Type Tray Earring Display

For years now I have had an irrational yearning to own a type tray... you know, those wooden drawers that hold letters for a printing press. I didn't know what I would do with such a thing, but so many compartments! Organizing!!

There is an antiques booth at Maryland Sheep and Wool that sells these trays every year, so last year I picked one up for $5. Then it just sat in my craft room because I had no idea what to do with it. But, now that pinterest exists no one has to be creative anymore, so I just waited until someone else had a good idea and then copied it. It turned out these things are perfect for organizing earrings! (I don't know what the rules are about reproducing images, so the original tutorial is here.)

First, I washed the tray (it was covered in spiderwebs), then primed it with regular wall primer. After that dried, I painted it with 2 coats of flat wall paint.

Then I drilled pilot holes roughly in the center of the top of each compartment (I didn't bother to measure). Because the compartments are small, the drill bit did go in at a bit of an angle, but it didn't turn out to be a problem. The drilling did mark up the paint somewhat, so either do this first, or touch up the paint when you're finished.

Now comes the hard part - screw eye hooks into each pilot hole. I bought the smallest ones available at Home Depot. This is difficult because you have to start each one by hand; so I suggest you find someone with small hands, such as a small child with unusual manual dexterity. Once I got the hooks started I was able to use pliers to finish screwing them in. Finally, I added two larger eye hooks at the top to hang the tray with.

I probably didn't even need to explain this, you just take this thing and make it look like this other thing. Also, I need more earrings.