When we moved last month, I stuffed my jewelry and accessories in boxes, and most of them have been there ever since, just waiting to be unpacked. The problem was that I didn’t have a place to put them. But I knew exactly what I wanted, and now I’ve built the jewelry storage solution of my dreams. It’s clean, it’s organized, it can hold a ton of jewelry, and it’s super easy to customize and change up depending on your needs. Here’s how I did it.

Materials and Tools:
Pegboard – I bought two strips of pegboard, each about 4 feet by 17 inches, from the ReBuilding Center, a salvage store near my house. They were only a few bucks total, and luckily they were already cut to the perfect size, but you should be able to find pegboard at your local big-box store and get it cut to whatever size you’d like.
Molding – I used four 6-foot pieces of pre-primed MDF molding.
Miter saw – Borrowed from a friend.
Drill
Screwdriver
Construction adhesive or wood glue – I used Liquid Nails
Paintable caulk
Screws
Primer
Paint
Paint brush
Foam roller
Pegboard hooks – I bought a couple of variety packs of hooks, but in the end I could have easily organized everything using these 1/2-inch hooks and these multi-tool racks.
Punched metal sheet – I used a prepackaged 1-foot by 2-foot sheet of decorative aluminum that I found in a local garden shop. It’s the elliptical pattern, here, and it looks like Home Depot has it, too.

Basically I just measured the sides of my pegboard, and then cut pieces of molding to fit around the edges, with 45-degree angles at the corners. I glued and screwed the molding in place, and let it dry. Since it was my first time using a miter saw I didn’t do a perfect job on the angles, and I needed to fill in some gaps on the corners with a bit of caulk. I let that dry, then painted a coat of primer and a couple of coats of white paint with a brush and a foam roller to smooth out brush strokes. Then I pre-drilled holes in studs on my walls, and hung the racks up using long screws in the top corner holes. Make sure not to screw the screws in all of the way–you need at least a quarter inch of space between the back of the pegboard and the wall for the pegboard hooks.

At first I wasn’t sure how I was going to integrate my earrings into this rack, and then I remembered the decorative metal sheets I’d seen recently at local shop Garden Fever. I bought a sheet and just hooked it onto the board with a couple of pegboard hooks. It comes in a variety of patterns, and if you’re not a fan of the bare-metal look, you can easily paint it. Not only does it look pretty, it does the job of holding earrings perfectly. Except for hoops or the kind with wires that hinge shut on the back. Those are hung from a row of hooks, and all of my studs are still on a metal mesh pencil cup.

My favorite part of this project is how versatile it is. You can make it in any size or color that works for you, and then add hooks based on what you need. If you have tons of earrings but few necklaces, just add a second metal sheet, or if you’re a collector of sunglasses, just swap in more hooks for those. And even after it’s done, if your accessory needs change, you can easily add or remove hooks.

I’m no woodworking expert, and I managed to do this entirely on my own. (I’ve noticed that a lot of DIY projects done by women online say things like, “…and then my dad/husband/brother cut these pieces for me.” Yeah, there was none of that. My husband wasn’t even home when I made this, and even if he had been, he wouldn’t know what he was doing any more than I did.) That said, if you don’t need a custom size or don’t have access to power tools, you can find pre-made pegboard wall panels. West Elm even has this pretty wood pegboard that would be great for jewelry storage.