DIY Necklace Holder

I was getting sick of my T Bar necklace holder, and always having to take half of them off to get to the necklace I want. I wanted a more practical and visually appealing holder, and I wanted to clear up some space on my dresser, so a hanging holder was what I was going for. I've seen some DIY necklace holders that looked fairly easy. Well I found out it took a little more work than I thought, and I'm glad I had some help.

I found this interesting shaped piece of cedar wood at my mom's new house, and thought it would be perfect for a necklace holder with some fun knobs.

A while back, I bought some knobs at Anthropologie for my dresser, and knew I didn't want to spend that much money on this project. I checked out Hobby Lobby's knob selection and I was pleasantly surprised. Not only did they have a great selection and were cheaper than Anthro's,  but they were all 50% off! So I got each knob for about $3.

What you will need:

*A piece of wood- if you don't have one, you can have them cut you one at pretty much any hardware store.

*Stain or paint if you don't want the natural wood color

*Knobs 

*Measuring Tape and pen or pencil

*Drill

*Regular Drill bit

*Paddle bit

*Needle nose pliers

*Hack Saw

*Sawtooth picture hangers

See the full instructions after the break

I didn't love the shade of the wood, so the first thing I did was paint it with a layer of stain to darken the wood a little bit.

The first thing to do (if you aren't staining or painting your wood) is to measure out your holes for where you want your knobs to go. I just used a measuring tape and evenly made pencil marks, about an inch and a half across the piece of wood.

Drill pilot holes where you made your pencil marks, all the way through the piece of wood. If you're not sure what size of drill bit to use, look closely at the screw attached to each of your knobs and gauge you drill bit off of that width. The drill bit you want to use should be just slightly less wide than the screw on each knob.

Also, it's a good idea to check each knob beacuse the widths of the screws varied. You don't want to drilll too wide of a pilot hole because this could lead to a loose knob that may wiggle on ya.

After you drill your pilot holes, you will need your paddle bit (see the image below). You will use this to drill a wider hole around your pilot hole. This allows the washer and the nut to sink down into the back of the wood, rather than it poking out on the backside. You only want to drill this outer hole a little ways into the wood (the height of the nuts that go with your screws). DO NOT DRILL IT ALL THE WAY THROUGH THE WOOD! (sorry to yell, but this would ruin your whole project).

This is what the hole from your paddle bit should look like.

Drill these holes for every pilot hole on your piece of wood.

After all of your holes are drilled, put your knob screws through the holes and tighten the nuts (and washers, if they come with) around the screws. You may need needle nose pliers (or super tiny fingers) to get the nuts screwed in tightly.

Once you have tightly screwed all of your knobs in, you might see that the screws poke out past the thickness of the wood. If your wood is thicker than mine, you might not have this problem.  I didn't want my screws poking out because I wanted my necklace holder to be flush against the wall, or for the screws to scratch up the wall. Enter.....the hack saw! (sounds way scarier than it is)

I've heard of hack saws before, but never seen or used one. Dang this was awesome (to watch). It took a little elbow grease, but using the hack saw you can saw off the ends of your screws that are poking out, so that they are even with the wood. Once your wood and screws are evened out, it's time to hang this bad boy!

I already had sawtooth picture hangers at home, so I went ahead and used those. I just nailed in one on each end of the wood, to keep the holder level when it was hanging.

I just measured the distance between the middle of the two sawtooth hangers, and then hammered 2 nails into the wall that distance apart, and hung up my fancy new necklace holder!

I really like how my necklace holder turned out, and how the knobs help me to keep my necklaces organized, making it much easier to grab the one I want.

You can do many different things to create your holder in your own style and taste. From the size/shape of the wood, to its color, to the number and styles of knobs, just have fun with it!

-Whitney