The Jewelry Board, the Valuable DIY Lesson in Patience

So, sometimes things look ridiculously easy to accomplish when you're looking at a picture on Pinterest. Sometimes it's because it actually is that easy, and sometimes it's because Pinterest lies to you. And yet there are other times, the most frustrating of times, when it should be as easy as it looks...and yet it still kicks your butt. This was one of those. And honestly, I'm being dramatic. It didn't kick my butt that bad. It just seemed like it did because it stretched out over several days and various shopping trips.

We've all seen a thousand examples of how to better organize and style your jewelry on Pinterest, and they're all adorable and guaranteed to make your closet prettier. I finally decided to make mine happen, and even though I wanted it to be the most adorable thing ever, I had to continue to remind myself that it's going to be hanging in my closet. The closet that's the part of my bedroom that no one sees, and the bedroom that's the room of my house that no one sees. So...perfection really isn't entirely necessary. Really and truly, that's key. Don't let Pinterest get in your head. Don't do it.

The backbone of this particular jewelry board is a bulletin board, which I found at a thrift store for $3. It was a little beat up around the edges but basically in perfect shape. And it's kind of huge, as far as $3 bulletin boards go.

First step: paint the frame white. 

Second step: cut the burlap to size.

Third step: create the border. I used white thumbtacks, which was doubly great because it was how I attached the burlap to the board and also created an additional border and detail. Here's the thing though...it was so much less of a neat and tidy process than I imagined it would be. The tacks were nearly impossible to figure out how to space perfectly so they're crooked and bunched and overlapping, and you know what? It's okay. Because where is this getting hung? In my closet. That's right.

Here was where the first opportunity to practice some patience came in. I didn't buy enough tacks, because I severely underestimated how big this thing is and how small the tacks are. So I had to spend half a movie staring at my unfinished border from across the room one night, but oh well.

Fourth step: lace. This is to hang the earrings from, and I have to say I was pretty ridiculously proud of myself when I thought of it. Partly because it's really functional and partly because it's super pretty.

Fifth step: add some support for that lace. It's just way too long a stretch and the lace is too thin and flimsy to support earrings hanging from it. So I measured it out and added the extra tacks.

Sixth step: try a million different ways to get the beads to stick to the stinking thumbtacks.

Most of the Pinterest examples I've seen involved knobs of some kind for the necklaces. I didn't feel like spending money on knobs, and I also felt stumped about how to attach them to the actual board. So I decided to make my own. I found big round turquoise beads real cheap and on clearance at Walmart, and thought they'd be perfect to glue onto some of the leftover thumbtacks. It was a great idea, it just took lots of trials and several nights to make it work. I tried craft glue first, and got super excited about it because I assumed it would work.

I mean, it does say "all purpose," after all.

I thought we were all systems a go until I stood the board up and tried to hang a necklace. And they all started to fall.

So that didn't work. I tried the super glue that was in the garage. But it was super glued to the insides of the bottle and wouldn't come out. So I thought I'd use the Lock-Tite that was also in the garage, but not only is it not a glue at all...it's also apparently pretty expensive. So I wouldn't recommend that option for all kinds of reasons.

I almost gave up and bought the stupid knobs but hubs encouraged me to get some new super glue and try that option for real. So I did, and it worked. Praise the Lord for super glue.

Seventh step: attach the box. At some point during this process it occurred to me: rings. I don't have anywhere to put my rings.  I had an extra drawer organizing box laying around with no purpose, so I painted it and glued it onto the edge of the board with that all purpose craft glue. Because even though it doesn't work well for beads and metal thumbtacks, it's awesome with wood.

Eighth step: measure out where the "knobs" will go. You might have noticed in the picture above that I didn't necessarily make the knobs perfect when I hung them the first time. I was stuck on the "it's going in my closet" concept and just kind of eyeballed it. And when I was given the chance to do them again, I figured that I could handle making them straight and even. It is going in my closet, but I do still have to look at it.

I drew a dot every inch along the entire length of the board, which left me with eight more dots than knobs. So I spaced them out accordingly, put in some plain thumbtacks as space fillers, and there you have it.

These pictures turned out really dark, which I don't understand because I'm not much of an expert when it comes to my camera. But there's the finished product. The knobs work, the lace works, the box holds not only my rings but the two bracelets that I own as well.

The cons are that there are two necklaces that don't fit on the board because they're just too chunky. Someday soon I'll come up with a solution for them. I also don't have a space on this board for my nice pearl earrings that I keep in the box, but I have a drawer I can easily keep them in. The rings are a bit of a mess in there in that box - as opposed to a jewelry box with the organizers, but I honestly don't wear my rings too often and I'm okay with them being like that.

Overall, I'm a fan. And I really really love burlap. I'm kind of obsessed with it, actually, so I love that I got to use it. It's not perfect, but I'm happy with how it turned out. So there, Pinterest.