This project is finally done. There was a lot of learning from both electronics and woodworking, with planning and patience playing the biggest role. This was my first time with a woodworking project, and thought it’d be mostly straightforward: design, measure, prototype, measure again, finalize, and build. While this was mostly true, there were things that I didn’t consider, which made the build that much more difficult to finalize and build.

 

Jewelry Armoire

Front of the Jewelry Armoire

It took a while before this became a reality, but I’m overall happy with the results. I tried to avoid the coulda-shoulda-woulda afterthoughts, but this was a good introductory lesson into woodworking. It’s not an easy design, and takes (better) planning. While it functions as a jewelry armoire it is intended to be, this could have been designed a bit better, and made slightly bigger for handling entanglements from chains and earrings. The side doors wrap around the edges of the drawers, securing the drawers.

 

Side Doors

 

The side doors open up, with hooks to hang necklaces. I checked on the length of her necklaces, doing my best to make it convenient to hang cleanly. Worked out well for the necklace on the left, but not so much for the necklace on the right. I used a red felt for the inside lining of the doors so the jewelry doesn’t get damaged.

 

Top Compartment

 

The top compartment has red felt lining the bottom. The back panel could have been better secured into place, but holds the top with hinges well. I’ve considered adding a small chain between the top and inside of the compartment, to limit the range of motion when open, as it currently goes just past 180° (or until it rests upon something).

 

Kiss the Rings

The top drawer is for the rings. Using a block of styrofoam, I cut slits about an inch apart. Then I used more of the red felt to wrap around and into the grooves of the styrofoam block. There are different options for what can be used for holding rings, if you don’t want to buy something from Amazon, or a local jeweler. I happened to find a local upholstery shop that has various sizes of styrofoam, and they cut the sheet down for me, making it easier to further cut down for my needs. The insert is glued into the drawer, so it isn’t pulled out when getting a ring, and it’s also sized to provide a tight hold on the rings.

 

Storage Drawers

The drawers get bigger as they continue down, allowing for bigger items to be stored. There is felt lining the bottom of all the drawers, and generally spacious for most any jewelry.

 

Better Planning

The drawers were built with hardly any wiggle room, and are difficult to open. The drawers have a thin base, which slides into grooves on the jewelry armoire, with the exception of the bottom drawer, which rests upon the base. I widened the grooves a bit, along with sanding down drawer base, and it helped a little. This could have gone better, if I got professional help to review my build, or even did some in-store checking how most are constructed. I did read a few articles online, and checked out a few published books on woodworking, but my measurements were still incorrect for creating proper grooves. As connector pieces, never to be moved, this would have worked out great, but the drawers need to be able to slide freely. In the last picture, there are scratch marks on the drawer tab, from rubbing against the bottom of the ring drawer.

This project is done, and while I don’t see myself doing this again, I’m at least better prepared to handle the task. Maybe I’ll have something in mind for more woodworking project, but I’ll find a professional to review my blueprint, before going directly for the saw.

With the exception of cutting the actual wood, I did everything on my own to accomplish this project. I purchased tools to cut my own sheets of wood, but it was a bigger task than I could handle at home, and ultimately turned to a local hardwood shop. They took my napkin-math measurements, and cut the wood to my specifications. They didn’t know what I was building, so they couldn’t advise, but this was a good learning project.