As a chronic collector (and the owner of an ever-expanding number of vintage baubles), I always have an eye out at thrift stores for old jewelry boxes like these to house my precious non-precious gems:
The good news is: There are tons of old jewelry boxes out there. The bad news is: Even the most mild-mannered-looking ones on the outside generally look something like this on the inside:
Needless to say, I am not a red satin kind of girl. It’s way too loud and Hollywood glam for my Midwestern sensibilities.
But when I opened this one up, I was happily surprised…
… to see a beautiful blue velvet lining.
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I hemmed and hawed about whether to buy it because the white pleather had stains on it, and some of the corners were chipped. But as I was walking through the store debating whether the box was a lost cause, I happened upon a remnant of wallpaper…
… that was the same shade of blue as the velvet. Clearly it as a sign.
So I bought the stained jewelry box and the wallpaper remnant and put the two together, so this once shabby box….
… now looks like this.
And I’m happy to report the inside cleaned up very nicely.
As a bonus, the original tag/guarantee was still inside the box in all its 1950s glory. Here’s the cover:
And here’s the inside:
Fortunately, I still had a remnant of the remnant wallpaper left when I was done covering the box, because a few months later I found two more ugly-on-the-outside but velvety-blue-on-the-inside cases. They started out looking like this …
… and now look like this:
Their interiors went from looking like this…
… to looking like this…
I lined the inside covers with some white tissue paper with faux handwriting printed on it.
And because I still had a tiny remnant of the remnant of the original remnant left over when I was done with covering all of the jewelry boxes, I dug this Williamsburg blue vintage suitcase out of storage …
…and pasted a plaid liner on its inside cover.
It’s full of Christmas ornaments right now.
I love storage that’s pretty and practical.
So all together, here are my four Williamsburg blue boxes:
And this is what the three jewelry boxes look like inside now that they’re in use:
Ha! Hunter green … guilty!!!
I love your blue boxes so much! It's my favourite colour and you did an amazing job, I must say!
Is that your kitty?
Thanks, Sue. And yes, that is my kitty, Calvin. He is a very aloof, independent fellow,, and when I try to get him to pose for a picture, he generally turns his back on me. But when I'm trying to take a picture for the blog and don't want him underfoot, he seems to feel the need to get into the shot.
I will never pass these up again. Remarkable transformation.
what a great job you did on those boxes.use to have old jewelry boxes just like those and sold them at my last sale
darn
Nice! And they look great stacked up together. Will be on watch for these ugly lovelys maybe giving them a redo with chalky paint.
What a great idea – love them all!
Your a genius & hilarious! You have yourself a beautiful day & I look forward to more posts!
~Michelle~
Cool….great idea. Great job.
that was some amazing box covering talent. I hope you share sometime how you did it so neatly!