These drawers were used back in the 18th and 19th centuries to store typeset letters, which were similar to letter stamps of today that you use on an ink pad. It must have been fate, cause the day before I was reading a post and there was one of these on the wall and then the next day, it popped up on Marketplace, within driving distance for a very low price.Īn old printer's drawer or letterpress tray!Īnd with a little TLC, it came up a treat!ĭo you actually know what this tray was used for? Well, here is your little history lesson for the day. Then it was just a matter of putting the handle back on, attaching the hooks and nailing mounting brackets on the back of the tray so Amanda could hang it on the wall.I'm so excited to be sharing a thrifty find with you today that I have been wanting for a long time, but they never are the right price or are too far away. I could only find silver, gold and white hooks so I ended up buying the sizes I needed and then spray painting them to give them an antique-like finish. Next step was to drill holes for the cup and eye hooks I had selected to hold necklaces, earrings and bracelets. After staining Antoine so nicely sprayed the entire tray with a layer of polyurethane, since I was incapacitated from the toxic stain fumes. Note to self: don't be an idiot and try staining something indoors without proper will result in a headache and the inability to function properly for the next couple hours. It didn't help that I was doing it inside (in the dining room) because it was too cold outside and the fumes were insane. With all the small compartments it took quite a bit of time. Then I began staining! This was probably the most labor-intensive part. After that I removed the handle and the rusted metal strip at the top of the tray (not-so-skillfully using a screwdriver, slowly prying it off) and then I sanded down the entire thing, starting with coarse and ending with a fine sand paper. The cutting and customizing of the compartments was actually the easiest part. With all the sickness buzzing around our house I didn't have time/energy to work on my jewelry display first, so Amanda's tray had to be the guinea pig in this little experiment. So, I bought a letterpress tray that day for myself and a couple weeks later Antoine and I went back and found one for Amanda. **LIGHT BULB** Amanda had just given me this extremely thoughtful, homemade birthday present that I adored and I immediately thought to myself.how am I going to compete with this when her birthday rolls around in early March? Letterpress jewelry display anyone? Amanda commented that she thought that sounded like such a cool idea and that if it worked out to let her know, as she's got a budding jewelry collection forming (she recently got her ears pierced for the first time last year). While we wondering around the antique mall searching for a letterpress tray (and other treasures) I explained the jewelry display idea to my sister and my HLP, Amanda. I ended up finding one (well, there were many) at the Ohio Valley Antique Mall during my birthday celebration with my gal pals. So, the quest to find a letterpress tray began! Turns out, it's not that hard to find an affordable letterpress tray if you know where to look.
But a custom letterpress tray that I could hang on the wall and display all my jewelry.I could get on board with that. And I wasn't crazy about any of the other jewelry boxes I found online or in stores either. But as nice as it was, it just didn't go with our new bedroom scheme and I wasn't wild about it. So, for Xmas my wonderful mother bought me a jewelry box. There's absolutely no organization whatsoever. See, I've got a little issue when it comes to my 's EVERYWHERE! On my nightstand, on the mantle in the living room, on the bathroom counter, and scattered in mass disarray all over my dresser. I immediately fell in love with the idea and decided to take a stab at it myself. A couple of months ago I was perusing Etsy and saw this shop that transforms old letterpress type trays into interesting jewelry displays.
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