New Life to Furniture in 5 Minutes

by Linn Andreassen Talge

3 Materials

5 Minutes

Easy

Hate painting furniture because it never looks even?!? Here's the solution...

new life to furniture in 5 minutes, diy, living room ideas, painted furniture, repurposing upcycling

This is the final result, and it took me less than 5 minutes, including taking photoes along the way!!!

This IKEA Lack shelves got scratched when we moved it from one room to another, and it has been an eye sore for over a year!!! And I kick myself for not coming up with this solution until now.... So, I didn't want to paint it, since these surfaces never seems to hold the paint properly, so the end result would probably annoy me even more than the scratch...

This cute contact paper even has some texture to it, so even better!!

I measured it from the bottom up, and just to be on the safe side, I cut it about 1/2 inch longer than needed.

I peeled off the back, starting in the bottom corner.

Removed just enough to reveal the entire bottom, so I could fasten it all along the bottom to start.

I used the bottom corner as my referance, and the straight line upwards as guide, since the pattern has straight lines in it(if it had a pattern that didn't need to be straight, I wouldn't be too fuzzy to get it level, and just cut off the excess on either side instead).

Then: pulling the back off and adhering the contact paper upwards.

Make sure to remove any air bubbles along the way.

As I have a window in the back, the light from it made it easy to see where I needed to remove the excess contact paper. Using a lamp would do the same trick!

I regulated the blade of my knife to be long(about 2 inches) as it makes following the line of the furniture when cutting easier.

TIP of the day: If you have the same type of knife as me, you can pull the back piece of the black plastic back, and you will lock the blade in place, so it doesn't move when cutting.

Slitting the knife through the contact paper, and angling the knife for a better result, I then just rested the knife on the edge of the Lack-shelves, and slid the knife along it on all sides.