I’ve shown you how I packed my jewelry for my move, now it’s time for me to show you how I made the large, locking jewelry box of my dreams to store and display my collection in my new house!
For my new house, I wanted a beautiful way to display my jewelry so that everything was easy to see but also safely enclosed. A large, locking jewelry box that still allowed my collection to be visible, not tucked away in drawers.
The jewelry setup at my old place (below), which involved an armoire, wall-mounted earring racks, and Command hooks, kept everything organized and let me easily access everything – but it wasn’t perfect.
My jewelry was fully exposed to air and dust, and there was no protection from accidents (if I bumped the wall while vacuuming, earrings would fall off).
I spent weeks researching potential new options. Everything was either too small, like the lovely but inadequate armoires I’d owned in the past, or enormous and wildly expensive but lacking in organizational features.
It gradually became clear that if I wanted the jewelry box of my dreams, I would have to make it myself.
I am not crafty, so I knew I wanted to do this using elements that already exist. I loved the idea of using a vintage apothecary cabinet or antique card catalog, but those are expensive, unwieldy, and rare.
Finally, I discovered Mustard Made. They specialize in colorful, high end locker-inspired cabinets and their latest version, The Collector, caught my eye immediately with its luxurious fluted glass panels. It was huge, beautiful, filled with adjustable shelves, and had locking doors.
This The Collector in the gloriously pink Berry color. (I highly recommend ordering color samples before committing to a whole cabinet.) If you like the look of The Collector but want something smaller, try The Mixer or The Kit.
The cabinet was perfect to become my large, locking jewelry box, but it needed customization. Here’s what I did:
It was a challenge to figure out a way to display my earrings so that they all would be sufficiently visible AND easy to access. I tried several strategies that ended in disappointment before I found these freestanding wooden earring displays.
I wanted everything to be visible at once, but I simply have too many earrings (and I wanted to include room for my collection to grow!). I ended up using four of these handmade displays arranged in two rows, with the earrings organized by color, metal, length, and vibes:
I have one earring display for silver earrings, one for gold earrings, and two for colorful earrings (one blues and greens, one pinks and multi-colors). I love how easy it is to slide my earrings in and out of the wooden slots.
I also have a little trinket dish on this shelf for when I’m in too much of a hurry to put my jewelry back in its proper place – a safe holding area.
I used these small gold magnetic hooks to hang necklaces along the doors, sides, and back of the cabinet.
If you do a similar setup, beware of possible damage from necklaces banging into metal surfaces, especially on the doors! Be thoughtful about where you store necklaces with breakable gems, enamel, glass or other fragile materials.
The next shelf is dedicated to rings and extraordinary necklaces (as well as more pendant necklaces hanging from magnetic hooks the sides and back).
The rings are arranged by era in these beautiful velvet ring trays from a Ukrainian artist on Etsy and the necklaces – which are too large, fragile, or special to be hung from magnets – are on velvet necklace forms.
I’m especially proud of the way those rings trays are tilted at the perfect angle to make everything visible. I tried so many things before finding the ultimate solution: each ring tray is sitting on one of these book display stands, which are the perfect size and angle.
The third shelf is the most diverse: this is where I have Stackers trays holding layers of different things, from brooches to bracelets to beaded necklaces, charms, pendants, and more.
This means that the pieces stored on this shelf aren’t as immediately visible as I ideally wanted, but it’s the best way I could come up with for everything to be safe, organized easy to find, and reasonably visible.
The Stackers trays I used are the Classic size in the Sage Green colorway. This photo shows the Classic Necklace Layer. I also used the Classic Statement Layer, Classic Trinket Layer, Classic Ring & Bracelet Layer, and Classic Chunky Jewelry Layer.
Unfortunately, Stackers trays now carry a hefty tariff when shipped to the USA. US jewelry lovers can find a more limited selection of Stackers at The Container Store, or I’ve rounded up some alternative trays here.
The bottom two shelves of my large, locking jewelry box are jewelry-related storage: they’re where I keep my travel cases, ring holders and trinket dishes, photography props, pins for styling the necklace forms, extra anti-tarnish strips, and my collection of secondhand tiny plastic bags.
I could not be happier with how this project came out. I wanted a large, locking jewelry box that felt like my own personal museum filled with jewelry that’s mine to wear, and that’s exactly what I’ve made.
A lock like the one on this cabinet won’t stop determined thieves, but this setup keeps my pretties safe from casual loss or damage while displaying them in a way that lets me admire them whenever I want, and that’s exactly what I was hoping to accomplish.
Find everything I used to make the large, locking jewelry box of my dreams here in this ShopMy list.
For more jewelry storage ideas, visit my Jewelry Storage ShopMy list here or my Jewelry Storage blog post archive here.
This post contains affiliate links.
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