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| Of all the female accessories I've learned to adorn myself with, earrings have been the most difficult to organize. Unlike my necklaces, which can hang off anything- like these on pushpins which rim a little shelf- they come in pairs and have two little pieces to each on top of that which I constantly lose. I tried stretching lace between large embroidery hoops and hooking my collection there but the hoop was difficult to move around to get to the post earrings. All my jostling caused the whole contraption to explode after a week or so. |
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| Since, I' had my eyes peeled for something sturdier that can hang but which also has firmly affixed grids. When I peered into a dumpster down the street at a house being renovated to check out some wheels poking out, attached to ugly tray tables, I found a spice rack identical to this. After prying off the wheels, I absconded with the tiny cabinet, still full of 21 glass spice jars with unusual pinkish copper-colored screw lids. After scraping out mid-century spices and soaking the jars, I set them aside for miniature thing storage in my future home. The rack itself reminded me of Snow White's or Briar Rose's cottages in the woods but it needed some work. |
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| I didn't have hooks for the upper shelf so I flipped the cabinet upside down. Fortunately, the hook clasped still secured the doors shut this way. I scrubbed down all surfaces with dish soap and warm water, dried, and then massaged in 3 coats of coconut oil to restore the wood. The hinges, long creased plastic pieces, broke as I rubbed at the doors so I improved new ones with heavy duty fabric patches and upholstery tacks after a failed attempt with tiny salvaged shutter hinges. Thumbtacks and some staples held strips of lace--these salvaged from a thrift store wedding dress I purchased for the satin- over the back of each shelf. I tied a hammock for loose earring backs and holiday earrings for my final touch. |
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| The bottom shelf had a different rod running along the back. I addressed the accessibility problems I previously experienced with post earrings by incorporating the rod into the design. I draped 3 pieces of lace vertically over the rod so I can easily lift them up to view and remove post earrings and their backs. User experience design on the fly! |
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| The finished product! A fairy tale cottage earring organizer from a dumpster spice rack cleaned, polished, turned upside down, re-hinged (with a pop of turquoise, notice), laced, and hung (but rather haphazardly for now with some hanger wire. When I move this to my future home, I'll have a less conspicuous loop. I might paint the black grate off white someday too.) Earring storage solved for free. |
