| Project by WoodTookSoLong | posted 42 days ago | 519 views | 14 times favorited | 14 comments |  |
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This was made as a surprise for my wife to hold all of her various pieces of jewelry from necklaces to bracelets to rings. I got the idea when I was flying a few years ago and was flipping through the SkyMall catalogue. There was something like this in there for close to $500 and it wasn’t even made of wood (more like MDF). I kind of laughed to myself and thought, “Hey, I could make that for a lot less.” So I did.
I wanted the front to be a simple mirror and plain looking so it wouldn’t be too obvious as to what it was. I went through three mirrors trying to glue this thing on the door frame I built. I learned some hard lessons about glass cutting and adhesives on this project :-) On the door I also routered and sanded a hand grip area to pull the door open.
The inside was another challenge completely. It wasn’t easy to find small, decorative hooks since most hardware stores just carry those cheap looking cup hooks. Finally found these for cheap and they work great because they have a little ball on the end to hold the necklace on that little bit more. For the rings I bought some cheap ring holders on Ebay and then built some small wood frames around them to mount them on the door. The bottom has four little cups for extra rings, earrings, stones, etc. and they are easily removable to poke through them.
I bought some faux suede and foam padding at the local fabric store and mounted it behind everything to really show off the jewelry and make it easy to see. Although it’s not airtight, the fabric also helps keep the jewerly from tarnishing.
My favourite part are the 170 degree hinges that allow the door to open as wide as possible to get light in and find what you need easily. It might have been overkill, but I love the Blumotion soft closer so the door doesn’t slam shut and catch or tangle all the necklaces.
The entire cabinet is about 4’ tall x 16” wide x 5” deep. It holds about 36 necklaces, 54 pairs of earrings, 54 rings, 16 bracelets and a variety of other rings in the bottom cups.
-- Ben
14 comments so far
dustynewt
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447 posts in 755 days
posted 42 days ago
Brilliant Job. Simple and effective form and function. Welcome to LJ’s. I hope to see a lot more from you.
-- Please visit me at http://dustynewt.com
woodworm
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8183 posts in 483 days
posted 41 days ago
Great idea and very nice work.
The soft closer hinge is also a great feature for the jewelery cabinet.
-- masrol, kuala lumpur, MY.
TedM
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1843 posts in 625 days
posted 41 days ago
Great job! I have one of these in my future too… my wife seen the same ad a few months ago and since then… :)
-- I'm a wood magician... I can turn fine lumber into firewood before your very eyes! - http://www.woodworkersguide.com
Beginningwoodworker
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4123 posts in 566 days
posted 41 days ago
Nice work!
-- CJIII Future cabinetmaker
huff
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1608 posts in 178 days
posted 41 days ago
Great design! Very nice and the soft close hinges is the perfect touch. Thanks for sharing.
-- John @ Myrtle Beach
Cedrus
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71 posts in 607 days
posted 41 days ago
Brilliant and well thought out! So NICE my wife wants one! I like the use of cabinet hinges to hold the weight of ther mirror.
Try this http://www.leevalley.com/
-- Cedrus of British Columbia
a1Jim
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16683 posts in 470 days
posted 41 days ago
Looks great Ben
-- Jim from Heirloom Woodshop Southern Oregon
junior1
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2 posts in 42 days
posted 41 days ago
beautiful work. I’ve being asked to make a couple my self, that has sure added to the design process. Thanks for sharing. Of course the blumotion soft closers just top the whole thing off.
Loucarb
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944 posts in 338 days
posted 41 days ago
Well done. Nice design.
jm82435
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508 posts in 635 days
posted 41 days ago
Great project. I was wondering when we would start seeing these. I made one of these a couple of years ago for a friend. Now everyone I know wants one. My daughter wants to make a bunch of these for Christmas presents this year. We do not have a glass shop in town anymore which will make getting custom glass harder now. We may have to build them around stock mirrors. I still have a bunch of hooks left over from the last one – I went with picture hangers off of ebay. She picked out some pretty hinges and a magnetic catch. The soft close hinges might be a more practical solution. thanks for sharing this project.
-- A thing of beauty is a joy forever...
clieb91
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681 posts in 828 days
posted 41 days ago
Great project. Way to beat Skymall, I love looking at those kind of catalogs for ideas.
Welcome to LumberJocks.
CtL
-- Chris L. "Don't Dream it, Be it."
Dan Hux
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156 posts in 267 days
posted 41 days ago
very nice,,my wife saw one like that, but it stood on legs, like a floor standing mirror. I’ve been knocking the idea around for about 8 weeks. What lumber did you use?
-- Dan Hux,,,,Raleigh, North Carolina
WoodTookSoLong
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12 posts in 42 days
posted 41 days ago
Thanks everyone. To answer some questions, it was made of pine all the way through. The mirror (or mirrors I went through) were all stock mirrors I bought at Wallymart, but if I had to do it again I would definitely go with a better quality thicker mirror to eliminate the slight distortion from farther distances.
Cedrus, thanks for the link. I’ve been to Lee Valley before and that was going to be my next stop if I didn’t find the hooks I did. They have a lot of great stuff for sure!
-- Ben
RexMcKinnon
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652 posts in 88 days
posted 40 days ago
Nice project.
-- If all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail!