What To Do With Old Engagement Ring?

As life happens, there are many reasons why you may need to purpose an engagement ring. It's not always because the marriage has come to an end. It can be as simple as your husband purchased you an upgrade on an anniversary, you're renewing your vows, or maybe you've outgrown it. Or, if the marriage did end and you're in the process of a divorce, and you still felt a sentimental attachment, you may want to repurpose it in a way that it symbolizes something other than your previous marriage. Often, people will repurpose their mother or grandmother's diamond wedding ring into new jewelry.

No matter the reason, you may wonder what to do with your old engagement ring. There are a lot of creative things you can do with the engagement ring that you may not have thought of. Repurposing your wedding band is a great way to keep the ring and the sentimental value but find a better use for it rather than throwing it into a jewelry box and letting it sit. Here are some creative and simple ideas that you can consider as ways to repurpose your engagement ring. 

First Things First - Get it Appraised

No matter what you decide to do with your engagement ring, the first step should be to get an up-to-date appraisal. It's a low-cost way of finding out what your ring is worth. It can help you get an idea of the replacement cost and the quality and value of the existing diamonds. It also helps if you decide to insure the engagement ring and decide to keep it for its value. It is essential to go to a reputable jeweler for an appraisal. If you don't have a GIA certificate for the ring, a jeweler can help you get one.

Turn Your Engagement Ring Into a Necklace

Turning your ring into a necklace is one of the easiest and most popular ways to repurpose your engagement ring. You can take the diamond and use them to transform the ring into a beautiful diamond necklace. It's as simple as removing the diamond and placing it in an elegant pendant. Customers will often place their center stone into a bezel setting. You can choose a wide range of settings for your stone if you want to turn your engagement ring into a pendant with more intricate and eye-catching designs. You can choose to set your jewelry in yellow gold, white gold, or rose gold. It's a great idea when your engagement ring only has one diamond, but if you have multiple stones, you can use various pendant options if you want to go with a necklace. One of our favorite repurposed necklaces is a curved diamond bar. The pendant can also be made from the band.

Turn Engagement Ring into Earrings

You can repurpose your engagement ring by purchasing a similar-sized diamond and turning them into stunning diamond stud earrings. You will want to find a diamond of the same carat, color, clarity, cut, and shape as your existing center diamond stone. If you have an engagement ring with at least three stones, you can use those stones to make stud earrings and a matching diamond pendant necklace. You can also use side sides to make studs for second holes. They can be in prong or bezel settings. Round cut diamond studs are a classic, but we also love diamond studs with different shapes.

Redesign Your Engagement Ring Into Another Ring 

If you love the look of the diamond on your fingers, you can redesign the engagement ring by choosing another band, adding more diamonds or other gemstones. It is common to reset a family heirloom into a more modern design. You get the freedom of creativity with your redesign to shape it into the perfect ring to match your style. You can feel better about wearing your new wedding ring once your redesign has your personal touch. You can feel free to wear it on your right hand to avoid the symbolism or resize the ring to wear it on another finger. We commonly see old wedding rings reset on milestone anniversaries or for push presents.

Use the Stones to Turn Your Engagement Ring into a Bracelet

Using the diamonds on your engagement ring to turn them into a bracelet is another way to repurpose them. The large gemstone can look great as an eye-catching piece on the center of a tennis bracelet with added smaller diamonds or set the diamond in a simple gold chain bracelet. There are tons of ways to repurpose your gold ring into diamond jewelry. 

Sell or Donate

If you are not interested in holding on to your diamond engagement ring, you don't have to feel like you have to hold on to it. It's okay to let go if that's best for you. You can sell or donate the ring and use the money to purchase a new ring, treat yourself, or you can donate the money. Be very careful when going to pawn shops. As discussed earlier, we reccomend having it appraised by a reputable jeweler before selling it.

How Much Does it Cost to Turn a Ring Into a Necklace? 

The cost of redesigning and repurposing your engagement ring depends on the project's scope. Many factors need to be considered, such as if you need more diamonds and what materials need to be used. For a larger carat weight stone, we will often have to use more metal to set it. If you have other loose diamonds, we can incorporate them into the design. It can be done cost-efficiently; reach out to us, and we can discuss everything that will go into creating the perfect repurposed design. Any metal not being used can be melted for credit towards the piece.

How it Works 

Want to know how we can help you repurpose your engagement ring? We will collaborate with you to make the process easy so you can rest assured your repurposed ring design comes out how you want. We have jewelry designers on staff to help with the process. You send us pictures of your engagement ring and share any ideas you may have on what you'd like the outcome to be. We can melt the gold and send you a credit, or we can use the side stones and repurpose the ring for another piece. You can keep the pave ring, and we take the diamond for another piece. You will get to choose both the metal type and if you want to incorporate other gemstones. The possibilities are endless when creating custom jewelry. 

We'll share some of our thoughts and give you new designs if you're struggling with coming up with the perfect plan to repurpose. Once we nail down the perfect custom design, you send us your diamond, and we take over from here. In about 6-8 weeks, you'll receive you're perfectly redesigned piece of jewelry that you can be excited to wear. For customers located in New York, you can visit our office through private appointment. 

Turning your engagement ring into another beautiful piece of jewelry can be a valuable way to hold on to the beautiful stones following a possibly hard decision. Rather than tucking it away in a drawer, you can bring new life into the ring by repurposing those beautiful stones into a piece you can feel good about and enjoy forever.