I really enjoy giving handmade gifts (like the fabric napkins that I posted about last December.) Those gifts are usually made by me. One of my nieces has a birthday at the end of November. In fact it was just a few days ago so I had to wait until it was passed before I posted about her gift this year.
Since she was very very young I have always made her pillowcases. A pillow case for each season plus summer, winter, fall, spring themed ones as well. I can still look into my magic ball and see more pillowcases in her future, but wanted to come up with something different for this birthday.
As I was snooping around a thrift store a few weeks ago, I saw a small jewelry box. It was pretty plain (sorry, I completely forgot the “before” photo) but it had potential. I knew I could give it a facelift, but it also appealed the the frugal and thrifty side of me as well.
My original plan was to paint the entire jewelry box white and then “white-wash” it with a metallic silver to give it some pizazz and sparkle. I started with the white. I found a can of white spray paint in our garage and decided to use it to make quick work of covering the whole box. It needed two coats and even then the spray paint wasn’t covering the wood very well.
not covering the wood very well at all
I decided to get out my acrylic paints and go for better coverage with those. That worked a lot better, but the spray paint left a glossy finish and the acrylic paints left a mat finish, so I knew then I would need to apply a clear glossy top coat in the end.
Once the paint was on it was time for the silver metallic “white-wash.” I started wiping the silver on and instantly was not happy with the look at all! It was not looking all shiny and sparkly like it was in my vision. As I wipe it off for the full “white-wash” effect, it even looked worse. Again, sorry, no photo because at this point I knew I wanted to get as much of the paint off as I could and needed to work quickly.
So I just took one huge step backwards and needed to paint those surfaces white again and come up with another plan. By the way, this was Tuesday and I intended to mail the box on Wednesday. Nope, that didn’t happen! Not with another coat of white paint, plus dry time, plus what ever design I was going to paint, plus dry time, clear coat, dry time – you get the picture. I knew if I wrapped it up in one of my fabric gift bags before it was completely dry that the bag would be stuck to the box when my niece went to open it – not good.
The jewelry box did have a cut design into the wood so I felt I was a bit limited and so I decided to follow that pattern with dots. Dots are super super easy to do, if you know the trick. Use the end of your paint brush – the end without the bristles. Dip it in your paint and then touch it the surface you want the dot on. The size of the end of your brush will determine the size of your dot. Be sure to do a few test dots before you do this on your actual project and depending on the medium you are using you may get 1-2 dots before you need to reload the end of your brush, or you may only get 1 dot. The silver metallic paint I was using was pretty thin, and I wanted a substantial dots with a sparkly impact, so I needed to dip the end of my brush in the paint for each dot.
I did get the front and top of the box done and was going to move onto the sides, but time was not on my side.
I hope that my niece will like her new jewelry box.
Have you ever given something old a much needed facelift?
Sincerely, Emily
You can see what else I am up to over at Sincerely, Emily. The topics are varied, as I jump around from gardening to sewing to making bread or lotion and many things in between.
What a thoughtful and beautiful gift Emily! If your niece isn’t into jewellery it could be used for all sorts of little treasures…it is most definately something that I would have lusted after when I was young and things needed to be hidden and protected from siblings
. Kudos on this wonderful recycle and you can give this beautiful one-of-a-kind gift knowing that you ticked ALL of the boxes when it comes to thoughtful and environmental gift giving 
Hi Fran – thanks! I figure at this point it will mostly get used for treasures and trinkets, this and that. It was a fun project and I was thrilled to have come up with something so frugal. Now I need to keep my eye open for another project for her sisters birthday this spring. I best start looking now!
Good idea and you had best make sure it rivals that beautiful box becuase you KNOW that they will be comparing!
The end result is absolutely stunning. Looks like an enormous jewellery box to me though!
Hi Emily – The photos are a bit deceiving. The box is about 9″ wide and 12″ tall. In the first photo, you can slightly make out the TV remote to the left and back of the photo and the box is sitting on a half-sheet of paper towel (6″ wide”) Then the photo where I am painting on the dots, you can see my hand and that gives you a bit of an idea of the size of each drawer too.