Jewellery Box Makeover: Blue Cabinet

During my thrift store travels I often pick up a jewellery box if I think it has nice features (and is not too expensive). This one caught my eye a while back because of the glass doors. Both doors have a pattern on the glass that gives it a vintage feel.

The other things I look at are the handles and hinges. I've learned the hard way that replacement handles are not easy to come by. So if the hardware is all there and it's not missing pieces I'm good to go.

I have looked for handles at craft stores like Michael's, my local hobby store, hardware stores, Walmart, etc. I did find some on Amazon, but I haven't ordered any as of yet because I was hoping to come up with some amazing inspiration for an alternative, but but none of my ideas have worked out. Stores just don't seem to think that tiny handles and knobs are desirable to the modern consumer. (They are wrong)

The first step in repainting is to remove the hardware. Luckily my husband has a kit of tiny screwdrivers for working on computers that are the perfect fit for the tiny screws. I put all the pieces in a little metal case or Ziploc bag so that they don't get lost.

This jewellery box is really neat because behind the doors are drawers. It's a style I haven't seen very often.

I really love when the boxes have magnetic closures. There's a satisfying click when you close it, and you know it's secure. Again, probably hard to find ones small enough, but I did add one to the door of our playhouse and it was quite inexpensive, not even $3.00 at the hardware store.

The felt on the inside of old jewellery boxes is sometimes stained or damaged. I haven't perfected replacing it yet, but I'm working on some ideas. Mostly I try to find boxes where replacing the inside isn't necessary. In this case the inside fabric was orange, which is my least favourite colour. But I decided to work with it this time since it was in good shape.

That decision helped me to pick a colour for the outside of the box. Orange and blue are opposites on the colour wheel, so I had a good starting point.

Here are the blue and orange together on the painted piece. The orange is so bright I probably could have used a darker shade of blue, but that's what I had on hand at the time.

The thing I like best about the orange interior is that it's so unexpected when you open the drawer. It really pops out at you.

I used a darker shade of blue on the inside of the box for fun. You can't see it when the doors are closed so it's also a surprise.

The final product is a sweet little jewellery box with a couple of colourful surprises inside.

I put a clear coat over the whole thing to make sure it wouldn't get scratched. I used clear spray paint to give it an even coat, covering the glass with cardboard to keep it clear.

I use small craft brushes and acrylic paint, taking my time to keep the coats thin and even. It's a bit time consuming this way but I find it very relaxing.

This was one of the first few repaints that I did, and I really enjoyed the process. I guess that's why I've kept doing them.

Plus, it's super satisfying to see the before and after!