On one of my frequent trips to the local dollar store, I was elated to find a huge box of foam core, and my brain immediately started buzzing with possible uses for it. Foam core can be a quick, inexpensive, and lightweight tool around the home whether you're a renter looking for temporary solutions, you're on a budget, or you just want a quick and easy craft project. Here are 10 of my favorite ideas for this handy material.
Renter-Friendly Solutions:
- Add Temporary Color to Your Bookcases: With some paint or fabric and foam board, you can add some pattern or color to your bookcases. This could be useful if you have built-ins that the landlord won't let you paint. If you aren't a fan of your kitchen cabinets, you could remove the doors and use this technique for the cabinet backs, making for more attractive open shelving.
- Kitchen backsplash: We recently featured a Renters' Solutions post on installing a tile backsplash, but if you're just looking for a bit of color or want to cover up a pre-existing tile backsplash, foam core could be an easier, less expensive way to get the trick done.
- Wallpaper: We've had a number of "Good Questions" throughout the years about how to use one's favorite paste-only wallpapers in a temporary way (like here & here), and several times, foam core has come up as the answer. It won't look exactly the same as a real wallpaper job, but if there's a print that you adore, large sheets of foam core hung up or propped against the wall can get you the basic look.
Budget-Friendly Solutions:
- Hanging Curtains: If you don't want to spend the money on wood or don't want to have to deal with a saw, these foam core pelmet boxes could offer an inexpensive but chic solution.
- Headboard: Foam core, batting, and fabric apparently make a good combination, since they can also be used to make an inexpensive, lightweight headboard.
- Hanging art without a frame: Getting a piece of art framed can often cost more than the art itself, and if you are looking for an inexpensive solution, foam core and Plexiglas can give you a sleek, modern look.
Just for Fun:
(Images: 1. Recently via Apartment Therapy, 2. House Pretty, 3. Sh*tty Chic, 4. Apartment Therapy, 5. P.S. I Made This via Apartment Therapy, 6. Apartment Therapy, 7. Design*Sponge via Apartment Therapy)
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Foam core as a kitchen backsplash??? Really?? Maybe only for people who never cook.
I would urge readers to use a biodegradable foam board if they must use foam core. And really, no one MUST, but at least there are some options out there.
http://www.foamboardsource.com/foam-board--biodegradable-foam-board.html
http://www.gilmanbrothers.com/biodegradable.html
Thank you for your post, luluchin. I also would rather not encourage the use of polystyrene products...
The same could probably said for anything from a dollar store.
Here is how lazy I am: My husband and I are renting and don't know how to drill into plaster walls without making a huge mess. So instead of heavy framed artwork, we got huge old blue prints from the 60's and had them mounted on foam core, which we easily hung with command strips. They give a lot of visual decor bang for your buck. But yikes, I had not thought about the environmental impacts. Ugh. Thanks for pointing it out luluchin. No more foam core for us.
Foamcore warps when painted, so it doesn't work nearly as well as this post is implying.
Yeah, foamcore is not that sturdy in large sheets and can warp quickly. I wouldn't recommend it for a kitchen backsplash or to be painted since liquid hastens this. You could try using poly sheets (they make some shaped like corrugated cardboard), or acrylic sheets (which the home improvement stores will cut to size for you). You can mount fabric, printed paper, or paint on the clear acrylic sheets. Clean only with soapy water, though. Chemical cleaners will cause it to look cloudy over time.
For framing, acid-free foam core is the standard for inexpensive backing. However, it needs to be stabilized by something else. Clipped to the glass, or else in a frame. Again, foamcore warps. I used to be a framer, sold foamcore, and did sculpture with it. I've worked with it quite a bit!
Foam core, like other sandwich type material, must be painted on BOTH sides to reduce warping.
If you can afford acrylic, you can afford to hire someone to build it from wood. OK, I'm being a little over the top, but have you priced acrylic lately? Eesh!
I used sheets of the thick foam core, quilt batting, and fleece to make some sound dampening panels for my husband's studio, which also insulate basement windows pretty nicely.