DIY earring organizer

If you're a nut for organization like me, I'll bet you've tried and tried and TRIED unsuccessfully to find a good way to organize and display your jewelry in a pretty way. My earrings lately have had a mind of their own and have continuously been leaping out of the bowl they hung on the side of to their death in THE CRACK. That is, the space between my dresser and the wall where they might never be retrieved unless I beg Ryan to use brute force to drag the dresser away from the wall so I can rescue my suicidal jewelry.

Anyway, Claire over at blah to TADA! has done it all over again and inspired the crap outta me with her thrifty resuses of everyday objects. In a post from this month, she made a DIY earring organizer out of an old frame and some chicken wire. It spoke to me!!

I had to try it.

I've gotten over my irrational fear of looking like a noob at Ace Hardware, so I went recently and picked up some sturdy wire fencing, which they sell by the foot. Two feet cost me $8. The lady with the big acrylic nails told me it could be cut with regular ol' wire cutters but that it was real sharp. (Who gets such fierce acrylics when they work at a hardware store?!)


First, I placed my frame over the wire to make sure I cut the right shape.


This frame was a Goodwill find for maybe $1. It used to be white and it held a mirror, which I accidentally broke like a doofus when trying to shove it back into the frame after spray painting. Good thing I'm not superstitious!

Anyway, I went at that sucker with this rusty pair of Ikea pliers/wire cutters. The blades were NOT SHARP. What was sharp? The fencing. OWIE. My hands still hurt...it looks like a war zone up in here.


I moved inside to finish the project so my neighbors didn't think I was insane due to all the "OW"s, cursing and sweating I was doing in the driveway.

I took the rectangle-shaped fencing I'd just cut out and laid it over the frame to make sure it was the right size. A little trimming of the corners, and tada!


The last step was to staple the fencing on to the back of my frame with a staple gun. Piece of cake. How bad ass do you feel using a staple gun? Love that thing.


I hung my earrings on, and then I swooned.


Isn't that great? I liked it so much I made one for my necklaces too, using bent paper clips.


Wouldn't this look awesome with an old antique window frame like this one?

Now I have tons of beautiful free dresser space. Three cheers for organization!