https://www.cutoutandkeep.net/projects/vertical-bead-storage • Posted by Elisabeth A.
How the heck do you store your bead making treasures in a way that's organized, compact, yet allows you to see what you have? I took a simple spice rack idea, and enlarged it about 1000%!
How the heck do you store your bead making treasures in a way that's organized, compact, yet allows you to see what you have? I took a simple spice rack idea, and enlarged it about 1000%!
Supplies you need are dependent on the space you have on the wall, so what follows is what I did for the approximately 8'x8' space I had over my desk. I started with four 36"x24" pieces of sheet metal, found at the hardware store in a bin with metal rods and other odd ball stuff. This will be the most expensive part of your project – at my hardware store each piece was about $20.
You will also need sixteen fender washers and lag bolts. I don't know if these are the exact sizes you need - I just wanted you to have a picture of what I was talking about.
The bolts have to go through the wall and into the studs, so longer is better.
Now here is the really really important part: figure out where the studs are in the wall where you are hanging the sheet metal, and then sketch out how you will orient the pieces of sheet metal and where to drill the holes, in both the sheet metal and the walls.
Notice in these pictures how we didn't put the hole all the way in the corner, plus overlapped the pieces in the middle, to help maximize strength and surface area. We used two bolts per corner in the center where two pieces of sheet metal overlapped, and one bolt in each of the "edge" corners. Now you are done with the hard part!
Magnetic bottom, clear top spice tins are easy to come by, but it gets expensive if you want hundreds of them. For example, you can get 3 for $5.99 from the Container Store. But I knew with a little research there had to be a better way, or at least someone that sold in bulk. I found a great company that I highly recommend, Specialty Bottle. I ordered a hundred each of their 4 oz and 8 oz deep Tin Containers with Clear Top, and with shipping it worked out to about $1 a piece (www.specialtybottle.com/metal-tin-containers/clear-top-window). To make the tins magnetic, I bought a roll of stick on magnetic tape, such as XFasten Flexible Magnetic Tape, 1-Inch x 10-Foot from Amazon. It sticks pretty well and is easy to cut to shape with scissors. If you have a sheet metal fabricator in your town, you can have a piece made that fits your wall exactly, like I did on this wall when I moved into my new full-time studio. One lesson learned – make sure you take into account electrical outlets and other things on the wall. We had a heck of a time cutting the hole for the outlet