cup hook – A Smith of All Trades

I have a (bad) habit of taking any and all furniture that people don’t want. So when my mom and stepdad cleared out their laundry room to make way for some nicer storage, I happily took the dresser they’d been using for years downstairs.

Our family friend painted this for my older sister — in fact, she had a whole matching set at one point! I kept it as is for a while, knowing at some point I’d want to update it.

To update this dresser, I opted for paint. Since it was already painted — and rather nicely, too — I didn’t want to go through the hassle of stripping and sanding it down.

I splurged on paint, buying Satin Impervo Benjamin Moore paint, which is made for kitchen cabinets. It’s an oil-based paint that cures, not dries.

And you know what else? It is stinkyyyyy. Holy smokes, is it stinky.

I wore this bad boy the whole time I used it, which I should be doing anyway when I paint… but it was way necessary this time.

Before I could start painting, I sanded the whole dresser down.

Then, I filled the wholes and sanded down again. This ended up being an unnecessary step because I ended up using the holes anyway. Oh well!

With everything sanded, I started to paint.

I let the paint dry for days (I think 4) before doing a second coat. I was worried because the paint seemed to be tacky for the longest time, but the more I researched I learned that the paint cures, not dries (I know I said this earlier). That’s really important though, because you can’t add your second coat until the first cures completely.

When the first coat cured, I added a second. And then I let that cure, too.

When everything was dried and hard to the touch, I added back the hardware. I chose black cup pulls and I love them. Seriously, they are fabulous.

The cup handles are fabulous, the paint is fabulous. I mean, just look at the top and how smooth it is!

The paint, while expensive ($25/quart), was worth it in the end. Much better than anything else I’ve used. We’ll see how it holds up over time, but at least right now I am so super pleased with how it turned out.

Quite a difference from before, huh?

BEFORE:

AFTER:

On an unrelated note, happy birthday to my neighbor Allie and her twin Shelly 🙂

My stack of vintage inspired picture frames has been growing for a while now. I picked up three or four old frames from the thrift store a few months back, and then a handful more at the local art shop that closed down.

I’ve seen a lot of people turning old frames into jewelry displays, and since my jewelry box is super teeny I figured this would be a good way for me to get all of my jewelry off my dresser in an organized fashion.

I turned most of these frames into earring holders, then saved two to crate a necklace display and a bracelet display.

To make an earring jewelry display out of an old frame you will need a staple gun, a roll of screen replacement fabric (I bought gray fiberglass mesh from Home Depot for $6. I haven’t even made a dent in it yet), and a frame of your choice.

First, remove everything from the inside of your frame, including the glass, photos, the cardboard backing, the staples in the sides, etc.

Once all the guts of the frame are removed, flip over the frame and cut a piece of screen to fit on the back.

You can do the next step in two ways. I tried both and would recommend the second. First, you can staple the screen right onto the back of the frame. The screen doesn’t stretch too much, so it’s pretty easy to get the screen taut. This is the easier way to make the earring display. The only problem is the screen lays flat against the wall, so it’s not as easy to slip earrings on and off. Having said that, the frame I hung in my room (picture later in post) has the screen flat against the wall and it works just fine. Like I said, it’s just not quite as simple to get the earrings on an off. Overall, not a huge deal.

The other way to make this display is to staple the frame along the inner edges of the frame (where the glass rests). Make sure you staple into the think sides and not the small piece of frame at the front. This way worked nicely and allows a smidgen of room between the screen and the wall. Either way works and will have your frame looking like this:

Now if you are like me and need an entire trio of frames to subdue your jewelry collection, grab your next frame and some cup hooks (also purchased from Home Depot).

Frame… check!

Cup hooks… check!

Figure out how many necklaces or bracelets you would like to display and mark the inside edge of your frame where you would like your hooks to go. I flipped both of my frames horizontally so I could fit more and spaced my cup hooks evenly. Note: My frames for this project were wooden. I used a plastic frame to make my sister an earring display and that worked fine with the staples, but I don’t know if it would work with the cup hooks because I screwed them in by hand. If you can find a wooden frame I definitely recommend it!

Screw in your cup hooks along the inner edge of the frame.