spots at a slight angle upward.
Voila, the piece is done. Match the holes in the back of the piece to the screws in the wall and it hangs beautifully.
(Before and after, necklace display)
The purpose of the quarter round was to create a small ledge where I can place artwork and inspirational images.
I also chose to use penny nails. You might opt for hooks or decorative nails. I specifically wanted the penny nails because the necklaces can easily be pulled off, and they are less distracting from the necklaces.
If you click on any of the images in this post it should take you to the flickr image. If you go to to this picture of the close up, and hover over the picture I have given credit to all the different artists who’s work can be seen in this display.
Um… I’m visual. You should have taken pictures of the taping/ hanging process process. It looks really cute though :)
Sorry, I’m a visual person too and wish I had pictures of everything. I started doing that but being one person, trying to do it AND document it was way too much. Not only that, but if I want to post it to my blog I want the pictures to look nice and that means I have to take them in nice daylight and it was just taking forever until the ideal opportunity and lighting arose. Also, you know that saying “measure twice, cut once” well, even though I measured about 6 times to be safe, I still ended up drilling holes into the wall, not where the studs were! I think my stud finder is faulty because even my dad and sister were present for that and didn’t understand why it was happening.
Maybe I can put something together afterward (mock pictures) and add it to this post to show examples. Thanks for the feedback!
edit: more pictures are up!
Brilliant! Thanks for sharing :)
Just as a side, I like the wood grain but in color. Either you could use a color stain, or pull out your favorite acrylic paint and really water it down and apply a wash. Wipe off the remaining. I was doing this years before they came out with the colored stain.
Nice job! I made something similar to this for myself awhile back!
I like the looks of the whole display. Your necklaces and the small artworks look great and really dress up the space. Nice job! If I can find an empty space on the wall, I will be making one myself.
Hey there, thanks a bunch for the amazing write-up, it’s really a really good one. I know that I have got a wide range of friends and relations which will be excited about perusing this. Thank you!
I think this project is a great way to display necklaces and little what nots on the shelf.
I you are a crafty person, the pictures you have posted with project are enough..all you have to do is look at the finished one and you can see everything.
What a great way to show off your jewellery! Thanks for the tutorial!