Peel & Stick Wallpaper, Wall Panels & Tile Decals - Main Street

The dining room works harder in the last six weeks of the year than in the other forty-six. It hosts Thanksgiving, a cookie swap, one dinner that runs two hours over, and then Christmas itself. Most Christmas dining room decorations are bought for that short stretch and boxed up for the rest of the year, which is a lot of closet space for a month and a half of use. Paper is the lighter option. The ideas below use peel and stick sheets and craft paper to dress the wall, the table and the sideboard, and nearly all of it lies flat in a drawer once January arrives. Plan Christmas dining room decorations around three zones Guests at a table look at three things: the wall across from them, the table in front of them and the sideboard where the food waits. Give each zone one idea and stop. One decorated wall, a dressed table and a tidy buffet read as finished; garlands on every surface read as storage. Pick the pattern first, because it sets the palette for everything else. Three of Main Street's wallpaper sheet designs are drawn for this time of year: Candy Stripe: bold diagonal stripes in red and white. Loud, cheerful and very good in photos. Trees and Lights: little Christmas trees, string lights and festive phrases on a blush background. The one children choose. Branches and Berries: watercolor branches with small white berries on soft green. It is quiet enough to go up before Thanksgiving and stay through New Year's Day. All three come as 12-packs of 11 x 16 inch sheets. Each sheet covers about 1.22 square feet, so a pack covers roughly 14.6 square feet. Put a holiday backdrop on the wall behind the table The product pages for Candy Stripe and Trees and Lights name holiday backdrops as one of the things the sheets are for, and their photos show exactly that: a patterned wall with a family crowded in front of it. In a dining room, the natural spot is behind the head of the table or above the sideboard, where everybody ends up posing anyway. You do not need the whole wall. A clean rectangle does the job, and the sheet size makes the math easy: One pack: 4 sheets across and 3 sheets down gives a panel 44 inches wide and 48 inches tall. That is 12 sheets, with none left over. Two packs: 5 across and 3 down gives 55 inches by 48 inches, which suits a sideboard around five feet wide. It uses 15 sheets and leaves 9 for the table. The pages list the application surface as painted, sealed and finished surfaces, and Main Street's how-to-use guide names painted drywall that is clean, flat and dry among the best places to apply. The same guide says to skip textured drywall and brick or stone. If the room was painted recently, Main Street's tip is to wait at least four weeks before applying anything. The method is the one in that guide. Wipe the wall with a damp cloth (the guide suggests a mix of 30% isopropyl alcohol and 70% water) and let it dry. Draw a light pencil line with a level, since baseboards are rarely straight. Peel back the first few inches of backing, line the sheet up, press, and smooth as you pull the rest of the backing away. A utility knife trims the edges. The full tool list is a measuring tape, a pencil, the knife and a smoothing tool. Buy every sheet for the panel in one order. The product pages note that slight color variations can occur in printing, and a red stripe that shifts halfway across a wall is the sort of thing an aunt will point out. For paper that stays up all year, see our guide to wallpaper for a dining room. This panel is meant to be temporary. Dress the table with sheets you never stick down On the table, leave the backing on. A sheet with its liner still attached is simply a piece of heavy printed paper, which is all a runner or a placemat needs to be. Nothing touches your table's finish, and nothing needs peeling off later. A runner. Lay sheets end to end down the middle of the table with the long sides running lengthwise. Five sheets make a strip 11 inches wide and 80 inches long. On a typical six-seat table of about 72 inches, trim the last sheet to fit. A small piece of tape under each joint, on the liner side, keeps the strip from drifting. Placemats. One sheet per seat, set landscape. At 11 x 16 inches a sheet is a little smaller than a typical placemat, which leaves room for glasses beside it. Two limits apply. First, these wallpaper sheets are paper, and their product pages make no water-resistance claim, so treat them as dry decor. They sit happily under a centerpiece or a place setting. The gravy boat and the ice bucket belong on a tray. If a sheet does catch a spill, swap it for a fresh one; there are twelve in the pack. Second, Main Street does not publish a heat rating for any of its papers, so anything hot from the oven goes on a trivet. Line a tray and make coasters that can take a damp glass For the pieces that will meet condensation, switch to a different line. Very Crock N Roll is a 10 x 15 inch embossed foil craft sheet, and its product page describes the surface as water-resistant and suited to "functional creations like coasters, trays, and centerpieces." Natural Reflection, an embossed paper at 17.25 x 10 inches, carries a similar description. A serving tray is the quickest project. Measure the inside of the base, cut the sheet to size with a knife and a ruler, peel and press from one edge to the other. The page says the foil is best applied to smooth, finished surfaces, so a painted or sealed tray is the right candidate and raw wood is not. For coasters, cut squares or circles to fit plain coasters with a smooth, finished face. Keep expectations sensible. Water-resistant means a damp glass or a wiped-up drip, not a soak in the sink. The brand publishes nothing about direct food contact either, so cookies go on a plate that sits on the tray. Use chalkboard paper for the menu, the buffet labels and the place cards Chalkboard Classic is an 11 x 15 inch writable sheet that works with chalk and chalk markers. The menu. Trim an inch off the length and the sheet drops into an 11 x 14 frame with the glass taken out. Leave the backing on, write the menu, and lean the frame on the sideboard. Buffet labels. Cut strips, press them onto folded cards and write the dish names. Guests with allergies will appreciate it. Place cards. A strip about 2 x 3.5 inches on a folded card, one name each. Wipe and rewrite when the guest list changes. For the children's table, Dry Erase Classic is the same size and takes dry erase markers. Set one at each seat with the backing on and the youngest guests have something to do between courses. Our chalkboard wallpaper guide has more on writing and erasing. Turn the offcuts into small extras Trimming a panel and a runner leaves strips worth keeping. Centerpiece risers. Wrap two or three small boxes in the same pattern as the wall and stack them under a bowl of ornaments or a plant. Our guide to covering a cardboard box shows the corner folds. Chair tags. Press a piece onto plain card, cut out a tag shape, punch a hole and tie it to each chair with ribbon. One rule covers the whole table: paper and flame stay apart. Standard fire-safety advice is to keep candles at least a foot from anything that can burn, so use LED candles in a centerpiece that sits on or near paper. Take it all down in January The table pieces are easy: stack the runner sheets, placemats and menu sheet flat in a folder or a shallow drawer for next year. The wall takes a few minutes more. Start at a top corner and peel slowly, keeping the sheet close to the wall instead of pulling straight out. The product pages describe the sheets as removable and repositionable, but how any adhesive paper comes away also depends on the paint underneath. If your paint is old, flat or of unknown age, test one corner before you put up the full panel. Our step-by-step guide on how to remove peel and stick wallpaper covers stubborn spots. Whether a sheet that spent six weeks on a wall will go up cleanly a second time is not something the product pages promise. Plan on a fresh pack for next year's backdrop and keep this year's sheets for crafts. Frequently asked questions How can I decorate my dining room for Christmas on a budget? Decorate three zones and leave everything else alone: the wall your guests face, the table and the sideboard. One 12-pack of patterned sheets makes a 44 x 48 inch backdrop panel, a second pack supplies a runner and placemats, and a single chalkboard sheet handles the menu and place cards. Most of it stores flat afterward. Can you use peel and stick wallpaper as a Christmas backdrop? Yes. Main Street's Candy Stripe and Trees and Lights product pages list holiday backdrops among their intended uses. Apply the sheets to a clean, painted wall in a simple grid behind the table or above the sideboard. Twelve 11 x 16 inch sheets make a panel 44 inches wide and 48 inches tall, enough to fill the frame of a family photo. Will peel and stick wallpaper come off the wall after the holidays? The sheets are described on their product pages as removable and repositionable. Peel slowly from a top corner and keep the sheet close to the wall. Results also depend on your paint, so test a single corner first if the paint is old, flat or newly applied. Main Street advises waiting at least four weeks after painting before applying. Can I put wallpaper sheets directly on my dining table? For a seasonal runner or placemats, you do not need to. Leave the backing on and lay the sheets flat, so nothing sticks to the table finish. Keep them away from spills and hot dishes, because these paper sheets are not sold as water-resistant and Main Street does not publish a heat rating. Use trivets and trays. Is it safe to use paper decorations near candles? Keep them apart. Common fire-safety guidance is to place candles at least a foot from anything that can burn, and a paper runner, a wrapped box and a chair tag all count. Use LED candles in a centerpiece that sits on or near paper, and save real flames for a spot with clear space around them.

Shelf liner gets sold as one product, but people reach for it for at least four different reasons: to catch spills, to stop things sliding, to hide a stained or scratched shelf, or simply to make an open cupboard nicer to look at. That is why the search for shelf liner alternatives goes sideways so often. The right substitute depends on the job, and once you name the job, the choice gets easy. Here is what to use instead of shelf liner (and instead of contact paper), sorted by the problem you are actually trying to solve. Name the job before you pick a substitute Stand in front of the shelf and ask what is bothering you. Most answers land in one of these buckets: Spills and drips. Oil bottles, honey jars, cleaning sprays, anything that leaks. Sliding. Glasses that skate when the door shuts, a spice rack that drifts toward the edge. A shelf you would rather not see. Rings, old adhesive, chipped paint, a builder-white laminate that came with the rental. Looks. Open shelving, a glass-front cabinet or a pantry you see every morning. A single product rarely solves all four well. A cushioned roll is good at grip and poor at looks; a printed sheet is good at looks and the wrong call for a shelf that gets wet. Pick the bucket first and the rest of this guide gets much shorter. When the best alternative is no liner at all Plenty of shelves do not need anything. A factory-finished laminate or melamine shelf, or wood that is already painted or sealed, is a closed surface that wipes clean on its own. Adding a layer on top gives crumbs and drips one more place to hide, and it is one more thing to replace later. Going bare makes sense when the shelf is in good shape, holds dry goods or dishes, and is easy to reach for a quick wipe. It makes less sense when the finish is already worn through, because then the shelf itself starts taking the damage. If you are unsure which side of that line your cabinets fall on, our guide to whether shelf liner protects cabinets walks through what a liner can and cannot shield. For spills: things you can lift out and wash If the worry is leaks, the smartest substitute is something you can pull out, rinse and put back. Adhesive anything is the wrong tool here, because a puddle that sits on paper or creeps under an edge turns a quick wipe into a small repair job. A tray or shallow bin. Corral the oils and syrups on a tray and the drip never reaches the shelf at all. It also turns a deep cupboard into something you can slide out like a drawer. A placemat cut to size. A wipeable placemat or a trimmed piece of washable mat works well under a cluster of bottles. It lifts out for the sink in seconds. A lift-out shelf mat. The non-adhesive, wipeable kind sold for this exact job is still a fine choice for wet spots. Look for one you can rinse and dry flat. This is the right answer under the kitchen sink, inside the fridge and anywhere a cleaning bottle lives. Main Street’s own how-to-use page lists areas exposed to moisture among the places its sheets should not go, so a self-adhesive paper sheet is not what we would put in those spots either. For a quick, cheap fix: paper you already own The most common question behind “what can I use instead of shelf paper” is really about the junk drawer: wrapping paper, parchment, freezer paper, the leftover scrapbook pad. All of them can line a dry shelf for next to nothing, and they are easy to swap out when they get grubby. The catch is that loose paper slides, curls at the corners and soaks up whatever lands on it. A little double-sided tape at the corners helps with the sliding, and cutting the paper about a quarter inch short of the shelf on every side keeps it from buckling against the walls. We covered the pros and cons of each type in detail in wrapping paper as drawer liner, and almost all of it applies to shelves too. A good rule: loose paper is fine for linen closets, bookcases and display shelves where nothing wet ever lands. It is a poor choice for the shelf that holds the olive oil. Fix the shelf itself instead of covering it Sometimes the liner is a bandage over a shelf that needs real attention. Raw or worn wood is the classic case. Bare wood is porous, so it stains easily and does not give an adhesive much to grip. A coat of paint or a clear finish turns it into a sealed surface that wipes clean, and that may be all the shelf needed. Paint has the added benefit of keeping your options open. A painted shelf is a good base for a decorative sheet later. If you go that route, Main Street’s guidance is to wait at least four weeks after painting before you apply its sheets, so plan the decorating stage for after the paint has had time to cure. For more on matching the approach to the wood, see lining wood shelves: sealed, painted or raw. What to use instead of contact paper Some people are not avoiding shelf liner so much as one particular kind of it. The shiny vinyl roll from the kitchen aisle is the usual suspect: it can look plasticky, the pattern choice is limited, and getting a long strip down without a bubble takes patience. If that is your complaint, you have a few good options. Self-adhesive paper sheets Peel and stick wallpaper sheets do the same job as decorative contact paper in a smaller, easier format. Main Street’s Classic Sheets are listed on their product pages as peel and stick paper wallpaper, at 11 by 16 inches per sheet, and the pages say they work as adhesive wallpaper or decorative contact paper and suit shelves, cabinets and wooden furniture. The application surface listed is painted, sealed and finished surfaces, which happens to describe most kitchen and closet shelves. Because each piece is small, you are handling a manageable rectangle rather than wrestling a six-foot strip. A soft stone look like Carrara Marble reads clean inside a white cabinet, while a fine linear pattern such as Woven Stripe hides the seams between sheets well. For a glass-front cabinet where the shelf is part of the display, a bolder repeat like Indigo Diamonds or the botanical Magnolia Branches gives the eye somewhere to land. A quick sizing example: a cabinet shelf 34 inches wide and 11 inches deep takes three sheets laid with the 11-inch side running front to back, with a trim off the last one. Four shelves that size use twelve sheets. The product pages advise buying everything for one project at once, since the printing process can cause slight color variations. Two cautions. Sheets need a utility knife and a smoothing tool to go down neatly, so set those out before you start. And while the product pages describe the sheets as designed to peel off cleanly from suitable walls, a shelf finish is not a wall, so test a small corner first if you will need to remove them later. A writable label strip If the reason you wanted contact paper was pantry labeling, skip the full shelf and stick a strip along the front edge instead. The Chalkboard Classic craft paper is an 11 by 15 inch sheet that takes chalk and chalk markers, and one sheet cut into strips labels a whole pantry. Crafts and cutting machines Craft searches for “instead of contact paper” usually mean transfer tape or laminating, which is a different job. If you are working with a cutting machine, our article on using contact paper with a Cricut explains where the two overlap and where they do not. Shelf liner alternatives at a glance When you are standing in the cabinet with the door open, this short list covers most cases: Under the sink, in the fridge, under oil bottles: a tray or a lift-out washable mat. Sealed shelf in good condition, dry goods only: nothing at all, or loose paper if you like the look. Raw or worn wood: paint or a clear finish first, then decide. Open shelving, glass-front cabinets, a dated rental shelf: self-adhesive paper sheets on a painted, sealed or finished surface. Pantry labels: a writable strip on the shelf edge. Frequently asked questions What can I use instead of shelf liner? It depends on why you wanted liner. For spills, use a tray or a lift-out washable mat. For a dry shelf that is already sealed, you can skip liner entirely or lay down loose wrapping or parchment paper. For looks on a painted, sealed or finished shelf, self-adhesive paper wallpaper sheets do the same job as decorative contact paper. What can I use instead of contact paper? Peel and stick wallpaper sheets are the closest swap for decorative uses, since they stick down and cover a shelf or drawer front the same way. Loose paper held with double-sided tape works for dry, low-traffic shelves. For spill zones, choose something non-adhesive you can lift out and wash rather than any adhesive covering. Is it OK to not use shelf liner? Yes, in many cabinets. A laminate, melamine, painted or sealed shelf in good condition already wipes clean, and adding a layer can trap crumbs underneath. Liner earns its place when the finish is worn, when you want grip for glassware, or when you want to change how an open shelf looks without repainting it. Can I use wallpaper as shelf liner? Self-adhesive paper wallpaper works on dry shelves with a smooth, finished surface, and Main Street’s Classic Sheets list shelves among their suggested uses. Keep paper sheets out of wet spots like under the sink. Traditional paste-up wallpaper is a harder fit, since you would need to apply and later remove the paste on a surface it was not made for. What is the cheapest alternative to shelf liner? Paper you already have at home: leftover wrapping paper, parchment, freezer paper or brown kraft paper. Cut it slightly smaller than the shelf so it lies flat, and tape the corners if it slides. It suits dry shelves well, though it will need replacing more often than an adhesive sheet or a washable mat.

Pull every book off a bookcase and you are left with the most ignored rectangle in the room: a flat, builder-white back panel that nobody chose and everybody looks at. Learning how to cover a bookshelf with contact paper fixes that in an afternoon, with self-adhesive sheets that are designed to come off suitable surfaces again when your taste changes. This guide covers the whole unit: which parts are worth covering, what to check on the back panel first, the step-by-step for bays and loose shelves, and how many 11 by 16 inch sheets a case takes. Which parts of a bookshelf are worth covering A bookcase has three kinds of surface worth thinking about, and they do not all deserve the same treatment. The outer sides are usually seen edge-on, so skip them unless one is a focal point. The back panel. Highest impact, lowest wear. Nothing slides across it, and it shows between every object you place. If you only cover one thing, cover this. The shelf decks. Books drag across a deck every time you pull one out, and a paper face will show that traffic sooner than paint or laminate. Many people cover only the back and let the bare shelves frame the print. The front edges. A narrow band along the lip of each shelf ties a plain case to a patterned back for very little paper. One rule covers every part. Main Street lists sealed wood and painted drywall among the best surfaces for its sheets, and the product pages for the 11 by 16 inch Classic Sheets name "painted, sealed, and finished surfaces" as the application surface. The back panel is where that gets complicated. Check the back panel before you buy anything Bookcase backs come in three types, and the type decides whether this is a one-pack project or a reason to pause. A finished back Better solid-wood, plywood and MDF cases have a back painted or laminated to match the rest of the unit. Treat it like any finished surface: clean it, let it dry, and go. A thin hardboard back Flat-pack and budget cases almost always use a thin fiberboard back with a white or wood-look paper facing on the room side. The facing is usually smooth enough to work with, but it is not a finish Main Street lists, and a thin facing can lift with the sheet when you remove it. Run the hidden-corner test from the guide to lining wood shelves: press a scrap into a corner a book will hide, leave it a day, then peel it back and inspect both the sheet and the board. No back at all Some open shelving units have no back; you see the wall through them. Paper the wall behind the unit instead. Painted drywall is one of the brand's best-rated surfaces. If that wall was painted recently, Main Street says to wait at least four weeks before applying. Remove the back or work in place? A thin back that is nailed or stapled on can be pried off, papered flat and refitted, but prying bends hardboard and widens the nail holes. A glued or grooved back is better papered in place, which is what the next section covers. How to cover a bookshelf with contact paper, step by step Main Street's own how-to page lists the kit: a measuring tape and pencil, a utility knife, a damp cloth and a smoothing tool. Add a straight edge and a level. Empty the case and pull the adjustable shelves. Shelves on pegs lift out; fixed shelves stay and divide the back into bays. Clean the back. Wipe it with a damp cloth, then with the 30 percent isopropyl alcohol and 70 percent water mix the brand recommends, and let it dry completely. Measure each bay separately. Budget cases are rarely square, so measure width and height at both ends of every bay and use the larger numbers. Plan the layout before you cut. A Classic Sheet is 11 by 16 inches. In a bay around 12 inches tall, run the 16 inch side horizontally for fewer seams; in a tall bay, run it vertically. Dry-fit with the backing on to see where seams fall and where a motif will be chopped. Cut on the back, against a straight edge. Mark the backing paper, draw the knife through slowly, cut a touch oversized on the edge you will trim in place, and keep a factory edge for the seam. Draw a guideline with the level, not the shelf, because shelves sag and cases lean. For most bays the first sheet goes in the top corner against one side. Peel a few inches, align, press. Peel back the first few inches of backing, set the top edge on your line and press firmly. Pull the backing away a little at a time while pushing air out toward the free edge with the smoothing tool, the motion the brand's how-to page describes. Butt the next sheet to the first. Slide the factory edge of sheet two up to sheet one until the pattern lines up, then press from the seam outward. A dense allover print hides a slight mismatch; a stripe or grid does not. Trim at the sides and shelf. Press the sheet into the crease where the back meets the side or shelf, then run a fresh blade along it, angled slightly into the corner. Refit the shelves and wait a day before loading books, so nothing drags across a seam that has not fully settled. If a bay fights you, the guide to applying contact paper without bubbles goes deeper on seams and lifting corners. Wrapping a loose shelf, deck and front edge If you want a shelf covered as well, do it out of the case. Cut one piece long enough to cover the top, fold over the front edge and turn under about an inch on the underside. Stick the top first, back to front, then crease the sheet over the front edge and press it under. At the two front corners, cut a small notch so the fold lies flat; the corner guide shows it. Leave the back edge and most of the underside bare, since that is where the shelf rests on its pegs. A wrapped deck takes the wear described above, so a darker, busier print hides scuffs better there. How many sheets a bookcase takes Each Classic Sheet covers 176 square inches, which the product pages round to 1.22 square feet, and a 12-pack comes to roughly 14.6 square feet. Measure the back in inches, multiply width by height, divide by 176, round up, and add a sheet or two for trimming. A five-shelf case about 31 inches wide and 71 inches tall has a back of roughly 2,200 square inches: 13 sheets before waste, so two 12-packs, with sheets left over for front edges. A cube unit is the awkward one. A typical cube is about 13 inches square, wider than a sheet's short side, so plan one sheet per cube plus a 2 to 3 inch strip; one extra sheet yields about five strips. Buy the whole project at once: the product pages note that slight color variations can occur in the printing process, and a shade shift between packs shows on one continuous back. Choosing a pattern for a bookcase back You are choosing a backdrop, not a feature wall. Objects with strong silhouettes, a white vase or a stack of books, read best against a mid-scale, evenly spread print that is quieter than the objects. Founder Jan McCallum trained as an oil painter, and that habit of composing foreground against background runs through the collection. A few in-stock sheets that suit the job: Block Print Floral: a sage and cream allover that forgives seams and lets ceramics and greenery do the talking. It is the pattern in the photo at the top of this article. Eucalyptus: watercolor leaves on white, airy enough for a case full of books. Wood Slat Panel: vertical slats that make a flat-pack case look built in, especially behind a few sculptural objects. Neutral Palm: a soft, large-leaf print for a bay that holds one or two things rather than twenty. Toile Forest: a line-drawn scene that rewards a close look, good for a reading-nook case at eye level. For a case with fixed shelves, start each bay's first sheet at the same point in the repeat, measured from one datum such as the top of the case, so the shelves read as if laid over one uninterrupted field. More on pattern scale, including when to treat the shelf edge as a band, is in the DIY shelf liner ideas article. Frequently asked questions Can you use shelf liner on the back of a bookcase? Yes, if it is an adhesive liner and the back is a finished surface. Non-adhesive liner has nothing to hold it on a vertical panel and will slide down. Main Street's 11 by 16 inch sheets are self-adhesive paper intended for painted, sealed and finished surfaces, which covers most laminated and painted backs; a bare hardboard back needs the corner test first. What do you use to line bookshelves? For the back panel, a self-adhesive decorative sheet in a mid-scale print is the usual choice because it stays put on a vertical surface and trims cleanly at the edges. For the decks, either the same sheet wrapped over the front edge or nothing at all, since decks take the wear from sliding books. How do you cover a bookshelf without removing the back? Treat each bay as its own small wall. Pull any adjustable shelves, clean and dry the back, measure the bay at both ends, cut sheets slightly oversized, apply from a level guideline in one top corner, butt seams on a factory edge, and trim in the crease where the back meets the sides and shelf with a sharp utility knife. Will contact paper stick to the cardboard back of a bookcase? Often, but a paper-faced hardboard back is not a surface the brand lists, and a thin facing can tear away when the sheet is removed. Test a scrap in a hidden corner for a day before covering the panel. If the facing lifts, paper the wall behind an open unit instead, or cover only the shelves and edges. Does the paper come off a bookcase later? The product pages say the Classic Sheets are designed to peel off cleanly from suitable walls, and painted or laminated cases are the best candidates. Removal still depends on the finish underneath, so there is no blanket guarantee; the hidden-corner test shows what your specific case will do before the whole back is committed.