Easy Makeover: House Shelf Thread Storage

Thread storage shelf makeover
This project is almost too simple to be a DIY so I’m calling it a makeover. I picked up this house shaped shadow box shelf at a thrift store for $2 quite a while ago and it’s been sitting in my laundry collecting dust for over a year. The shelf is hand made but finished quite shabbily, so it was never going to display anything fancy.
I’m quite a late convert to chalkboard paint, but it’s matte finish was perfect to hide the shelves many imperfections and rough surfaces.

My sewing room is quite small and needs a massive tidy up, so using the limited wall space to store my mess of threads gets one thing off the much needed surface space. Now I can see all the threads at a glance, which is not only pretty, but practical too.
thread storage makover before and after

You will need:

Shadow box shelf (or similar)
Chalkboard paint or black matte paint
Paint brushes, medium and small
Newspaper to protect surfaces

How to:

painting with chalkboard paint
On a protected surface give your shelf a coat of chalkboard paint. Use a small paint brush to get into all the corners.
Only one full coat was required with a few touch ups.
Follow paint manufacturers recommended drying time.
Hang with appropriate hardware for your wall. (I used some adhesive hooks temporarily to take the photos, but as the walls are solid brick, I’ll have to get the Mr to drill some screws in with his Hammer Drill on the weekend).
Time to tidy up all those messy threads.
organise sewing threads
I really spent too much time arranging and re-arranging these!
rainbow sewing threads
use a shadow box to organize your sewing threads
Now that my threads are tidy, it’s really time to tackle the rest of my messy sewing room.
Sewing thread storage. Pretty! mypoppet.com.au
How do you store your sewing threads?

9 Comments

  • Claudia says:

    I love the way your thread “house” looks, but do the spools behave and stay put? I’ve tried several different methods for storing and organizing my thread, and I’ve found the wooden racks designed for spools works best. I hang it on the wall above my sewing machine, near enough so I can reach it without having to get up from my work. I’ve got the largest rack, so there’s room for both spools and bobbins, arranged by color. The pegs insure that the threads stay put.

    • Miss Cinti @ My Poppet says:

      Hi Claudia, most of them fit pretty snuggly and I only use coloured thread about 20% of the time so it doesn’t get disturbed too much. I’ve been looking for wooden racks to store my spools for ages but I just can’t seem to find any in Australia.
      I think if the spools fall out too often, I’ll run a length of black hat elastic along the front of each shelf. I’ll see how it goes.

  • marysza says:

    Wow! Realle nice idea! I found a house like this about a year ago on a flea market, but I didn’t know if I would use it so I didn’t buy it.. oh now I regret this!!!! 😀

  • Rachel says:

    So pretty and practical! I love it 🙂

  • mezz says:

    just bought one of these cuties today for a couple of bucks from the op shop. I was wondering what I was going to do with it, now I know!! xx

  • Margaret says:

    What a clever idea! This looks great. So lovely to see all the colours lined up. Love it!

  • Katia says:

    Great idea!!! Really nice!!! And so usefull!!!

  • Emily says:

    This is such a cute idea! I’m going to steal it lol. I’ve been looking for something to store all my cotton in.

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