The kitchen cabinets in our apartment are relatively new so they’re in excellent condition. To help protect them and keep them looking new longer, I decided to line the shelves.
Lining the shelves couldn’t have been easier. Since these are newer cabinets the shelves are removable. (I’ve lived in more than one old apartment with ancient cabinetry with shelves that are painted/nailed/glued in!) By removing one of the shelves I was able to lay it flat on my oilcloth and trace it. I did this four times, cut out all the pieces, and lined the shelves. Within ten minutes I was stacking my dishes in the refreshed cabinet.
When I was finished I was delighted to discover than in addition to protecting the finish of the cabinets, lining the shelves in red gingham also gave them a sprucing up. The red gingham oilcloth was leftover from a previous project but I love the way it works with our yellow Fiesta Ware.
Of course there are a number of materials that could work for shelf lining. In addition to oilcloth, you could use wallpaper, fabric, or a non-slip rug pad.
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I have that exact green and brown platter, except mine is oval. :)
how do you keep the oilcloth from curling. I'd like to line my cabinets, but I dunno how to make the oilcloth stick
Any suggestions for shelves that don't come out? We have horrible stained particle board shelves in our pantry, bathroom and linen closets and I really really want to cover them. Would the oil cloth work on them you think?
You could probably use rug tape to make it stick. I imagine just a small piece on the corners would do the trick.
Or Blue Tack, a small ball flattened out. Wouldn't stick when removing it like rug tape would.
LOVE the S & P.
Do you think I could line my shelves with high quality wrapping paper (like from paper source)? Like if I tacked the corners down with double sided tape?
Laurabellk: I've lined my shelves wil wrapping paper of high and low quality and it works fine if you tack it down. You might have to tack the entire front edge with double sided tape, as well as the corners. Heavier paper is better, too.
There is "official" shelving paper one can get on line and at hardware stores. For affixing alternate "shelf" paper, try the spray-on adhesive that you can get at art stores.
uhhhg! That is the set of dishes I am slowly accumulating! Looks perfect with the liners! :)
I've also used old plastic/foam placemats as shelf liners in the cabinets where I store my pots and pans. The pans don't ding the slightly padded shelves and the heavier weight mats don't move around.
In this last house, I lined my (black-painted) kitchen shelves with black felt. It's easy, it's cheap, it can be washed if it gets dirty or dusty, and it lays flat without any work.
The edges in the photo are slightly curled - looks like they're not stuck down at all.