My grandmother loved jewelry. As little girls, my sisters and I loved to open up her big jewelry box and try on her different pieces. My youngest sister, Jackie, inherited my grandmother’s love for jewelry and fashion. When Grandma passed away, Jackie inherited the large jewelry box armoire thingy. (Yes, that’s the technical term for it.)
Can you see the problem though? It’s that orange-y oak color that we are all trying so hard to get away from. And those bright brassy hooks? …not cool. My sister asked me to paint it for her and said that she’d buy me some chalk paint to try out. I will work for free craft supplies! Here’s the before and after:
What a difference! I decided to leave the outer hardware the same and painted over the bright necklace hooks. Much better!
This was my first time using chalk paint. I’m a perfectionist, so seeing all of those brushstrokes was a little hard for me to get used to. It turned out cute… not sure if I’d go painting everything in my house with it, but a small piece here and there is fine. It did distress very easily.
What do you think? Have you used chalk paint before? I think grandma would approve!
Painting the jewelry box and writing this post reminded me of what my grandmother left for me. Each of the girls got a little box of jewelry. Nothing expensive or fancy, just some of her costume jewelry. When I opened my box, I was surprised that everything inside was green.
At that moment, a faint memory surfaced of me as a little girl, in my grandma’s bedroom, going through her jewelry box. She was asking me what I wanted to have some day. With my birthday being in May, my birthstone is an emerald. I wanted anything with emeralds on it… anything green.
Wow… feeling sappy much today?! 😉 I just couldn’t resist sharing. Hope you all are having a great week! I’m going to go make some fun memories with my kids.
Sheena Anderson says
October 16, 2013 at 6:23 pmI have a jewelry box very similar so I was excited to see how you redid it. Actually my bedroom furniture looks like that and since a new bedroom suite isn’t in our budget any time soon I’d really like to refinish our bedroom suite but no clue how I want it to look. I also have never used chalk paint. But it looks good. I like it.
Jessica Anderson says
October 16, 2013 at 11:43 pmThanks Sheena! I’m really happy with the way it turned out. Painting something always takes a lot of time, but it’s definitely worth it in the end!
Bethany says
October 16, 2013 at 7:07 pmLove the make-over! Looks so beautiful, and the original hardware is gorgeous! And I can relate about the jewelry 🙂 I got a few things, but she left me her sewing machine that came with a cabinet. I left everything in it, even little hand-written notes of hers. It’s wonderful to still have a way to feel connected!
Jessica Anderson says
October 16, 2013 at 11:45 pmThanks Bethany! How neat that you got your grandmother’s sewing machine cabinet. Something to remember them by and, like you said, feel connected. 🙂
Emma Peake says
October 17, 2013 at 7:15 amWhen I saw the first thumbnail on the dashboard of the post I thought it was something to sit on a dressing table! Definialty not! Haha. I love it! Such a treasure, and the makeover looks amazing!!
Jessica Anderson says
October 18, 2013 at 11:01 pmI know! So cool right?! I don’t think I would ever have enough jewelry to fill it!
fabulosa says
October 22, 2013 at 2:44 pmYou all had made me cry over yours grandmothers stories. I hope my grandchildren treausure my stuff in the same manner, when I’m gone. The distress painting gave new life to the piece. Beautiful.
Jessica Anderson says
October 23, 2013 at 7:33 pmAw… thank you!
Toni Barsi says
October 27, 2013 at 8:02 pmYou did a beautiful job on the makeover! It’s so sweet that you Grandma kept that precious memory of your preference for green with her over the years. My Gramma is very similar with her jewelry boxes, and my daughter loves to dig through them with her and look through all her “pretties”.
Jessica Anderson says
October 29, 2013 at 3:20 amThank you, Toni! My grandma had little stickers all over everything with people’s names on them. So funny! Made it easy to go through everything though.
Becky Stabler says
July 3, 2017 at 5:33 amI did one just exactly like this for my great nieces graduation present. She loved it.
When redoing jewelry boxes please be careful with the hardware. I am a bit heavy handed and on this piece when I tightened in the screw to hard the ornate part of the drawer pull cracked because it was plastic. Thank God for Gorilla Glue. But I was quite perturbed. So my tip would be get it snug but do not use to much pressure when putting the screws back in.
Best place I have found for replacement parts for jewelry box hardware is Hobby Lobby.
Jessica @ Cutesy Crafts says
July 3, 2017 at 3:14 pmOh no! Glad you got it figured out and can give us all some tips. Luckily I didn’t have that issue, but I’m sure this will help someone else attempting a makeover. Thanks for sharing!