Current Obsession: Jewelry Boxes

As a creative individual, I find myself exploring different mediums all of the time. I have been dabbling here and there in all kinds of different things! Reupholstering furniture (I have yet to upload pics though - *le sigh), making jewelry, making cards, painting (relearning water color and acrylics after a seven year hiatus!), doing interior design consulting work when it comes, product design, branding design, website design... Anyway, I could go on but the point of this is that sometimes I feel like I have artist ADD because I'm always looking for new projects! I'm currently working on a jewelry box collection. And not your average boring mother's box either! I have been hand crafting (adding wood working to the long list of projects..) some little gems to sell in my etsy store. I was originally intrigued by Anthropologie's Topsy Turvy Jewelry Box ($298):

I love the ecclectic design of it! It's very forward thinking having differently styled drawers looking to be achieving a balancing act all stacked together. I decided to take the idea one step further and create separate, free standing drawers...some that can stack or some that can be jewelry trays all on their own on top of a vanity table or dresser. I made some wooden boxes, stained them with gorgeous danish oil, upholstered them with some fabulous designer fabric scraps I had left over from school, found some hardware and put it all together into a lovely trio of mini stacking drawers/jewelry trays! I uploaded this set on etsy and am currently working on some new ones to list as well.

Click read more to see more images of the finished drawers and a little bit more about the process!

After this set was complete, I was perusing salvation army on their 50% off day and found a hand full of watermarked, chipped, stained and broken jewelry boxes that were screaming "Love me! Fix me! Make me new again! I'm tired of being stuck in the 70s/80s/whenever!" So, I bought up the lot and have been working on making them beautiful.

Here is the first one from the salvaged/repurposed lot:

Now that I've given you a little eye candy, let me give you a peak at where it started so you can truly appreciate the labor of love that went into it!

As you can see, the mirror was broken... the upholstery was dirty.. the lid was stained... I imagined it would one day gleam again and so far so good! I still have a few minor adjustments to make but it's so rewarding seeing something once discarded turn into a little piece of art again. Also, it's a great way to pass the afternoon - sitting in the sun on the back deck sanding and painting. More to come!