Textured Jewelry Box

Turn a single board into a heirloom.

- Teresa Audet

Jewelry boxes are some of my favorite pieces to make. There is so much versatility in the design and use! And, they give you a taste of all kinds of woodworking processes (though on a smaller scale). This project is a quick and easy way to make good use out of one board of wood. With relatively simple joinery, this is a cost-effective piece to make in batches for sales or gifts.

Grain Selection & Layout

When you are inspecting a piece of wood for this project, think about grain selection—what do you want to be the outside of your box? What do you want the drawer fronts to look like? I like to roughly draw out on a piece of paper exactly where each piece on the cut list will come from so I know I haven’t overlooked any pieces.

I picked a nice clear section of grain to use for the carcass—being sure to label what side I want facing out. Since we will be milling the wood thin, you will want to keep your pieces in longer sections and ensure you have extra for things like drawer handles and splines. It is not fun to get nearly finished with and realize you need another 3 of something. Lay out extra material to test saw setups on wood of the same dimension. When working with thin stock, it is best to leave everything roughmilled to be slightly thicker than needed and stack the boards between stickers to prevent warping. Resawn lumber especially likes warp and twist after opening up. Ideally, you would mill your wood and cut joinery in the same day.

Cutting the Carcass

We’ll start with the carcass piece, milled to 3/8 thickness, and the pieces for the back and shelf, milled to 1/8 thickness. Rip the carcass piece to 5 1/16 wide but keep at the 25-26 length.