Upcycled Printer Drawers

Last time I went home to Minnesota was for the birth of my niece Luciana, and while taking a break from hanging out at the hospital in Downtown St. Paul I decided to check out all the antique stores around. If you have a free day, I recommend you go antiquing on West 7th in St. Paul and have lunch at Cossettas while you're in the area. Anyway, first I went to Seventh Heaven Antiques and Collectibles. I got a few things here then worked my way down 7th and ended at Wescott's Station Antiques.

At Wescott's Station antiques, I found all sorts of neat things, including an antique printers drawer. At the time they had a couple of them and looking back I wish I would have bought them all. When I googled them, the photo of the front of the shop has a bunch of printers drawers out front so maybe this is something they get frequently...I don't know but it's worth a look. If you are not in St. Paul, you can always check craigslist or ebay.

Printer drawers come in all shapes and sizes, and there is so much you can do with them. You can put it on the wall or use it as a table top with a piece of glass over it. Make a photo collage or display collectibles or jewelry. It would also be great for storage of small things. I knew when I saw it that I was going to turn it into a jewelry display.

Here is how I made mine into a jewelry organizer and display.

You will need:

a drill with a small drill bit

eyelet screws, small one's for earrings and one's alittle bit bigger for necklaces.

I purchased a few packs of small eyelet screws and a small drill bit to to drill starter holes for the eyelet screws. The wood of mine was too hard with out a starter hole.

Depending on how you use it or want it to look you can paint or stain it. I liked the way mine looked old and natural so I just left it. If I change my mind later it would be no problem to paint it.

I decided where I wanted my hooks to be a drilled a tiny hole. Be careful not to drill too far that the eyelet screw is too small! I did this and just had to make a new hole a tiny bit behind the original hole.

Next I twisted the little eyelet screws in each hole. This part is time consuming because of the small spaces and your fingers will probably hurt a little when you're done.

I put bigger eyelets along the bottom for necklaces and two on top for hanging and voila! A cute and unique way to display your jewelry!