I finally got around to organizing my studio and started organizing supplies for my current favorite hobby: jewelry making. I didn’t realize how many supplies and beads I had accumulated until I started planning how I was going to organize them. But I came up with a way to organize everything that I’m really excited about. For someone who doesn’t love the process of getting organized, I love the results once an organizing project is finished. I’ve gone back just to look at and admire my newly organized storage closet many times over the past few days, and I’ve done the same with my jewelry making supply drawers over the past 24 hours.
Let me show you what I did. Since the jewelry making supplies are quite small, I decided to use three of the shallow drawers in this six-drawer center cabinet.
And since I work on my jewelry projects at my desk, I needed a way to easily transport all of my supplies and tools to my desk, and then easily move them to the drawers for storage when not in use.
My solution? Two super easy to make custom sized trays that fit perfectly in the drawers! Here is the drawer with the tray for all of my tools and supplies except for the beads. Here is a view of it before I added all of the items to the tray so you can see how perfectly it fits in the drawer. The sides of the IKEA Sektion cabinet drawers are curved, which works perfectly because it leaves room for my fingers to wrap around the handles.
And this is what it looks like with the supplies and tools in place…
So when I want to work on a jewelry project, I can just grab the whole tray and bring it to my desk…
To store my beads, I bought two boxes of 40 packs of these clear 2-ounce jars (affiliate link). And then I stored them upside down in the tray I made for this drawer. For this drawer, I tailored the tray to the jars rather than making it the exact size of the drawer so the jars wouldn’t slide around. The beads in the back are ones I haven’t used yet, so they’re still untouched from the store.
This tray also makes it really easy to bring all my bills to my desk, and since my desk is pretty big, both trays fit on it really easily, leaving plenty of room in the middle for actual workspace.
These trays were super easy to make and didn’t cost me anything because I used scrap plywood and lumber I had left over from previous projects, and I already had everything else on hand. I started by cutting a piece of 1/2-inch plywood to the dimensions of the drawer base, minus 1.5 inches for each measurement (length minus 1.5 inches and width minus 1.5 inches). I then cut a piece of 1″ x 2″ lumber that I had already cut on the table saw (again, from a previous project) so that the actual measurements were 3/4 of an inch by 1 inch. I used my miter saw to cut it to the length needed to fit the exact dimension of the sides of the plywood, and then nailed it in place with 16-gauge 1.5-inch nails. I repeated that on the other side.
And then I cut pieces for the front and back to cover not only the edge of the plywood, but also the ends of the side frame pieces. In other words, I didn’t bother mitering the corners. I just cut the four pieces straight across and nailed them to the edge of the plywood.
I then used wood putty in all four corners and all of the nail holes, then sanded everything smooth with my sander and 150-grit sanding discs. I went over everything very quickly by hand with 220-grit sandpaper before priming and painting the trays.
I used Rust-Oleum spray primer and then hand-sanded again with 220-grit sandpaper before brush-painting the trays in Behr Polar Bear (my white paint of choice for trim). When that dried, I brushed on two coats of General Finishes High Performance Topcoat in a matte finish (affiliate link). It’s my favorite water-based topcoat, and even though it’s not recommended for use over white paint (for some reason it can yellow over white paint), I decided to take a chance. That smooth finish is more important to me than color.
I had some leftover cabinet handles so I used them as tray handles. This is what the tray looked like when it was finished.
I still want to get some felt pads to put on the tray bases so the hardwood bases of the trays don’t slide around on my desk. But other than that, these drawers are efficiently organized and very useful.
I mentioned that I used three of the drawers for my jewelry making supplies, but the third drawer didn’t require a custom sized tray. Here’s what it looks like for now…
I’m sure this drawer will end up holding more items in the future. But for now, it’s being used to hold three things. (1) I have a tray that holds my necklaces and earrings that are in progress but not yet finished. (2) I have a container that holds leftover beads from necklaces and earrings I’ve already made. These don’t have their own jars because they’re not seed beads or other filler beads that can be used over and over in multiple necklaces. These are more specialty beads that I don’t really want to reuse because I already have one necklace made with them and don’t need another. I’m not sure what I’ll end up doing with them. And (3) necklaces that are finished, but need adjusting.
I have room to grow in that drawer. In fact, there are things in the main supplies and tools tray that I don’t use often, so I might move them into this drawer and give my main tray a little more room. But for now, these drawers are finished and efficiently organized with custom trays that make getting all of my supplies to my desk a breeze. I’m so excited about how this organization project turned out!
Addicted 2 Decorating is a place where I share my DIY and decorating experience while remodeling and decorating the 1948 home my husband Matt and I purchased in 2013. Matt has multiple sclerosis and is unable to do physical labor, so I do most of the work around the house alone. You can learn more about me here.
