At one point, I tried collecting charms from my travels to add to a silver charm bracelet. I didn’t execute and follow through very well though. I ended up losing many of the charms before I had a chance to put them on the bracelet. I haven’t tried collecting anything else. I guess I’m just not a big collector (unless you count wine, I collect bottles of wine. But I drink them, so I don’t have to worry about storing them for long periods of time).
On the other hand, along with Godzilla movies, my husband collects keychains. He collects them as souvenirs from his personal travels but it’s also the thing he requests if someone asks what to bring him from their travels. Over several years, he’s amassed these keychains and kept them in a bag in his closet.
A few months ago, I found these two shadow box display cases at Goodwill for $12 for the pair. They are a nice size, 15 x 15. But they were pretty scratched up. In fact their scratched up state left me uninspired so they sat in the laundry room as-is for quite awhile.
I eventually got with it and decided to paint them and recover the pink and blue fabric. I just covered the glass with newspaper and painted the whole thing, side hardware/hinges and all.
These boxes have a bunch of tiny screws holding in the back so I thought it would be easy to pop the back cover off. I think the back was not only screwed but glued in too – they were tough to separate!
I used burlap for the backing [I have remnant pieces leftover from the headboard project, so I’m using them up] and map pins to hang the keychains. I sprayed one side of the burlap with spray adhesive to keep it flat and in place. I ended up making one display case full of all the keychains he has personally collected and the other displays the keychains that were gifts from friends.
Prior to this, we had the pin board I made during the redo hanging above his desk in our office.
I moved the pin board to the right and mounted the shadow boxes on screws right next to it above his desk.
Here’s a close up of the keychains in the bottom case.
The boxes are hinged so it’s easy to open them to add or remove. They have a magnetic closure too so they remain shut while upright.
Now his collection is easy to view! You can also see how I’ve framed other travel souvenirs here.
Are you a collector? And if yes, what do you collect?
-J
Great way to display your husband’s key chain collection! In fact, it’s better than GREAT!
very cool idea! I am going to share with my daughter…she might be interested in starting up this great idea!
Now that’s a collection worth showing off! I used to collect keychains and pillows years ago, but now I’m into beads, gemstones, and fabric. I could use a few shadow boxes! lol
That looks awesome! They look so classy all grouped together in the shadow box. Great job! I’m loving those red lamps. Do you have a post on those somewhere? 🙂
Thanks Kristen. Sure, just spray painted lamps from a garage sale. More info here: https://b.designocd.com/2012/08/office-challenge-diy-accessories/
Way cute! I have a lapel pin collection that I’ve been working on since I was a grade schooler. I have NO IDEA how to display them all but on a denim jacket that is now so heavy, I can’t hang it!
Wow! That’s pretty neat. Maybe you can display them on corkboard!
Oh! I’ve seen this! I already pinned it! I was going through this week’s posts on the ATL blogger group–didn’t realize it was you when I saw the pin! I love this idea! 🙂
Haha – thank you.
Those displays came out very nice! It goes to show how much impact a collection of small things can have when grouped together. Me, personally, I have realized that I like to collect dish ware and serving pieces. But it’s like an OCD collection. Things usually have to be in even numbers. I can’t stand having an odd number of dishes, haha!
Hah! I understand!
This is a genius idea for displaying collections! LOVE it! Pinned!
Just now seeing this. I love it, you did a fantastic job.Great idea.
Looks amazing, can’t wait to make this for my keychain collection!
Love this I too have been collecting key chains for years I need an idea how to display them now to find shadow boxes or somethng similar thank you for sharing
Like your idea, I too collect keychains and like your husband they are sitting in a box in my closett.
Question. How many can you fit in the boxes. I have over 200 and hopefully will continue to get more.
About 25 in each box. Wow, 200 is quite impressive!
Nice. that might be okay for a small collection, but I have over 600. I have 4 doors over 6 foot high and they are all on display on pins.
Wow. That’s impressive.
I just finished three days cataloguing my collection and I now have 820