DIY Jewelry Holder - PVC Pipe Project

If you don’t follow me on Facebook or Instagram (which you really should) then you wouldn’t have seen my DIY spray paint tent I made the other week.

I invested about $150 in PVC pipe and elbows and followed a Pinterest tutorial on how to make a collapsible paint tent…

This is my friend Helena who came by just as I’d started to wrap it. Thank goodness because for the half hour leading up to her arrival I was swearing up a storm in the garage trying to get the pipes to fit together without the other end popping out. In hindsight it would have made for a funny video, but then it would have to have an R rating because I was pretty inventive with some of my cursing.

In my mind “collapsible” meant that I could put it up and take it down whenever I needed it.

IRL, this is what collapsible meant:

It’s funny now, but I was PISSED that afternoon. Not only did my Pinterest project not work (not a first by any means), and I’m out a fair bit of money, but now I’m stuck with 84 feet of PVC piping that I don’t know what to do with.

You know I’m not going to throw it out – I’m sure there are a million-and-one PVC projects that I can use these for…

which leads me to today’s post: a DIY jewelry holder (just in time for Mother’s Day)

I didn’t want to invest any more money into fittings for the pipes, so I worked with what I had.

DIY Jewelry Holder:

2 pc ¾” PVC pipe cut to 8″ long
1 pc ¾” PVC pipe cut to 11″ long
1 pc ¾” PVC pipe cut to 5″ long
granite/marble sample piece
scrap fabric
spray adhesive
½” wood dowel
JB Weld glue
ModPodge or other sealer

I started by cutting my PVC pipe down into four pieces (per above); 2 at 8″ long, 1 at 11″ long and the last one at 5″ long.

My little granite sample is about an inch thick, so the overall height of my DIY jewelry holder will be just over 12″.

I used a 7/8″ spade bit on my drill and attempted to drill a hole in the centre of each of the 8″ PVC pieces.

It didn’t work out perfectly, but that’s okay. An exacto knife can clean up the edges and a hammer can flatten your remaining PVC pieces until they “fit”.

Fill in the crack around your stem with some JB Weld glue and let set until completely dry. Repeat with the other two pieces of PVC.

Wrap your fabric around the stem of your DIY jewelry holder with a ½” overlap. Cut to that size.

Apply some spray adhesive to the stem, let it get tacky (just a couple of seconds) and then tightly wrap your fabric around the stem. Plan your placement so that the seam will be along what we’ll now call the back of your stand. For a clean edge, fold your overlapping piece over to give you a tidy hem.

To cover the cross-section of PVC we’re going to follow the same steps, including the ½” overlap, but we’re going to cut two slits where the fabric will overlap the stem section. This piece of fabric will also be slightly longer than 8″ to allow us to tuck the excess inside the PVC for a cleaner look.

Spray your PVC with spray adhesive, then line up your material so that the overlapped seam will be on the bottom of your “T”. Fold your notched sections up to give a clean edge and glue in place.

At this point I decided I wanted to seal my DIY jewelry holder to prevent any possible fraying of the fabric. You can use ModPodge here, but I used some leftover polyurethane to give it a clear coat.

While your DIY jewelry holder is drying, cut two pieces of your dowel. I cut both of mine to about 3″ long. Tuck them inside the stem of your PVC jewelry stand and surround with some JB Weld glue. This is going to give your stems some strength and give you a larger surface area to glue your stems to your base granite.

Using a bit more JB Weld, glue your stems to the granite and let set until completely cured – about 24 hours.

That’s it!

If you don’t have access to granite samples, you could also use some heavy (scrap) wood, but you’ll need to size it to be large enough to counterbalance the weight of whatever jewelry you plan to hang on your jewelry stand.