Upgrade Your Whole Apartment with This $8 Amazon Find

Written by

Caroline Biggs
Caroline Biggs
Caroline is a writer living in New York City. When she’s not covering art, interiors, and celebrity lifestyles, she’s usually buying sneakers, eating cupcakes, or hanging with her rescue bunnies, Daisy and Daffodil.
updated Jul 17, 2020
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If you thought contact paper was only good for lining drawers, then think again. Turns out this inexpensive, but oh-so-versatile sticky paper is awesome for upgrading all sorts of things around your home, too. Don’t believe us? Read on for a handful of unexpected ways you can use contact paper—we love this sleek marble-inspired style for eight bucks on Amazon—to elevate your stuff in minutes.

1. Upgrade Your Old Furniture

Who needs brand-new furniture when you can update your old furnishings with contact paper facades? Dress up a crummy console table with some marble contact paper along the top or transform a humdrum IKEA bookcase into a stylish storage hub with nothing more than a roll of sticky paper in your favorite pattern.

2. To Modernize Your Shelves

Turn your old-fashioned bathroom storage shelves into a chic display by covering them in contact paper. Take a cue from Elsie and Emma at A Beautiful Mess and use some pretty contact paper to line—and modernize—your bathroom shelving in no time.

3. Elevate Your Countertops

Still waiting on that kitchen remodel your landlord promised you two years ago? Don’t worry, me too. Luckily we can fake our way to faux marble bliss by covering countertops with contact paper and simply smoothing them out with a credit card.

4. To Forge a Backsplash

Dreaming of a colorful kitchen backsplash but working with a limited budget? Contact paper comes in all kinds of patterns ranging from subway tile to mosaic vinyl that you can stick on the wall behind your sink or oven to score a DIY backsplash that’s fully waterproof.

5. Make a Laptop Skin (and More)

Looking for a cheap and easy way to protect your laptop (and other personal items) in style? Cover your beloved laptop, notebooks, and writing pens in a cool pattern of contact paper to personalize (and protect) your stuff from spills and stains in seconds.