Site icon A Pretty Happy Home

Jewelry Organizer From an Old Door

When you move, all of your organization systems are magically *poof* gone.

Then you find yourself untangling necklaces day after day that you’ve been storing in a sandwich baggie in the bottom of your carry-on luggage.

It’s a quick way to go mad.

So I decided not to go mad. At least that day anyway.


My favorite salvage item from our house in Oregon are these doors. They were in our basement and when we remodeled, I didn’t want to get rid of them.

It’s not often that you find doors with cool details that have not had a circle drilled through them for a doorknob. It’s like winning the architectural salvage lottery. These doors had dummy knobs installed on them decades ago, so they were never ‘damaged’ in that way.

They were custom made for a wonky, not-level basement, so they are not absolutely identical. Although you have to look close to realize it.

Here’s what the doors originally looked like when I saved them.

Gross old door

Here’s how they looked after I spruced them up with white paint and chalkboard paint.

I’ve used the doors in my entry to hold wreaths.

I’ve also used the doors to hold wood arrows.

And way, way, way back I used them in Oregon to display my children’s artwork, but that was before I took pictures of every random thing.

As a side note, the funniest thing to me about these doors is that it confounds every single moving company that I’m packing doors. I have to imagine they’ve packed some crazy, weird stuff. Why this trips them up, I’m not sure. It’s not like I asked the movers to detach the doors from the doorframe.


Anyway, now the doors are filling a blank wall in our master bedroom.

I wasn’t sure what function, if any, the doors were going to fill in this new space.

Which brings me back to the dang necklaces in a sandwich baggie.

I needed them to be untangled.

Really needed that. For my sanity.


I decided the doors needed to do more than stand there and look pretty.

However, I couldn’t bear the thought of drilling holes in my precious doors. I haven’t even written on them with chalk and I painted them with chalkboard paint, for goodness sake.

But I wanted a jewelry display with fancy hooks that looked pretty. Fancy hooks would have to be screwed into the door though.

But I also needed to get my necklaces out of the sandwich bag right. that. instant.

Do you see the tug-of-war happening in my head?

I fully own my issues. And I share them with you.


In the end, function trumped the need for form.

I used some Command Hooks, from my stash, that wouldn’t damage my precious babies doors to create my jewelry display.

And I don’t hate it as much as I thought I would.

Ha! How’s that for brutal honesty?


I could probably use more hooks, but I had a package of 6, so that’s what I went with in the moment.

I didn’t even measure for placement, unless you count standing back and eyeballing it measuring. Which I do.

As you can see, I excel at planning, patience and delayed gratification.


I also believe in the frequent use of sarcasm.

Now does anyone want to see what I did with my bracelets? Normally I’d be happy to show you, but I can’t decide if what I did was ingenious or embarrassing. Maybe embarrassingly ingenious.


Thanks for reading! It makes my day. Here are some other posts to check out. 

Running Medals and Race Bibs on an Old Door

Camouflaging the Dog Door

Easy Mother’s Day DIY Necklace – perfect little kid gift

Bird Nest in a Shoe

Travel: The Weird Thing I Always Pack


*affiliate links in this post*

Exit mobile version