I made the jewelry box of my dreams

November 11, 2025

I’ve shown you how I packed my jewelry for my move, now it’s time for me to show you how I made the large, locking jewelry box of my dreams to store and display my collection in my new house!

I made the large, locking jewelry box of my dreams out of this pink Mustard Made cabinet

I made the jewelry box of my dreams

For my new house, I wanted a beautiful way to display my jewelry so that everything was easy to see but also safely enclosed. A large, locking jewelry box that still allowed my collection to be visible, not tucked away in drawers.

The jewelry setup at my old place (below), which involved an armoire, wall-mounted earring racks, and Command hooks, kept everything organized and let me easily access everything – but it wasn’t perfect.

My jewelry was fully exposed to air and dust, and there was no protection from accidents (if I bumped the wall while vacuuming, earrings would fall off).

Here is how I organized my jewelry at my old place.

I spent weeks researching potential new options. Everything was either too small, like the lovely but inadequate armoires I’d owned in the past, or enormous and wildly expensive but lacking in organizational features.

It gradually became clear that if I wanted the jewelry box of my dreams, I would have to make it myself.

I am not crafty, so I knew I wanted to do this using elements that already exist. I loved the idea of using a vintage apothecary cabinet or antique card catalog, but those are expensive, unwieldy, and rare.

I used this pink Mustard Made cabinet to create the large, locking jewelry box of my dreams.

Finally, I discovered Mustard Made. They specialize in colorful, high end locker-inspired cabinets and their latest version, The Collector, caught my eye immediately with its luxurious fluted glass panels. It was huge, beautiful, filled with adjustable shelves, and had locking doors.

This The Collector in the gloriously pink Berry color. (I highly recommend ordering color samples before committing to a whole cabinet.) If you like the look of The Collector but want something smaller, try The Mixer or The Kit.

The cabinet was perfect to become my large, locking jewelry box, but it needed customization. Here’s what I did:

How to pack your jewelry when you have a LOT of jewelry.

October 21, 2025

Have you ever found yourself wondering how to pack your jewelry when you have a LOT of jewelry?? This dilemma was very real for me when Mr. DitL and I bought our new house a little while ago. Here’s what I did to keep my treasures safe in transit.

How to pack your jewelry when you have a LOT of jewelry

My jewelry collection has grown quite a bit in the decade since I last wrote about how to pack your jewelry for a move. That’s good news for the collector in me, but packing a jewelry collection does become exponentially more difficult when you have more jewelry to move.

Something that was new this time was that I couldn’t immediately unpack my collection: I actually waited MORE THAN A YEAR to get my pretties back out, because that’s how long it took for Mr. DitL and I to accomplish the work on our new house that required contractors coming in and out. I didn’t want my treasures on display until our home was done being a work site.

Happily, everything is now out and I’ll have another post for you soon about my spectacular new jewelry storage and display setup. It is GLORIOUS, if I do say so myself.

The first step in packing my large jewelry collection was to put rings in jewelry travel cases.

So how do you pack your jewelry when you have a LOT of jewelry? Carefully, slowly, and strategically.

First I put everything especially fragile or that I wanted easy access to in jewelry travel cases. Thankfully, being a jewelry writer means I have quite a few jewelry travel cases on hand (here are some good ones, if you need recs).

How to pack your jewelry when you have a LOT of jewelry - first, pack anything fragile in travel cases or little boxes.

Next, I went to my stash of jewelry packaging (all those small cardboard boxes and tiny plastic bags that any jewelry lover ends up acquiring) and used them to pack everything else that needs the support of a box. Fragile/antique pendants, delicate earrings, etc. Large pieces like statement necklaces and cuff bracelets went in jewelry pouches.

Once all the little boxes and pouches were packed, I bundled them all in shoeboxes.

To pack my jewelry for a move, I used lots of little cardboard boxes saved from past purchases

Not the most glamorous materials, but I am proud to say that I didn’t need to buy a single thing to pack my jewelry for this move: it’s all things I already owned and repurposed jewelry packaging I saved from past purchases.

Next, I packed my pendant necklaces using the drawer liner method of packing necklaces! Thankfully I had drawer liner left over from my last move. I have a whole post on this technique here, so I’m not going to go over it in depth, except to say that it’s still the best way I’ve ever tried to pack a lot of necklaces quickly and safely.

The drawer liner method is the best way to pack a lot of necklaces safely and quickly.

Once my necklaces were all safely rolled up in drawer liner, I stacked the rolls in shoeboxes.

Because I have too many earrings for any jewelry travel case in existence, I used two plastic bead organizers (also leftover from my last move, but originally from a craft store) to pack them all up. I used scraps of drawer liner to cushion the earrings that needed soft padding.

When packing my jewelry for a move, I packed my earrings in a bead organizer from The Container Store.

After that, I stacked all the shoeboxes and jewelry travel cases in some plastic boxes from the Container Store (if your jewelry won’t be unpacked immediately, you need to keep air, dust, and water out!) and drove everything over to a relative’s house until the contractors were done at our new place.

I was happy that my jewelry was packed, but dropping it off at a relative's house for safekeeping gave me major separation anxiety.

You can see how my relief at finishing the packing immediately transitioned to severe separation anxiety when it was time to drop everything off at a relative’s house for safekeeping. I still can’t believe my collection was stuck in those boxes for over A YEAR. I missed my pretties so much!!

That said, it was totally worth it to know that my jewelry collection was safe. If you learn nothing else from this post, learn this: your jewelry should never ever EVER be in the hands of movers.

You can find links for everything I used to pack my jewelry here, in this ShopMy list.

Click here for more jewelry storage tips and tricks.

This post contains affiliate links.

Lindley Gray’s modern Art Deco magic.

September 30, 2025

Lindley Gray is a talented jewelry designer I’ve had the pleasure of knowing for nearly a decade, and I’m so excited to give you a proper introduction to her jewelry today. If you love clean lines and breathtaking geometry, you’re going to want to make room on your wishlist for this one.

Three yellow gold and diamond band rings by Lindley Gray in the modern Art Deco style.

Lindley Gray’s modern Art Deco magic.

I first met Lindley Gray at a coffee shop in 2016. She wore the rings in the photo above and I can still vividly remember staring at her hand above the salted oat cookie on the table between us, mesmerized by the breathtaking precision of those three perfect diamond triangles.

Lindley Gray’s jewelry is characterized by minimalism and a mastery of subtle details. Do you know how tricky it is to set triangular diamonds, let alone aligning three in a row in a smooth, minimalist flush setting like this one? It’s a staggering accomplishment, especially since Lindley is committed to keeping all of her production local in her Philadelphia studio and the NYC Diamond District.

Local production isn’t the only way that Lindley Gray prioritizes sustainability and ethical sourcing – responsible jewelry production and sustainable sourcing are essential tenets of her brand.

Modern Art Deco earrings, bracelets, and rings by Lindley Gray

The visual language of Lindley Gray’s jewelry brings the 1920’s to mind, but the Art Deco era is important to Lindley Gray in a way that goes deeper than aesthetics. That time was a turning point for women that went far beyond shorter skirts as women were truly able to design for themselves for the first time, expressing independence and embracing individuality to an unprecedented degree.

Lindley says she first fell in love with Art Deco through vintage costume jewelry as “an introverted Pisces teenager.” She saw the bold lines and felt strength and certainty in a way that connected her to her own internal sense of integrity and power – unearthing a well of confidence that remains key to her identity as a small business owner and designer.

A strong sense of self is vital when you come up in the jewelry industry the way that Lindley did: making her way through the ranks in a a male-dominated industry, working for other private jewelry labels, diamond manufacturers, and independent designers while nourishing the dream of her own designs in her heart and apprenticing with bench jewelers in NYC’s diamond district until she could make her own brand a reality.

That’s the true importance of what Lindley Gray’s jewelry takes from the Art Deco era: it’s not just about aesthetic beauty, it’s about women embracing power, freedom, and individuality in a way that still resonates deeply in 2025.

The shapes in Lindley Gray’s jewelry are strong, but so are the women who wear them.

Lindley Gray is known for her ethical and sustainable bridal designs.

Lindley Gray is much more than a bridal designer, but her aesthetic does lend itself particularly well to engagement rings and wedding bands – wide bezels delineated, elegant shoulders, a meticulous finish.

Lindley loves getting the chance to work closely with clients to design the personal rings of their dreams using sustainable diamonds (often antique and reclaimed GIA certified diamonds) and Fairmined gold whenever possible.

The rose cut ring pictured above is one of Lindley’s favorite bridal commissions: don’t miss the subtle planes that delineate the bezel, the elegant curves of the shoulders, or that glorious antique rose cut diamond.

The modern Art Deco jewelry of Lindley Gray

It has been a true joy to watch Lindley Gray’s jewelry line evolve in the nine years since I first met her and fell in love with her jewelry over iced tea and baked goods and I’m so glad I had this chance to introduce her work to you properly!

What do you think of Lindley Gray’s modern Art Deco magic, my darlings? Does it resonate with you as strongly as it does me? Will those perfect diamond triangles haunt you, too?

I’ll end by giving you a peek at some of Lindley’s newest work: she’s now offering silver!! All the beauty of her solid gold pieces, but now with the cool glow (and more widely accessible price point) of silver.