DIY Chicken Wire Jewelry Holder

My daughter just finished up her summer semester at Florida State University.  During the summer she lived in the dorm, and brought her jewelry box with her.  When we moved her out of the dorm last week, Kendall mentioned that she didn't want to bring her jewelry box back in the fall because it took up too much space.
The other day, she was showing me wall jewelry organizers online.  A lot of them were a little pricey, some were not that cute and didn't match her decor.  So I started a little search myself, and found chicken wire filled frames that were altered to hold earrings/necklaces.
I have always wanted to make one of these for myself, to place over my desk and used for special photos (attached with a clothespin), but I honestly just have not gotten around to it.  Yesterday I decided I was going to make one, and headed to Home Depot.

Here is the finished project, below I will give step by step directions on how I made this chicken wire jewelry holder.  Sorry about the low quality photos, they were taken with my iphone, it was just easier than getting my Canon out.

Materials Used:

1 inch x 2 inch by 8 feet piece of wood

Chicken wire

miter box

hand saw

staple gun

3 knobs

spray paint

wire cutters

hammer

brad nails

locktite super glue

Gorilla wood glue

pencil

ruler

plastic bag or tarp

Items that I had to purchase & cost:

1 in by 2 in by 8 ft piece of wood:  $4.07

24 inches by 10 feet Chicken Wire:  $6.97

3 drawer knobs: $1.28 x 3 = $3.84

Spray Paint: $3.67

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total:  $18.55

Step 1

Decide the size of the frame you want to make.  This frame is 24 inches by 16 inches.  Using a ruler, mark off where you need to cut.

Step 2

Miter the corners at 45 degrees.  As you can see, I don't have a fancy electric wood saw, I just used a plastic miter box and saw.  This miter box has the 45 degree angles marked, so it made it pretty easy.

Step 3

Sand the rough edges of the sawed pieces with a little piece of sand paper.  Using wood glue, apply glue to a corner and adhere to another corner, and repeat until the pieces complete the frame.

Step 4

Using a staple gun, put staples in each corner.  You want a part of each staple to be on either side of the pieces of wood.

Step 5

The staples when the enter the wood, are not going to be flush with the wood, so get a hammer, and hammer the staples into the wood.

Step 6

The frame is going to be a little wobbly, this is because it is only really secure from the back.  You want to get some brad nails (its kind of a finishing type of nail for projects like this), and place them on top and on the sides of the frame.  You want the nail to go into both pieces of wood, this will hold the frame together.

Step 7

Grab your spray paint and a large trash bag (or a tarp of sorts).  We live in a HOA, so our grass could not get affected by my project lol...the garbage bag is to protect the grass, and my bootie from my husband who obsesses over our grass.

Step 8

Make sure your can of spray paint is shaken well.  

Wood is a porous material, so the paint is going to get absorbed into the wood.  So, you will need to apply a few coats of paint.  Let the paint dry in between coats. Grab a book, this will take about 30 minutes.  It was windy, and i didn't feel like holding the corners after a while, so I used full cans of soda that no one drank from our last party, and places them on the corners of the bag.  You can use whatever means to spray your frame, this is just how I did it.

Step 9

I live in the south where it is really humid.  Once that I felt the frame was dry enough.  I carefully pealed it off the bag, and brought it inside to finish drying.  This is when you watch tv or take a shower or something.

Step 10

Open the chicken wire package, and decide which way you are going to roll the wire out.  My daughter wanted the longer pieces (24 inches) to be horizontal, so I made sure the flat pieces in the chicken wire went that way as well.

Step 11

Start stapling the chicken wire to the frame.  Stopping occasionally to pull the wire so it is a little tight.

Step 12

You will need wire cutters, to cut the roll of wire off of the stapled frame.  Also, once again use a hammer to hammer the staples into the frame.

Step 13

Using super glue, adhere the metal knobs to the frame.  The knobs are for necklaces.  Feel free to add as many or little as you want.  If you want your knobs more secure, they come with hardware.  I did not feel like I needed to screw in a knob to hold a few necklaces, so i decided against screwing the knobs into the wood.  My husband thinks I should have used the hardware, I feel comfortable with the super glue. :)

Step 14

Add ribbon or burlap, and you are finished.

Since this is going into my daughters dorm room, we have to use command strips to adhere it to the wall.  But you could always hang this up with a few nails, or nail in one of those cute frame hangers on the back of the frame.

***Added to mention***

When purchasing the wood.  Look at the price.  I bought my piece of wood and it was by the piece.  Some wood is priced by linear foot.  This can be tricky, so unless you want a better quality of wood and don't mind paying the higher price...find the wood that is by the piece.