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

Flat-pack desks come in the same three finishes, and the first scratch usually arrives before the first paycheck. Learning how to cover a desk with contact paper fixes the look in an afternoon, with no sanding, no primer and no waiting for anything to dry. The surface you work on every day also gets harder use than any wall, so the trick is knowing what adhesive paper can take on a desktop, what it cannot, and how to lay it so the edges outlast the semester. Which desks take contact paper well Adhesive paper wants a closed, smooth surface to grip. That makes the cheapest desks the easiest ones to cover: laminate and melamine tops are factory sealed, flat and non-porous, and paper bonds to them readily. A painted desk works too, as long as the paint is sound and fully cured. Main Street asks for a wait of at least four weeks after painting before anything self-adhesive goes on, and a desktop deserves the same patience as a wall. Sealed or varnished wood is fine. The product pages for the 11 x 16 inch Classic Sheets put it plainly: painted, sealed and finished surfaces. The disappointments are predictable. A raw pine top, an unfinished MDF edge or a desk sanded back to bare board will drink the adhesive unevenly and let corners lift. For the finish-by-finish breakdown, including plywood and particle board, see what contact paper sticks to. What a papered desktop can and cannot handle Think of the covering as a decorative skin, not a work surface in its own right. A few realities to plan around before you peel anything: Liquids. The Classic Sheets and the Craft Paper line are paper with an adhesive back, and Main Street does not describe them as water-resistant. A sweating glass or a spilled coffee needs wiping up quickly, and a coaster is the cheapest insurance you will ever buy. Heat. Main Street publishes no heat rating for the sheets. A laptop that runs warm sits on small feet, but if yours gets hot enough to notice, a stand or a desk mat under it is the sensible move. Pen pressure. Writing on a single loose sheet of paper directly over the covering can press a faint line into it. A notepad, a planner or a thin desk pad takes the pressure instead. The mouse. An optical mouse generally tracks on a matte printed surface. If it skips on a very light or very glossy design, a mouse pad solves it in a second. Wear. Forearms, sleeve buttons and a wheeled chair rub the front edge thousands of times a year. That edge is where any covering ages first, which is why the layout below starts there. If the desk doubles as a craft table or a potting bench, read contact paper on countertops first. The same wet-and-hot cautions apply. How to cover a desk with contact paper, step by step You need a measuring tape and pencil, a utility knife with a fresh blade, a damp cloth and a smoothing tool. That is the full list on Main Street's how-to page, and nothing about a desk changes it. 1. Clear and clean Take off everything, including a keyboard tray or a monitor arm clamp if they unscrew. Wipe the top with a damp cloth to lift dust, then go over it with a mix of 30 percent isopropyl alcohol and 70 percent water, the prep solution Main Street recommends, and let it dry completely. Hand cream and the ghost of old sticky notes are the usual reasons a sheet refuses to bond. 2. Measure and plan the sheets Measure the top edge to edge and decide which way the sheets will run. A Classic Sheet is 11 x 16 inches (1.22 square feet), so for most desks the 16 inch edge runs across the width and the 11 inch edge runs front to back. On a common 48 x 24 inch top that is three sheets across and three rows deep, nine in all, with trim to spare from a 12-pack. A 60 x 30 inch top takes four across and three deep, which uses all twelve sheets with nothing left for a mistake, so buy two packs. Main Street suggests ordering every sheet for a project at once so the color matches. 3. Start at the front edge Lay the first row along the front edge, the one your eye meets when you sit down, and work toward the wall. Peel back only a few inches of the backing, line the sheet up with your pencil mark, press the leading edge down and draw the backing out while the smoothing tool pushes from the center outward. Butt each new sheet against the last. Our guide to applying contact paper without bubbles covers seams and repositioning in detail. 4. Deal with the edges You have two choices at the front and sides. Trim flush with the knife held against the top edge, which looks crisp and is the right call on a rounded or beveled edge, since paper has almost no stretch and will not wrap a curve. Or leave about an inch of overhang on a square-edged top, cut a small square out of each corner so the two flaps do not stack, fold the flaps down over the edge and press them hard. Trim along the underside. 5. Press, then wait Go over every seam and edge once more with the smoothing tool, paying most attention to the front corners. Put the hardware back, but give the top a quiet evening before the monitor, the printer and the elbows return. Main Street publishes no cure time; the wait is simply a precaution. Choosing a pattern that hides the seams A desk is viewed from above at arm's length, which is less forgiving than a wall seen across a room. A busy, non-directional design such as Eucalyptus lets nine sheets read as one surface. A directional print such as Herringbone looks sharper but asks you to align every sheet to the one before it. A plank design like Distressed Wood Grey is the easy middle ground: run the boards left to right and let each seam fall on a printed joint. One upgrade worth stealing from the office supply aisle: a strip of Dry Erase Classic along the back edge of the top gives you an erasable to-do list you cannot lose under the keyboard. It is an 11 x 15 inch self-adhesive sheet, writable with dry erase markers, and it goes on the same way as the patterned sheets. Covering a table with contact paper: what changes A table follows the same steps, but the job changes with what the table is for. A console, a bedside table or a coffee table lives a dry, decorative life and is a near-perfect candidate. A dining table is a different proposition. Plates, condensation and daily wiping put a paper covering in exactly the conditions Main Street tells you to avoid, so treat a dining table as a short-term refresh at most, and keep placemats under everything. For a side table that gets wiped down now and then, the Luxury Cardstock line is the better pick. Natural Reflection is described on its product page as embossed peel and stick paper that is water-resistant, in 17.25 x 10 inch panels. Water-resistant is not the same as waterproof, and none of these papers is sold for standing water, but it is the line to reach for when the surface will meet a damp cloth more than once a week. Sizes differ across the cardstock designs, so check the product page. Round tables are their own puzzle of templates and center seams, solved in the lazy susan and round shelf guide. For dressers, cabinet fronts and bookcase backs, the furniture wallpapering guide has you covered. Taking it off a desk later On a sound factory finish, the paper usually lifts with slow, low-angle pulling and leaves little behind, which is why a papered desk is such a popular fix for dorm rooms, rented offices and a classroom desk that belongs to the school. An intact laminate top is the best case, while thin veneer and chalky old paint are the ones to test on an underside corner first. Main Street does not promise a clean removal from every finish, so read is contact paper removable before you cover a desk you have to hand back. Frequently asked questions Can you put contact paper on a desk? Yes, provided the top is smooth and finished. Laminate, melamine, sealed wood and fully cured paint all take self-adhesive paper well. Raw wood, bare MDF and textured finishes do not. Clean the surface with a damp cloth and a mild alcohol and water mix, let it dry, then apply the sheets from the front edge back. How many sheets does it take to cover a desk? Multiply the width and depth of the top in inches, divide by 176 (one 11 x 16 inch sheet), then round up and add one or two for trimming. A 48 x 24 inch desk takes nine sheets laid three across and three deep, so one 12-pack covers it. A 60 x 30 inch top needs twelve, so buy two packs for a margin. How do you cover a table with contact paper without bubbles? Peel only a few inches of backing at a time, press the leading edge down first, and pull the backing away while a smoothing tool pushes air from the center toward the edges. Small bubbles can be pricked with a pin and pressed flat. Clean, dry prep matters more than technique, since dust under the sheet is the usual cause. Can I use contact paper on a dorm desk I have to return? Dorm and office desks are usually laminate, which is the easiest surface for both sticking and removal. Test a corner on the underside first, pull slowly at a low angle when you leave, and wipe any residue with warm soapy water. Nobody can promise a perfect result on every finish, so inspect the desk before you commit. Does contact paper stick to a wood desk? It sticks to the finish, not to the wood. A varnished, lacquered or painted wood desk holds paper well. An oiled, waxed or unfinished top will not, and a sanded surface absorbs the adhesive and lets corners lift. If you are unsure, press a scrap on an underside corner and check it after a day.

Most craft drawers hide a half-used pack of patterned sheets with no plan attached. That pack is, more or less, craft wallpaper: self-adhesive decorative paper cut to a size you can handle on a kitchen table instead of a ladder. Below you will find what the term means, how the different kinds compare, why a search for arts and crafts wallpaper returns two very different answers, and six small projects for whatever is left in the pack. What is craft wallpaper? Craft wallpaper is peel and stick decorative paper sold in sheets small enough to work with by hand, meant for covering objects and small surfaces as much as walls. A roll asks you to plan a room. A crafting wallpaper sheet asks you to plan a notebook, a box lid or one drawer front. The adhesive is already on the back, so there is no paste, no brush and no drying time. You measure, cut, peel and press. At Main Street the term covers two groups of products. The first is the everyday wallpaper sheets, which the product pages list as peel and stick paper wallpaper at 11 x 16 inches: about 1.22 square feet per sheet, or roughly 14.6 square feet in a 12-pack. That is plenty for a furniture face or a handful of small pieces. The second is a narrower line sold as Peel and Stick Craft Paper, where each sheet is built to do a particular job. Inside the craft paper line Sheets you can write on Chalkboard Classic and Dry Erase Classic are sold as single 11 x 15 inch sheets. The first takes chalk and chalk markers, the second takes dry erase markers, and both product pages recommend sticking them to painted and finished surfaces. One thing Dry Erase Classic is not: a magnet board. It has no metal layer for a magnet to grab, so treat it purely as a writing surface. If you are thinking about a larger chalk wall, our guide to chalkboard wallpaper covers the bigger picture. Sheets with texture and shine The Luxury Cardstock group adds raised, embossed texture and a metallic finish. Read each label, because they are not all the same material. Very Crock N Roll and Glow Getter are listed as embossed peel and stick foil, while Natural Reflection is listed as embossed peel and stick paper. The product pages for this group describe the sheets as water-resistant, which makes them the better pick for a desk tray or anything that gets wiped down now and then. Sizes vary by design (Very Crock N Roll and Glow Getter are 10 x 15 inches, other designs differ), so check the dimensions on the exact page before you plan a layout. Craft paper, wallpaper sheets or contact paper? People use these names almost interchangeably, and the overlap is real: all three are decorative sheets with adhesive already on the back. Where they part ways is in the details. Contact paper is usually sold on a long roll, and a good deal of what is marketed as shelf liner is plastic film rather than paper. Our explainer on what contact paper is goes into the differences. Wallpaper sheets are paper printed with repeating patterns, designed to line up edge to edge on a wall but sized so a single pack also stretches to small projects. Craft paper, in Main Street's sense, is a sheet with a function: something to write on, or a texture and finish that plain print cannot give you. A simple rule: if the project is mostly about pattern, reach for wallpaper sheets. If it needs to be written on, or to catch the light, look at the craft paper line. Arts and crafts wallpaper: one search, two meanings Type arts and crafts wallpaper into a search bar and the results split down the middle. Half of them mean wallpaper for crafting, as above. The other half mean a design movement. The Arts and Crafts movement took shape in Britain in the second half of the 1800s as a push back against cheap, machine-made goods. Its best-known wallpaper designer, William Morris, had his patterns printed by hand from carved wooden blocks, and they still define the look: winding vines, stylized flowers and leaves, set in earthy greens, ochres and deep blues. You do not need an antique roll to borrow that feeling. A stylized botanical in a muted palette does most of the work. Our Block Print Floral sheets, cream flowers and trailing stems on a soft sage ground, sit comfortably in that tradition. Busy patterns like this read best in small doses, so try one behind the glass of a display cabinet or across a single drawer front before you cover anything larger. What to do with leftover wallpaper: six small projects A wallpaper project almost never ends on the last sheet. If you have already worked through the drawers, trays and frames in our Dollar Tree wallpaper ideas roundup, these six send the scraps somewhere new. 1. Bookmarks with some backbone Stick a strip of patterned sheet to a strip of plain cardstock, back to back, then trim the two together with a craft knife and a metal ruler. A 2 x 6 inch strip is a comfortable size, and one 11 x 16 sheet yields about ten of them. Punch a hole at the top and add a length of ribbon if you like a tail. 2. Photo booth props and bunting Embossed sheets make convincing party props because the texture shows up on camera. Mount a sheet on card for stiffness, sketch glasses, a mustache or a bow tie on the backing, cut it out and tape it to a wooden skewer. For bunting, cut matching triangles, punch two holes along the top edge of each and thread them onto string. 3. A desk set that matches Wrap a cardboard magazine file, a pencil cup and a pen tray in the same pattern and a cluttered desk suddenly looks planned. Smooth, coated surfaces give the adhesive the best grip. Raw cardboard is more absorbent, so test a corner first and press each piece down firmly. 4. A running list inside a door A narrow strip of Dry Erase Classic inside a pantry or closet door turns into a shopping list or chore chart that never goes missing. Stick it to the smooth, painted face of the door, at eye height, well away from anything damp. 5. Lining a keepsake box The inside of a lid is a surface almost nobody thinks to decorate, which is exactly why it is fun to open. Measure the base and the lid separately, cut each panel with the backing still on, and press from the center outward. A metallic sheet makes a jewelry box feel more expensive than it was. 6. A test patch before the big wall Planning an accent wall for later? Put one leftover sheet somewhere discreet on that wall and live with it for a week or two. You will see how the color reads in the evening light and whether your paint and the adhesive get along. Main Street's how-to page asks you to wait at least four weeks after painting, and it steers you away from textured walls, brick, ceilings and damp rooms, so pick a test spot that meets those terms too. Cutting and sticking small pieces cleanly Small projects forgive less than walls do, because every edge sits close to the eye. A few habits make the difference: Cut with the backing on. The liner keeps the adhesive clean and gives the blade something firm to work against. A sharp craft or utility knife, a metal ruler and a cutting mat beat scissors for straight lines. Clean first. Main Street's prep step is a wipe with a damp cloth. For a deeper clean, the how-to page suggests 30% isopropyl alcohol to 70% water, then letting the surface dry completely. Soften the corners. On anything that gets handled, such as bookmarks or box lids, a slightly rounded corner is less likely to catch and lift than a sharp one. Press from the middle out. A smoothing tool, or the edge of an old plastic card, chases air toward the edges instead of trapping it. Keep paper projects dry. The paper wallpaper sheets are not sold as water-resistant, so keep them away from sinks, steam and anything headed for a dishwasher. Bigger ambitions? Our furniture guide walks through dressers, tables and cabinet fronts. Frequently asked questions What is craft wallpaper? Craft wallpaper is self-adhesive decorative paper sold in hand-sized sheets for small projects: covering boxes, notebooks, drawer fronts and shelf backs, as well as small areas of wall. The adhesive is pre-applied, so you cut it to size, peel off the backing and press it down. No paste, glue or drying time is involved. Can you use wallpaper for crafts? Yes. Peel and stick wallpaper sheets are well suited to crafts because they are already sized for small work and need no glue. Cut them with a sharp knife while the backing is still attached, stick them to clean, smooth surfaces, and keep paper projects away from water. Test absorbent materials like raw cardboard on a corner first. What can I do with leftover wallpaper? Leftover sheets are ideal for bookmarks, party props and bunting, a matching desk set, the lining of a keepsake box, or labels and lists. You can also stick one sheet on a wall you are thinking of covering and live with it for a while, which shows you the color in your own light before you commit to a bigger project. Is craft paper the same as contact paper? Not quite. Both have adhesive on the back, but contact paper is usually sold on a roll and is often a plastic film, while craft paper sheets are designed around a purpose, such as a chalkboard or dry erase surface, or an embossed metallic finish. Check each product page for the material, because it varies between lines. What is Arts and Crafts style wallpaper? It is wallpaper in the style of the Arts and Crafts movement, which began in Britain in the late 1800s. Designers such as William Morris favored hand block printing and nature-based patterns: twisting vines, stylized flowers and leaves, in earthy greens, golds and blues. Modern botanical prints in muted colors are an easy way to borrow the look.

Most rooms get a glance. The dining room gets an audience. People sit in it for an hour at a time, facing the same wall, with nothing to do between courses but look around. That makes wallpaper for a dining room one of the best-value decorating moves in the house: a pattern that would be background noise in a hallway becomes the thing your guests remember. This guide covers the wall, the pattern and the layout, all with peel and stick sheets rather than a weekend of paste. What makes the dining room an easy room to wallpaper A dining room asks very little of a wall. There is no shower steam, no toothbrush splash and, in most homes, no stove on the other side of the plaster. It is used in bursts, then left alone. For a self-adhesive paper, those are close to ideal conditions. Main Street's wallpaper sheets are made for exactly this kind of surface. Each product page lists the application surface as painted, sealed and finished surfaces, and the brand's installation guide names smooth painted drywall among the best places to use them. Most dining room walls are just that. The format helps too. Each sheet is 11 x 16 inches, about 1.22 square feet, and a 12-pack covers roughly 14.6 square feet, so you can buy for one wall or one section of it. The product pages also describe the sheets as removable and repositionable, which suits renters who want a dinner-party backdrop without a conversation with the landlord. Choose the wall your guests actually face In a living room, the feature wall is usually behind the sofa. A dining room works the other way around: think about what sits in front of each chair, then pick from these four spots. The wall opposite the host. Whoever sits at the head of the table spends the evening looking down its length. Paper the far wall and the whole table gets a focal point. The window wall. A window breaks a wall into small sections that sheets fill neatly. Pattern around a bright white window frame makes the view look deliberate, the way a mat sets off a painting. Behind the sideboard or buffet. A papered rectangle above a sideboard stands in for a large piece of art, and it never needs framing. The boundary of an open-plan dining zone. When the dining table shares a room with the kitchen or living area, one papered wall tells the eye where dinner begins. Watch the chair line and the serving zone Dining rooms have one hazard other rooms do not: chairs. Every time someone pushes back from the table, a chair back can knock the wall behind it, and paper there is a surface finish, not armor. The simplest fix is to start the pattern above the height of your chair backs. A chair rail, even a slim painted strip of trim, gives you a crisp edge to trim against and protects the band below. The second zone to think about is wherever food gets served. A buffet that holds warming trays or a pass-through from the kitchen will see steam, drips and the occasional splash of gravy. The sheets are paper, the brand does not publish a heat rating for them, and Main Street lists areas exposed to moisture among the surfaces to avoid. Keep the pattern a sensible distance above anything hot or wet, and keep candles well clear of the wall. Wallpaper for a dining room: four ideas using sheets 1. A dark floral around the window Deep grounds do something special in a dining room, which is mostly used after dark. Queen Anne's Lace scatters fine cream and gold wildflower heads across a near-black background. Under a warm pendant light, the pale flowers glow and the dark ground falls away, which makes a small room feel intimate rather than cramped. Wrapping it around a white window frame, as in the photo above, gives you strong contrast with almost no effort. 2. A framed panel above the sideboard If papering a whole wall feels like too much, treat the pattern like a painting. Set 12 sheets upright in two rows of six and you get a panel 66 inches wide and 32 inches tall, a good match for a standard sideboard. That uses one full 12-pack with nothing to spare, so buy a second pack for pattern matching and the occasional miscut. Edge it with thin painted molding for a built-in look. A botanical such as Magnolia Branches, white blossoms on a deep teal, suits this treatment because the pattern has room to breathe inside the frame. 3. The back of a china cabinet or hutch A glass-front cabinet full of white plates is a wonderful thing to line. The back panel is usually sealed or painted wood, which sits on the brand's list of suitable surfaces, and the area is small enough to finish in an evening. Toile Forest, a green tree canopy against a pale sky, turns a stack of everyday dishes into a proper display. For trimming around shelf supports and hinges, our guide to wallpapering furniture walks through the cuts. 4. A warm wall to anchor an open-plan table In a shared kitchen and dining space, you want the dining corner to feel like its own room without building one. Wood Slat Panel prints the look of warm brown vertical wood slats, and on the wall beside the table it suggests paneling and warmth without a single board. It is a printed, smooth finish, so it reads as wood from across the room rather than up close. Dark or light? Decide by when you eat The usual advice about pattern scale and color applies to every room, and our living room ideas cover it in detail. The dining room adds one question the other rooms do not: what time of day is this room at its best? Mostly dinners. Lean dark and rich. A deep ground looks its best under lamplight and candlelight, and the room will rarely be judged in harsh midday sun. Mostly breakfast and homework. Go lighter. A quiet pattern like Neutral Palm, soft beige fronds on cream, keeps a morning table bright and plays nicely with whatever else is happening in an open-plan space. Both. Choose a mid-tone pattern and let a dimmer on the pendant change the mood. Distance matters too. Guests see the wall from a seat a few feet away, where a very fine pattern can blur into one color while a medium motif stays readable. Tape one sheet up, sit in the chair facing it and judge from there before ordering the rest. Measuring and hanging sheets in a dining room For a full wall, multiply width by height in feet for the square footage, divide by the 14.6 square feet a 12-pack covers and round up. Keep a margin for trimming around frames and outlets. Our measuring guide works through a full example. Hanging follows Main Street's four steps. You need a measuring tape, a pencil, a utility knife, a damp cloth and a smoothing tool. Prep. Wipe the wall with a damp cloth, then with a mix of 30% isopropyl alcohol and 70% water, and let it dry completely. If the room was recently painted, the brand says to wait at least four weeks first. Measure and align. Draw a light pencil guide with a level. In a dining room with a chair rail, the rail is tempting as a guide, but old trim is rarely true, so check it. Peel and stick. Peel back the first few inches of backing, align the top edge to your guideline and press it firmly into place. Smooth and trim. Pull the backing down slowly while the smoothing tool pushes air out toward the edges, then trim at window casings, the chair rail and the baseboard with a sharp utility knife. For corners and outlets, see our step-by-step guide on how to apply peel and stick wallpaper. Frequently asked questions Is peel and stick wallpaper good for a dining room? Yes, it is one of the better rooms for it. Dining room walls are usually smooth, painted and dry, which matches the painted, sealed and finished surfaces Main Street recommends for its sheets. Keep the pattern above chair-back height or behind a chair rail, and away from warming trays, candles and any spot that sees steam or spills. Which wall should you wallpaper in a dining room? Start with the wall most diners face, usually the one opposite the head of the table or the wall behind a sideboard. A window wall also works well because the frame breaks the pattern into neat sections. In an open-plan space, paper the wall that marks the edge of the dining zone so the table feels like its own room. Should dining room wallpaper be dark or light? It depends on when you use the room. If it mostly hosts evening meals, a dark pattern looks rich under warm lighting and makes the space feel intimate. If the table is used for breakfast, homework and daytime work, a lighter, quieter pattern keeps it bright. Test one sheet on the wall and judge it from a seat, not from the doorway. Can you put contact paper on a dining table? People do, but a tabletop is a working surface that sees hot dishes, spills and constant wiping. Main Street's paper sheets are not sold as a tabletop covering, and the brand does not publish a heat or water rating for them. We would keep them off the top itself and use them where they last, such as on a sideboard, a hutch back or the wall behind the table. How many packs do I need for a dining room accent wall? Multiply the wall's width by its height in feet, then divide by 14.6, the approximate coverage of a 12-pack of Main Street's 11 x 16 inch wallpaper sheets, and round up. A 10 x 8 foot wall is 80 square feet, which works out to about five and a half packs, so buy six, plus one more if you are trimming around windows. Each product page lists its exact coverage.