Stella Jewelry Box – Amazing, yet not *Quite* Ultimate
Beautiful, spacious, and large jewelry box from Pottery Barn – the Stella Jewelry Box, Ultimate size.
The Overview –
- Pretty large jewelry box. I bought the ultimate size (18” wide x 8” deep x 9.25” high) and it practically takes up the entire top of my nightstand.
- Can store quite a bit, but it isn’t the perfect jewelry box for me (reasons included in the story version)
- Beautiful and sturdy box, but it came out of the packaging smelly!
The Story –
I always had an affinity toward small trinkets, and made a habit of storing them in random boxes when I was a child. One of my mom’s friends gifted me a nice looking jewelry box one day. I was rather young (close to pre-teen?) and I thought the wooden jewelry box was just so fancy! I immediately put my rings, necklaces, etc. in there, and there was a separate drawer where I put all my little Sanrio charms (I’d be making separate purchases at Sanrios while I was a little girl to get more of their cute printed bags with a small charm). The box is still with me today, in addition to other boxes I’ve accumulated throughout high school. Each box was filled up with random jewelry and trinkets until recently.
Fast forward 15 years later, I found myself browsing Netflix and came across an episode of The Home Edit where the girls were organizing jewelry for a client. That client had so much jewelry, randomly scattered around, and the girls from The Home Edit got some stackable jewelry trays from The Container Store and organized it all for her. It looked amazing, and I started thinking about all the jewelry and small stuff I had lying around the bedroom and living room, stored in different places. It also didn’t help that I had subscribed to Glamour Jewelry Box (you’d receive 3 pieces of jewelry a month: a bracelet, pair of earrings, and a necklace that all went together nicely) for a year and a half or so and accumulated over 50 pieces of jewelry from that alone. Sadly, I only ever wore about five of them.
The Home Edit inspired me to search for jewelry boxes that could store all my jewelry pieces in a neat, organized manner. I didn’t want to go the Home Edit approach with the stackables because I wanted to open drawers and not remove stackable trays, risking the trays toppling over and such. I did some searching and came across Pottery Barn’s Stella Jewelry Box. They have 2 different sizes – a large and ultimate. Both look amazing from the photos, and both come in either a black or white, made with MDF, an engineered wood. The large (15” wide x 10” deep x 7.5” high) looks more traditional, with 4 drawers lined with linen and a top portion. The top contains a clear section, so you can see what you put in the built-in tray. The ultimate (18” wide x 8” deep x 9.25” high) has 3 drawers lined with velvet and the top contains 3 sections; a center that opens to a small mirror and sectioned tray, and 2 side portions that contain 2 layers of small trays. The design of the top of the ultimate jewelry box is more appealing to me, so I went for that after I saw there was a sale.
The package came in a large box, packed securely, with Styrofoam holding it at the corners. It was definitely the largest and heaviest jewelry box I’ve held. Once I took off the packaging and such, I noticed a rather strong paint scent, and immediately thought the box was probably packaged once the paint almost dried. It smelled horrible, and I noticed the top of the box wasn’t “perfect.” It had some small bumps and wasn’t the same texture all around, similar to a surface where the paint hasn’t fully dried all the way so that parts of the surface feels completely smooth and other parts feel a bit sticky.
If it wasn’t pandemic time, I might have quickly repackaged the box and returned it. Instead, I decided to keep the box because I didn’t want the hassle of going through the return process, and overall it was a decent box. I started to fill the box with some pieces, and I was surprised to learn that despite its size not everything fit! I really need to downsize on my jewelry collection, and put some pieces (mainly from the prior subscription) aside, mainly pieces I don’t have any desire to ever wear.
The 3 drawers are the same size, and the interior portions of each were different –
- One is a plain velvet lined drawer
- One was sectioned into 3 sections
- One was sectioned into 18 small squares
I filled each mini square section with a set of pieces that would go well together since if I put just one piece in each section, I’d have no room very quickly. I put the bulkier bracelets and statement necklaces in the bottom drawer, and my favorite/more frequently worn pieces in the awesome top portion of the box for easy access along with the small mirror. I do wish some of the trays came with storage specifically for rings and bracelets, but I suppose I can put in some add-ons.
The ultimate jewelry box may not be 100% perfect for my needs, but it did help with storing most of my jewelry. It sits beautifully on my nightstand, and there is always the option of decorating the box with stickers or paintings and whatnot. The white coloring provides a great background for customizing. Unfortunately, creativity and decisiveness about creativity aren’t my strong suits, so my box will be bare white for the time being.
Also, if you’re wondering about my opinions on The Home Edit, I haven’t watched an episode past the episode I mentioned above. It’s one of those shows where I don’t mind it on in the background, but it does give some inspiration on organization here and there, though most of what I saw was a bit repetitive (same acrylic containers, sorting methods, etc).
