Too Much Craft Too Little Time: Vintage Jewelry Box Robot Upcycle

I know this is quirky. I have been facinated with these jewelry boxes since I was a little girl. I always wanted one but never got one. I have seen them in thrift stores over the years but passed them over. But, of course, between Pinterest and Etsy, I have seen people updating these. Now usually they just paint and paper them, but I wanted to do something different.

I'm not going to give detailed instructions. This was an experiment. I just wanted to see if I could do it. I might have chosen different colors or different sizes. But I just tried to use what I had or what I could get at the thrift store for cheap.

Here are the basics:

1 vintage jewelry box, sanded and painted navy blue using acrylic paint.

1 outdoor fence post top, it had a biiiggg screw out of the bottom so I used some square pieces of wood and drilled through them so the screw would fit in them. One painted grey and one pink

Heavy duty glue that I used to attach the head to the box.

I drilled holes in the sides of the head and put wingnut bolts in, thought a pair or 2 of earrings could dangle from them. I also used a bottle top that I painted pink to make one eye, screwed it in with a screw I painted blue.

Used 2 spindles from an old chair to make arms. Had to cut them down and painted them grey. Drilled holes in both ends.

I bought 2 cubes of wood from the craft store and painted them pink. This was probably the trickiest part for me. I drilled a hole through one corner with the plan of putting a bolt through this hole that would go through the chair spindle and have a wing nut to hold the arm in position. The arms can either be up to hold necklaces or down to be out of the way. This had to be planned so I could attach the arm, have it move, and screw the cube into the side of the box. See close up picture below.

Pair of old candle sticks I painted grey and screwed into the bottom of the box.

I also painted a heart on the inside of the door part, just to be sweet.

All is coated with a clear sealer.

I used a drawer pull at the end of each arm to finish.