I’m bringing you my latest DIY project, you should know that you don’t need any tools, there’ll be no mess and you need absolutely no skills.
Sounds too good to be true right? Well, it isn’t you guys!
I’ve been debating what to do with my kitchen counters for a while now as they are the worst counters known to man. I knew that the counters weren’t going anywhere anytime soon as I simply don’t have the budget for a full kitchen renovation, so this is where I got creative! Instead of looking for expensive furnishing material, I headed to Wilko’s and here’s what I got:
We know it as self adhesive paper, but it’s known in America as contact paper. Its readily available and very cheap! One roll cost me £5 from Wilko and the measurement of one roll is 67.5cm by 2m. If you’re wondering the item number for the pattern I used is 346-8031. There are loads of different patterns to choose from in store.
I got the rolls home ( I only needed 2) and couldn’t wait to start this project. I started by clearing the surfaces and giving them a good clean. You need to do this as the adhesive paper won’t stick well otherwise. I then gathered everything I needed, simply a pair of scissors, a Stanley knife, and my trusty Matalan loyalty card.
This is what my kitchen counters looked like before the Self adhesive paper. Ugly right?!
I roughly measured out my first countertop and cut the piece. I removed the backing paper slowly as I used my Matalan card to scrape across to remove any air pockets, for a neat application. I left a little paper to overhang on the sides so i could trim them off neatly with the Stanley knife.
I did lift the paper up a few times to get rid of larger air pockets and to make sure it was lined up – I got better after the first one, and it didn’t make a slight bit of difference to the finished effect. This stuff is very hardy and it didn’t matter that I had to reposition it a couple of times (practice really does make perfect).
When it came to the second counter top there was going to be a join, I did try to match the pattern up without wasting lots of paper, but that wasn’t going to happen. So in the end I just bit the bullet and went for it … it was totally fine! Don’t get me wrong you can see a slight join on closer inspection, but if you’re not looking for it then you will never see it. Brilliant!
For the edges of the counters, I left extra paper so I could fold it under, creating a seamless effect.
The project only took me around 2 hours from start to finish and TA DAAA new kitchen counters!
This would be an ideal project for someone who is renting and doesn’t like their counters, as once the tenancy ends, all you need to do is just unstick it and peel it off. No harm done to the counters underneath.
£10 and and 2 hours later, I have a lovely new kitchen! Totally worth doing it.
Has anyone used self adhesive paper to up-cycle something? Talk to me on our twitter page.
