“That’s the thing with handmade items. They still have the person’s mark on them, and when you hold them, you feel less alone.” 
― Aimee Bender

In just three days my daughter will be heading off to college at SUNY Albany, a school about two hours from where I live. She was looking on Pinterest a few days ago and saw a necklace holder like the one you see pictured and wanted to buy it. I told her that we could easily make one and it would literally take minutes to do so.

So we went to our local hardware store (Home Depot) and bought a six-foot 1 X 4 and cut off an 18-inch piece. We then got 7/8″ cup hooks that will actually hold each of her necklaces.

After cutting the wood, I first sanded it down with some pretty coarse sandpaper and when I finished with that, I used a much finer paper to give it a really smooth finish. I thought it would have looked nice with a nice semi-dark stain with a glossy finish, but I was overruled by my daughter who wanted to paint it to match her dorm room.

Since it has been very humid the last few days, I let the paint dry for longer than I usually would. My daughter then picked the side that she wanted facing out and I drilled short pilot holes so the hooks could easily be screwed in. I’ll have to adjust some of them so they are all aligned.

The final part of the project involves my daughter putting pictures of her and some young ladies on it that she babysits. The total cost of this small project was between $7-$9 dollars. On some websites, I have seen them go for $25-$40 dollars. Wow!!!! I’m in the wrong business!