Upholstered Brooch Display

I have, for some reason, collected SO MANY old brooches. I got some from my Nana (thanks Nana!), some from my great-aunt Rose's jewlery boxes (I never knew her), some from my Great-Grandmother Hazel, and some from my grandmother Eileen. Some of them are hilarious, and banged up and beat up, but some of them are really beautiful. Regardless, I never see any of them because they are stashed in a box. So I was dreaming up ways to display them, and came across all of those DIY corkboard makeovers that are online right now. (I may try one of those too in a bit!)

What I came up with is upholstering a picture frame as a display. I found this picture at Marshalls' for $3. I actually think its kind of pretty, but it was all banged up from being on the shelf for so long.


I detached the frame from the backboard with my MINI screwdrivers, and gave the frame a fresh coat of silver spray paint to cover some of the dings. Then I set it aside and got to the upholstery part.

I used the leftover batting from my footstool makeover to get the amount of height and fluff I wanted...

And then I cut a piece that was slightly larger than the whole piece so that I could wrap the edges of the batting around to the back and secure it.

I just stapled them loosely so the batting wouldn't move when I applied the fabric. I debated for a long time whether to go with a pretty patterned fabric or something solid, and I eventually ended up getting a solid black because I thought the jewelry would show up better.

(see that sale sticker!! makes my heart so happy, lol)

And here it is with the fabric stapled over the batting. I used the 12 to 6, 3 to 9, 1 to 7, 11 to 5 method of putting in the staples (go around the clock) to keep the tension tight... And then folded over the corners and trimmed the excess. Voila!
When the back piece was reinserted into the frame, and all screwed back together again, this was the result!

Then came the fun part: digging up all of those old brooches! Here is the finished product, brooches and all:
Some of those suckers are HUGE!! I am planning to hang it in the wall either in the walk-in closet or in my bedroom behind my necklace tree. Maybe I will grab a pin off now and again and put it on my lapel! Do you guys think I made the right choice by picking basic black? Any favorites among the brooch collection? :-)