Modern, Customizable Jewelry/Item Display/Organizer

Materials: Rationell Variera Pot Lid Organizer (only required item)

Description: We looked at the Rationell Variera Pot Lid Organizer at IKEA and really fell in love with the steel pegs. My fiancee had been thinking about her not remembering every necklace, bracelet, set of earrings, etc that she has, so she decided it would be great if we could use those pegs to make a display for her jewelry.

Since we’re always browsing the “as-is” section of the store for different items (I built a wonderful office table for two out of a headboard from there – maybe a future Ikea hack article?) we got a wonderful piece of wood there for $1 (I think it was a shelf or something like that).

We went to Lowes and bought 14 screws that fit the pegs and were about 2 – 3 inches long (just make sure it goes completely through the thick part of the wood with more than enough for the pegs to grab onto on the other side and provide adequate support for whatever it is you are going to be displaying) and a drill bit that was a tad bit bigger than the screw (that way the screw will just fall into place, not actually screw into the wood).

While there, we realized that her earrings are more hook shaped and wouldn’t really fit the pegs well, so we bought some simple furniture tacks that looked nice (these can really be anything you want and look however you want, we just tapped these in through the front of the wood board).

We then purchased some heavy duty double sides mounting tape to hold this thing against the wall. Since it wasn’t really going to be holding much weight, the tape should work great.

Once we brought everything home, she turned the board around to its back side (the side that goes up against the wall) and outlined how she wanted the steel pegs to be placed (leaving room for the earring section of course) and placed small dots in their centers. I then went through and drilled all the way through the wood in (semi) straight lines. Once all the holes were done, I popped the screws in and screwed the pegs from the front, holding the back with a screwdriver to make sure they are nice and tight.

This completes the “bracelet and necklace” piece of the display. Now for the earrings! We placed the tacks in a way that we thought would maximize the amount of earrings we could place will not making it look cluttered or interfering with the bracelets/necklace sections of the display. I just pounded those in a little more than half way with the back of my screwdriver (rubber based since a hammer would scratch the nice polished look of the tacks we bought – I guess a rubber mallet would work as well). Viola! The display is done!

I just put some of that double sided mounting tape on the back (about two layers think to account for the heads of the screws I bought…I didn’t think about it in the store and forgot to get the FLAT heads so they don’t add extra width in the back) and hung it up in the closet. Everything is working/looking great so far!

~ Diego M., San Diego, CA