A simple jewelry display on the cheap

Are you bored to tears with the same old jewelry displays you see in stores and catalogs? Boy, I sure am. I have been rolling around ideas in my hot little to showcase my wares for months and I think it is slowly coming together. You can see in this post how I like using materials that I already have on hand. When I was rummaging around looking for something else the other day, I came across this:

Gross right? Wrong! Tons of potential! It saved me from running to Goodwill to find one just like it. A nice size cookie sheet, not too crusty (actually the above picture is the drastically cleaned up version), not warped and not too deep. So far so good.

Now what to do? I knew I wanted to spray paint it and for once I had the wisdom to look in my cabinets to see what I already had, before sprinting off to Home Depot!

Yeah! Winning! A full can of this awesome stuff!

http://www.rustoleum.com/product-catalog/consumer-brands/stops-rust/textured

Couldn’t believe my eyes! Exactly what I was looking for? How often does this happen?

Well, sadly more often than I would like to admit, because I have a sickness – that is I LOVE to buy stuff that I THINK I’m going to use and then never do.

Anyhoo… You know the drill: read the instructions on the can and follow them and after 3-4 light coats on each side you will wind up with something like this:

Not too shabby for not really trying too hard. I honestly did not obsess about it too much, because I knew I would cover the bottom anyway.

I am aiming for an organic feel and after first trying some small decorative gravel that I had on hand, I decided it was too busy to show off the jewelry I wanted to place on it.

Hmm. What did I have on hand that was organic, readily available and preferably white?

Beans! From the pantry.

Yep. Beans. They work quite nicely, although this is definitely not one of my greater photographic achievements, but you get what I’m trying to show here!

I love that I can keep this tray on a shelf in my work shop and when someone pops over to look at my jewelry I can just pull it out and present it. It has an amazing amount of room for my bracelets. I do have a bracelet bar, but find them to be a bit of a pain, when it comes to taking the bracelets off and putting them back on.

So that is my humble little project for today. Can’t you just imagine the same type of tray sprayed in a fun bright color with contrasting sand, or sesame seeds, mix in some glitter…whatever material you find suitable to show case your goodies?

I’ll keep my eyes out for more simple ideas like this! Anything you have seen that was simple and looked great? Let me know! I would love to hear from you!

Karin