How to Cover a Bookshelf With Contact Paper: Back Panel, Shelves and Edges

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.

The pantry jar label you wrote in a hurry last spring now reads "fl ur." Before you redo the whole shelf, it helps to know why it faded. Can you write on contact paper? Usually, yes, but whether the words stay sharp, wipe away on cue or smear into a gray cloud depends on two things: what the sheet's surface is made of, and which pen you grabbed from the junk drawer. First, find out what kind of contact paper you have "Contact paper" is a catch-all name, and it covers surfaces that behave very differently under a pen tip. Most of what gets sold as shelf-liner contact paper is a thin vinyl film with a glossy or semi-gloss face. Clear contact paper is the same idea without the print. Then there are paper-faced sheets, like the 11 x 16 in. Classic Sheets we make at Main Street, which are peel and stick paper with a printed, smooth decorative finish. If you are not sure which family yours belongs to, our explainer on what contact paper is walks through the types. The distinction matters because ink behaves in two basic ways. On a glossy, non-porous film, ink sits on top. That makes it easier to wipe off, but also easier to smudge before it dries. On a porous paper face, ink sinks in a little. It stays put, which is great for a label and bad for anything you hoped to erase. A thirty-second test settles it: draw a small dot with a dry erase marker on a scrap or an offcut, wait a minute, and wipe it with a dry cloth. If it lifts cleanly, you have a glossy face. If it leaves a shadow, treat the surface as porous. Which pens and markers can you write on contact paper with? Treat what follows as a starting point, not a guarantee, because finishes vary from brand to brand. Dry erase markers On glossy vinyl or clear film, dry erase markers write and wipe off, at least at first. Ordinary contact paper is not made as a whiteboard, though, so expect some ghosting over weeks of use, especially if the ink sits for a long time or you scrub it with something rough. Makers of commercial dry erase laminates add a hard coat specifically to resist that staining, which tells you plain film does not have one. On a porous paper face, dry erase ink tends to soak in and stay, so skip it there. Permanent markers A fine-tip permanent marker is the most reliable way to write on contact paper you never plan to change. It grips glossy film well once dry and stays crisp on paper-faced sheets. The catch is in the name: removal is not something to count on, so write the label on a scrap first if your handwriting needs a warm-up lap. Chalk markers Liquid chalk markers are generally sold for non-porous surfaces such as glass, glossy boards and smooth films, where they wipe off with a damp cloth. On porous surfaces they can stain. They make striking white lettering on dark glossy film, but always try one in a hidden corner, because some formulas leave a faint shadow behind even on smooth surfaces. Paint pens Oil- or acrylic-based paint pens give the boldest, most opaque line. Let them cure fully before handling, and assume they are there to stay. Ballpoint, gel pens and pencil Ballpoint ink tends to bead and skip on glossy film, and gel ink can stay wet long enough to smear under your hand. Pencil barely marks film at all. On a matte paper face, pencil and ballpoint work better, though a pen pressed too hard can dent the sheet. For anything you will read from across a room, reach for a marker instead. Turning clear contact paper into a dry erase board This is the classic teacher and parent trick, and it works well enough for light use. Print or draw a chore chart, a weekly menu or a reading log on plain paper, then cover it with clear contact paper so the film becomes your writing surface. Cut the film about an inch larger than the chart on every side. Peel back a few inches of backing, align one edge and smooth the film across with a flat tool or a credit card, working from the center out so no air gets trapped. Wrap the excess around the back, or trim it flush with scissors or a utility knife. Write with dry erase markers, let the ink dry before you erase, and wipe with a dry microfiber cloth or felt eraser. Expect some haze after a few months of daily use. That is ghosting, and on film never rated as a dry erase surface it comes with the territory. When it gets distracting, re-cover a reprinted chart rather than fighting the stain. How to write on contact paper so it doesn't come off Labels on bins, jars and shelf edges get handled constantly, and that is what wears the ink away. A few habits help. Write on a clean, dry face. Fingerprints and dust leave a film that ink sits on instead of gripping. Wipe the spot with a dry cloth first. Let it dry before anyone touches it. Permanent and paint markers need a few minutes, and paint pens longer. Most smudged labels were handled too soon. Write first, then stick. Lettering a flat sheet on the table is easier than writing on a curved jar, and you can redo a botched one without peeling anything off the shelf. Protect the words with a layer, not a coating. A strip of clear contact paper over the label shields the ink from hands. Clear sprays and sealers are a different question with real trade-offs; our guide on whether you can seal contact paper covers them. If you are lining pantry shelves with a printed sheet like Carrara Marble, don't write directly on the pattern. Our Classic Sheets are made as a decorative surface, not a writing one, and we don't publish guidance on how markers behave on that printed face. Add a small label strip on top instead. When a purpose-made writing sheet is the better buy Writing on ordinary contact paper is a workaround. If the plan is to write, erase and write again every week, a sheet built for the job saves you the haze and the guesswork. The Dry Erase Classic Peel and Stick Craft Paper is an 11 x 15 in. self-adhesive sheet with a white writable surface made for dry erase markers. Cut it down for bin labels and planner strips, or tile several sheets into a family command center. Our dry erase wallpaper guide covers layout and care. Stick to dry erase markers on it: a permanent marker on this surface should be treated as permanent. The Chalkboard Classic Peel and Stick Craft Paper is the matte black counterpart, also 11 x 15 in., and Main Street lists it as compatible with both chalk and chalk markers. It is the one to choose for pantry jar labels, a coffee bar menu or a strip along a shelf edge, where white lettering on black reads beautifully. Test a chalk marker in a corner first to see how cleanly it erases, and see our chalkboard wallpaper guide for more ideas. Getting marker off contact paper Mistakes happen, usually with a permanent marker and a child who found it. Test every method below on a hidden corner first, because solvents can lift printed ink or loosen adhesive along with the marker. Dry erase ink that won't budge: write over the ghost with a fresh dry erase marker and wipe it straight away. The solvent in the new ink often loosens the old. Permanent marker on glossy film: the same dry erase trick sometimes works if the mark is recent. Failing that, a cotton swab barely dampened with rubbing alcohol, used in small circles, lifts ink from many vinyl surfaces. Results vary, and on printed film it can take the print with it. Anything on a paper face: stop before you scrub. Paper absorbs both the ink and whatever you use to remove it. A cut-out label strip or a fresh piece over the top is the cleaner fix. Frequently asked questions Is contact paper dry erase? Not by design. Glossy vinyl contact paper accepts dry erase markers and wipes clean at first, but it has no coating to resist ghosting, so marks tend to linger after weeks of use. Paper-faced sheets absorb dry erase ink. If you want a reusable board, choose a sheet sold as a dry erase surface, such as Dry Erase Classic, and use dry erase markers only. Can you write on clear contact paper? Yes. Clear contact paper takes dry erase markers, permanent markers, chalk markers and paint pens well because its glossy face is non-porous. Ballpoint and gel pens tend to skip or smear. The most popular use is covering a printed chart so the film becomes a wipe-off surface, though expect some haze over months of daily writing. What is the best pen for writing on contact paper permanently? A fine-tip permanent marker is the simplest choice for crisp, lasting labels on most contact paper. Paint pens give bolder, more opaque lettering, especially on dark sheets. Whichever you use, write on a clean, dry surface, let the ink dry fully before touching it, and consider a strip of clear film over the top for labels that get handled often. Can you use chalk markers on contact paper? Liquid chalk markers are made for non-porous surfaces, so they usually work on glossy contact paper and wipe off with a damp cloth. On porous paper faces they can stain. Some leave a faint shadow even on smooth film, so test one in a corner first. For a surface meant for them, Chalkboard Classic is listed for chalk and chalk markers. How do you get permanent marker off contact paper? On glossy film, try scribbling over the mark with a dry erase marker and wiping immediately. If that fails, a swab lightly dampened with rubbing alcohol may lift it, but test first, since solvents can remove printed ink or weaken the adhesive. On paper-faced sheets, removal rarely works cleanly, so covering or replacing the section is usually the better fix.

Somewhere between the third wipe-down and the first chipped corner, every covered desk, tray and drawer front raises the same question: can you seal contact paper so it holds up longer? You can, on the right project, and the payoff is a scuff-resistant, wipeable face that keeps a print looking the way it did on day one. What a clear coat cannot do is turn a self-adhesive paper sheet into a countertop or a wet-room surface. Below: how each sealer behaves on a printed sheet, how to apply one without wrecking the finish, and when a coat of anything is the wrong fix. Can you seal contact paper? Yes, on three conditions A sealer is a clear film over the printed face. It protects what is already there; it does not change what the sheet is or where it belongs, which is why the yes comes with conditions. The piece is dry-use, and stays that way. Main Street lists painted, sealed and finished surfaces for its 11 x 16 inch Classic Sheets, and its how-to guide puts areas exposed to moisture on the avoid list. A topcoat does not move that line. It protects a desk or a bookcase back; it does not qualify a sink surround. You accept that the piece becomes semi-permanent. The product pages describe the sheets as designed to peel off cleanly from suitable walls. A cured sealer bonds the face, the seams and the edges into one film, and that tidy peel gets harder. If you rent, or you like to change your mind, read how removal actually goes before you open the can. You test first. Main Street publishes no guidance on topcoats, so no sealer is endorsed for the Classic Sheets or the Craft Paper line. An offcut on a scrap of the same material tells you in a day what no tutorial can promise. One construction note: the Classic Sheets are paper with a printed face, and Main Street's About page describes a low-emission polyurethane finish on its materials. You are adding a thicker, sacrificial layer over a face that already has a finish, which is why thin coats behave and heavy ones go cloudy. What a clear coat changes, and what it leaves alone Most disappointment with sealed contact paper comes from expecting the coat to fix something it never touches. It changes: scuff resistance, since keys, mugs and laptop feet now meet the sealer instead of the print; wipeability; and sheen, since a matte or satin coat evens out the look across sheets. A thin coat carried just past a seam also helps a butt joint stay down. A heavy coat turns every seam into a ridge. It leaves alone: The adhesive. Whatever is happening under the sheet keeps happening. Sealing the top does not seal the back. The water rating. Sealed or not, the Classic Sheets are not sold as waterproof or water-resistant, and a coat of varnish does not issue one. Water finds the edge, the seam and the adhesive line, none of which the coat protects. Heat. Main Street publishes no heat rating for its sheets, and a cured topcoat does not supply one. Keep sealed pieces as far from a stovetop as unsealed ones. Polyurethane, decoupage medium, spray acrylic or epoxy: how each behaves on a printed sheet In rough order of how forgiving each is over a thin printed face: Water-based polyurethane or polycrylic. The usual pick in DIY accounts: it dries clear, has low odour, and finishing guides consistently describe water-based products as less prone to yellowing than oil-based ones. Still test it on a dark print, where any haze shows first. Oil-based polyurethane. A tougher film, but the same guides describe it ambering with age and light. On a white marble print or a pale floral, that reads as a tint within a season. Decoupage medium. The craft-aisle glue-and-varnish in one, made for paper, so it is comfortable on boxes, trays and journal covers. Crafters often report it staying softer than a true varnish and feeling tacky in humid weather, so it is not the choice for a desktop that takes a laptop daily. Craft guides also warn about smearing over home inkjet prints; factory-printed sheets are a different animal, but that is what the scrap test is for. Clear acrylic spray. The thinnest film, and the easiest to keep even over an embossed face where a brush would pool. Several light passes beat one wet one. Epoxy. The one to treat with the most care. A self-levelling pour is thick and permanent, so it telegraphs every seam and locks in every bubble. Hobbyist reports describe adhesion problems over film faces, yellowing, and pours that had to be stripped along with the surface underneath. Food contact needs a product specifically rated for it. Pour it over a prepared substrate, not over a decorative sheet. How to seal contact paper on a dry project, step by step Finish the install and let it settle. Press every sheet down with the smoothing tool, chase out the bubbles and trim the edges with a sharp utility knife. A sealer over an air bubble preserves it forever. Leave the piece overnight before you coat it. Clean the face gently. A dry or barely damp microfibre cloth is enough. Skip solvents on the printed face unless you have tested them on scrap. Run the scrap test. Stick an offcut to a piece of the same material, apply the sealer the way you plan to, and leave it 24 hours. Check for colour shift, cloudiness, lifted edges and tack. Apply thin coats. A foam brush for brush-on products, light passes for spray. Two or three thin coats beat one heavy one. Follow the recoat time on the label; products differ. Decide what the edge does. Carry the coat a hair past the sheet to lock the edge down, or mask and stop clean where the substrate would show the overlap. Cure before use. Dry to the touch is not cured. Keep weight and heat off the piece for the full time on the label. A worked example: a desktop covered in Herringbone sheets takes a pen, a mug and a laptop every day, exactly the traffic a water-based coat is good at absorbing. The furniture guide covers the install itself; this article only adds the coat on top. When sealing is the wrong answer, and what to do instead The most-searched version of this question is how to seal contact paper on countertops, and it deserves a straight response. Main Street's sheet pages say to skip moisture and wet zones, and a coat of polyurethane does not change what happens at the sink edge or behind the faucet. The countertop article walks through the dry stretches where a sheet can work. If the draw of a marble counter is really the marble, Carrara Marble sheets on a dry side table or a desk give you the look without the splash zone. More places where the coat is the wrong tool: Anywhere near a burner, and any bathroom. No sealer qualifies a sheet for a room on the avoid list, and with no published heat rating a sealed strip behind a stove is still an unknown. Writable surfaces. Chalkboard Classic and Dry Erase Classic work because the face itself takes chalk or marker. A clear coat ends that. Never seal them. Anything you want back the way it was. Sealing trades removability for durability. A rental or a borrowed piece is a reason to leave the sheet bare. A print you have gone off. Sealing locks it in. Painting over a printed, sealed face is harder than it looks; the painting article covers what holds and what peels, and swapping a single 11 x 16 inch sheet is usually the easier route. For the piece that will get wet anyway, a drinks tray, a coaster, a sleeve around a plant pot, change material rather than add a coat. Main Street's Luxury Cardstock line is the one published as water-resistant: Natural Reflection is an embossed peel and stick paper at 17.25 x 10 inches, Impressive Geometry is an embossed foil at 10 x 16 inches, and both pages list coasters and trays among their uses. Water-resistant is the brand's word; neither page says waterproof, so standing water is still off the table. Frequently asked questions Can you seal contact paper? Yes, on dry, indoor projects such as a desk, a tray or a bookcase, using thin coats of a clear water-based finish or a spray acrylic. The coat protects the printed face from scuffs and makes it wipeable. It does not make the sheet waterproof, heat-rated or suitable for wet zones, and it makes later removal harder, so test on scrap first. Can you put polyurethane over contact paper? Water-based polyurethane is the most common choice in DIY accounts because it dries clear and is described as less prone to yellowing than oil-based products. Apply two or three thin coats and follow the recoat and cure times on the label. Oil-based polyurethane ambers over time and can tint light prints, so it is better reserved for dark patterns. Can you put epoxy over contact paper? You can pour it, but it is the riskiest option. Epoxy is thick, permanent and self-levelling, so it shows every seam and bubble, and hobbyist reports describe adhesion problems, yellowing and surfaces that had to be stripped. Most epoxies are not rated for food contact. If you want a poured finish, prepare the substrate itself rather than coating a decorative sheet. Does sealing contact paper make it waterproof? No. A topcoat protects the printed face, but water reaches a sheet through its edges, seams and adhesive, which the coat does not protect. Main Street's Classic Sheets are not sold as waterproof or water-resistant, sealed or not. For a tray or coaster that will get damp, the Luxury Cardstock line is the one published as water-resistant, and even it is not meant for standing water. How do you seal contact paper on countertops? The brand guidance is to keep the Classic Sheets out of moisture and wet zones, and a sealer does not change that. A dry, decorative stretch of counter away from the sink can be sealed like any other dry surface, with thin water-based coats and a scrap test first. The sink surround, the area behind the faucet and anything that sits wet should stay uncovered.

Your cutting machine already handles cardstock and craft vinyl, so the sheet of self-adhesive paper left over from a drawer project looks like fair game. Can you use contact paper with a Cricut? Yes, for most self-adhesive papers and films, with two caveats: there is no official preset for most brands, so the first cut is a test, and the opaque kind cannot double as transfer tape. Here is how to set up the cut, which mat to load, what to make, and where the transfer tape idea stops working. Can you cut contact paper with a Cricut? Most home cutting machines slice through thin adhesive materials every day. Adhesive vinyl, sticker paper and stencil film all share the same build as contact paper: a decorative face, a layer of adhesive and a peel-away liner. A fine-point blade handles that stack without trouble. The variable is thickness. Main Street's sheets are published as peel and stick paper wallpaper, not vinyl, so a sheet such as the Herringbone Classic Sheets is closer to sticker paper than to film. A heavy plastic shelf-liner film may need more pressure, and sometimes a second pass. Cricut's own help pages say that if a material is not on the list, or does not cut as expected, you adjust the pressure or create a custom material setting, and that no material is guaranteed to cut. Main Street does not publish machine settings for its sheets either, so treat everything below as a starting point and keep a scrap handy. What setting to use for contact paper on a Cricut Design Space has no entry called contact paper. You pick the closest relative and tune from there. Paper-faced sheets (the Classic Sheets, the Chalkboard Classic, the Dry Erase Classic): start with the sticker paper or printable sticker paper preset. It is built to score a paper face and stop at the liner. Thin film contact paper from a hardware store roll: start with the vinyl or stencil vinyl preset, which expects a plastic face on a paper liner. Embossed foil craft sheets such as the Glow Getter: start from a cardstock preset, since the surface is thicker and textured, then back off if the blade is cutting into the liner. Run a small test shape in a corner before the real design. Look at the back: if the liner is scored or cut, lower the pressure; if the shape will not lift, raise it or add a second pass. Once a setting works, save it as a custom material so you never repeat the experiment. Keep a fresh blade in the housing for this. A tired blade drags paper rather than slicing it, and the fuzzy edge shows most on small lettering. Mats, sheet sizes and loading the paper Load the sheet face up, liner down, and leave the liner on. The liner gives the paper body and keeps the adhesive off the mat, which is why a light-grip or standard-grip mat is all you need. Press the sheet down with a brayer or a smoothing tool so the corners cannot lift mid-cut. Size is where people get caught. Cricut lists the maximum cutting area on a 12 x 12 in mat as 11.5 x 11.5 in. Main Street's wallpaper sheets measure 11 x 16 in, the Chalkboard and Dry Erase sheets are 11 x 15 in, and the Glow Getter is 10 x 15 in. So the width fits on any standard mat, but the length does not. Either trim the sheet to 11.5 in with a ruler and knife before loading, or use a 12 x 24 in mat and let the full sheet ride lengthwise. Cricut Joy mats are 4.5 in wide, so a Joy needs the sheet cut into strips first. Check your own machine's mat sizes before you plan a large design. Kiss cut or cut all the way through? A kiss cut goes through the face and the adhesive but leaves the liner whole. The sheet comes off the mat in one piece, you weed away the parts you do not want, and each remaining shape peels off the liner like a sticker. This is the cut for labels, drawer-front motifs, monograms and stencils. A through cut goes through the liner too, so every piece falls free with its own backing attached. Use it when you want loose shapes to arrange later: paper butterflies for a wall, tags, or pieces of a layered design. The Glow Getter product gallery shows both uses, a wreath of cut-out foil butterflies and a script cake topper, and both start with a machine. If you only want a stencil, our guide on how to make a stencil with contact paper covers the hand-cut version and the painting steps; a kiss cut from the machine simply replaces the knife work. Five projects that are worth firing up the machine Chalkboard labels. Kiss-cut a sheet of Chalkboard Classic into rounded rectangles or circles, peel them onto bins and canisters, and write on them with chalk or chalk markers. Relabel when the contents change. One 11 x 15 in sheet yields a whole pantry's worth. A dry-erase weekly strip. Cut seven narrow panels from a sheet of Dry Erase Classic, stick them in a row inside a cabinet door and you have a meal plan that wipes clean with a dry erase marker. Drawer-front motifs. A scalloped band, a house number or a child's initial cut from a patterned sheet such as Peony Party dresses a plain dresser without covering the whole front. Keep to painted, sealed or finished surfaces, which is what the product pages list. Box and binder labels. A machine-cut label panel on the end of a covered box is tidier than a hand-trimmed one. If the box itself still needs covering, start with how to cover a cardboard box with contact paper. Foil accents. Through-cut leaves, letters or butterflies from an embossed foil sheet for place cards, gift tags or a wall arrangement. Handle the cut pieces by their liners to keep the foil face clean. Whatever you cut, prep the surface the way Main Street's application guide asks: wipe with a damp cloth, follow with a 30 percent isopropyl alcohol and 70 percent water mix, and let it dry. On a freshly painted surface the brand says to wait at least four weeks. Is contact paper the same as transfer tape? No, though they are close cousins. Transfer tape is a clear or translucent carrier with a deliberately light, even tack. You press it over a weeded vinyl design, lift the design off its liner in one piece, position it, then peel the tape away and leave the vinyl behind. The tack has to be strong enough to lift vinyl and weak enough to let go of it. Clear contact paper is sold as a protective film, and its adhesive was never tuned for that handoff. Crafters who have tested the two side by side report that clear contact paper works in a pinch for ordinary adhesive vinyl, but it is harder to lift off its own liner, grabs some vinyls too firmly to release cleanly, can leave a faint residue on glass, and generally fails on glitter or holographic vinyl. The usual advice is to use it for simple shapes and test on scrap first. Printed and opaque contact paper does not work as transfer tape at all. You cannot see the design through it to position it, and that is the one job transfer tape exists to do. None of Main Street's sheets are clear, so if you need a carrier, buy transfer tape. If you want to know more about what the term covers, start with what is contact paper. How to use clear contact paper as transfer tape, if you must Cut a piece of clear contact paper slightly larger than the weeded design and peel off its liner. Lay it over the design from one edge, rubbing it down with a scraper so it grabs every piece. Peel the design away from the vinyl liner slowly, at a low angle, and go back for any piece that stays behind. Position the design, burnish it onto the surface, then peel the contact paper back over itself at a sharp angle. Frequently asked questions What Cricut setting do you use for contact paper? There is no contact paper preset in Design Space. For a paper-faced sheet, start with the sticker paper setting; for thin plastic film, start with vinyl or stencil vinyl; for an embossed foil craft sheet, start with cardstock. Run a test shape, check whether the liner was cut, adjust the pressure, and save the result as a custom material. Can you make stickers with contact paper? Yes. A kiss cut turns any self-adhesive sheet into a sticker sheet: the blade cuts the face and adhesive, the liner stays whole, and you weed and peel the shapes as you need them. A patterned wallpaper sheet or a chalkboard sheet works well because the face is already printed, so there is no printing step at all. Can a Cricut Joy cut contact paper? It can cut thin adhesive paper, but its mats are only 4.5 in wide, so an 11 in sheet has to be cut into strips before loading. That suits labels and small motifs more than large shapes. Start with a light setting, test on a corner, and expect to adjust pressure because the machine has no contact paper preset. Is transfer paper the same as contact paper? No. Transfer paper, also sold as transfer tape, is a clear carrier with a light tack made for lifting cut vinyl off its liner and onto a surface. Clear contact paper can substitute for simple designs, with mixed results reported by crafters, while printed or opaque contact paper cannot, because you cannot see through it to position the design. Do Main Street sheets work in a Silhouette or other cutting machine? The brand does not publish settings for any machine, so the same rule applies to every brand of cutter: load the sheet with its liner on, start from a sticker paper or thin cardstock setting, cut a test shape and adjust. The sheets are 11 in wide, which fits the standard 12 in mats most machines use.

The box a pair of shoes came in is roughly the right size for most of the small things that pile up on a shelf, which is why so many of those boxes never make it to the recycling. Covering a cardboard box with contact paper turns that pile into storage you would leave in plain view, for a sheet or two per box. Below is how to cover a cardboard box with contact paper so the corners stay crisp, the lid still fits and the paper stays put, plus which boxes are worth the effort. Does contact paper stick to cardboard? Yes, and it holds better on some boxes than others. Self-adhesive paper grips smooth surfaces, so a shoebox or gift box with a coated, slightly glossy face is the easy case: the paper goes down flat and stays there. Raw corrugated cardboard, the brown kraft kind shipping boxes are made of, is more absorbent and slightly fuzzy, so the adhesive has less to grab. It still works, but press harder and test a corner first, as our surface-by-surface guide to what contact paper sticks to explains. One thing to know before you start: Main Street's guidance for its 11 by 16 inch wallpaper sheets names painted, sealed and finished surfaces, and cardboard is not on that list. The paper grips coated box board well, but the bond is a one-way trip. Peel it off a kraft box and the top layer of the cardboard often comes with it, so treat a covered box as covered for good. What you need to cover a box with contact paper Main Street's own how-to guide lists a measuring tape and pencil, a utility knife, a damp cloth and a smoothing tool. A box project adds a few things from the kitchen drawer. Self-adhesive sheets. The 11 by 16 inch wallpaper sheets cover 1.22 square feet each. A box the size of an adult shoebox, roughly 13 by 8 by 5 inches, takes about four sheets including the lid, but measure yours before you count. A utility knife, scissors and a straightedge. The knife for trimming against the box edge, the scissors for corner slits, the straightedge for cutting panels square. A smoothing tool or an old gift card for pushing air toward the edges and pressing paper into corners. A damp cloth. Cardboard holds dust, and dust is what makes edges lift later. Pattern matters more on a box than on a wall, because a box is small and you see the whole thing at once. A fine, all-over print such as Woven Stripe forgives a seam at the corner and reads as a set when several boxes line up on an open shelf. A large motif works too, as long as you plan where it lands on the lid. How to cover a cardboard box with contact paper, step by step Because the sheets are 11 by 16 inches, the cleanest method covers one face at a time and puts every seam on a corner, where the eye expects an edge anyway. Prep the box. Pull off tape and labels, press down lifted flaps and glue a loose corner if one has split. Wipe every face with a slightly damp cloth and let it dry fully. Measure each face, then add margins. For a side panel, measure its width and height. Add about half an inch to the width to wrap around one corner, and an inch top and bottom to fold over the rim and under the base. Write each measurement on the backing in pencil. Cut with the backing on. Lay the sheet face down, mark the panel on the backing and cut along the straightedge. Cutting before you peel is what keeps the edges straight. Apply the first long side. Peel back only an inch or two of backing. Line the panel up so the extra half inch overhangs one corner and the margins overhang top and bottom. Press the exposed strip down, then pull the backing away a little at a time while you smooth from the center outward. Turn the corner. Run the smoothing tool firmly into the corner so the paper creases on the edge, then fold the half-inch overhang onto the next face and press it flat. Cover the remaining sides. The next panel's cut edge sits right on the corner line, over that half-inch wrap. Work around the box this way until the last two wraps meet at the final corner. Fold the margins. At the bottom, snip a short slit at each corner, fold the long-side margins under first, then the short ones, like wrapping a gift. At the top of an open box, fold the margin over the rim and press it down inside. Our guide to covering a book with contact paper uses the same fold-and-tuck logic on a smaller scale, and the same rule applies here: cut generously, then trim. Corners, lids and handle holes: the three spots that go wrong Corners Most lumpy corners come from folding two layers of paper over each other at a right angle. The fix is a slit. Where a margin has to turn a corner, cut from the edge of the paper straight in to the corner of the box, fold one flap down, then fold the other over it. Each flap lies flat instead of bunching. For rounded box corners, and for inside and outside corners on furniture, see how to do corners with contact paper. Lids The lid is where a box can stop closing. Paper adds a little thickness, and a snug lid has no room to spare. Cover the lid top and its outer sides, but leave the inside of the lid rim bare so it still slides over the box. On a box that lives in a cubby, consider covering only the lid and the front face, which is all anyone sees. Handle holes Archive boxes often have cut-out handles. Cover straight over the hole, then from inside the box cut an X through the paper from corner to corner of the opening. Fold the four flaps through to the inside and press them down, so the cut edge ends up where fingers will not catch it. Lining the inside of a box, or a tray A lined interior is the detail that makes a box feel finished rather than disguised, and it is easier than the outside because nothing has to wrap. Measure the base and each inside wall separately, cut each panel a hair under size so it drops in without buckling, and press from the center outward. A keepsake box with a floral such as Block Print Floral inside the lid is a small, cheerful surprise every time it opens. These wallpaper sheets are paper, so keep lined boxes away from anything damp. The same method lines the base of a wooden tray, which is what the photo at the top of this article shows. For a tray that will see the occasional cup, Main Street's embossed foil craft sheet Very Crock N Roll is the one to reach for: its product page lists it as water-resistant and suited to functional crafts, which the regular wallpaper sheets are not. It measures 10 by 15 inches, so check the tray base against that before you order. Which boxes to cover, and which to leave alone Shoeboxes and gift boxes with a coated face. The best candidates: rigid, smooth and already box-shaped. A row of them in one print, something like Herringbone, reads as a matched set rather than a collection of leftovers. Kraft shipping boxes. Fine for a closet shelf once the flaps are taped flat, but press every edge firmly and expect a lighter grip than on a coated box. Boxes that need to fold flat again. Skip these. Paper across a fold line tends to crack or lift at the crease the first time the box collapses. Boxes going somewhere damp. Also skip. Main Street's guide lists moisture-exposed areas among the places to avoid for its wallpaper sheets, and a cardboard box under a sink will fail before the paper does. Once the boxes are covered, label them. A panel cut from a sheet of Chalkboard Classic and stuck to the front face takes chalk or a chalk marker and wipes clean when the contents change, which beats a strip of masking tape. For more small projects that use up a sheet or two, see our guide to craft wallpaper. Frequently asked questions Will contact paper stick to a cardboard box? Yes. Self-adhesive paper holds well on smooth, coated box board, the kind shoeboxes and gift boxes are made of. Raw corrugated kraft is more absorbent, so the grip is lighter; press firmly and test a corner first. Main Street's surface guidance names painted, sealed and finished surfaces, so a cardboard box is a project you do with that in mind. How do you cover a box with contact paper without bubbles? Peel only an inch or two of backing at a time and smooth from the center of the panel toward the edges as you go, so air is pushed out ahead of the adhesive. If a bubble is trapped after the panel is down, lift the nearest edge and relay it, or prick the bubble with a pin and press the air out through the hole. Can you cover a shoebox with contact paper? A shoebox is the ideal first project: rigid, smooth and small enough that about four 11 by 16 inch sheets cover the base and lid. Cover the lid top and outer sides but leave the inside of the lid rim bare so it still slides on, and put your seams on the corners, where the eye expects an edge anyway. How many sheets does it take to cover a box? Measure each face, add about half an inch on one side for the corner wrap and an inch top and bottom for folding, then see how many of those panels fit on an 11 by 16 inch sheet. A typical adult shoebox with its lid comes to about four sheets. Count before you cut, because offcuts rarely rescue a panel that came up short. Can you remove contact paper from cardboard? You can peel it, but the result is rarely tidy. On kraft cardboard the top layer of the board often comes away with the paper, and on coated board the surface can scuff. Think of a covered box as permanently covered. If you want a reversible look, cover only the lid, or slip a loose printed panel inside a clear box sleeve instead.

Somewhere in your closet there is probably the end of a roll of wrapping paper, too short for anything boxed and too pretty to throw out. Using wrapping paper as drawer liner is one of the oldest tricks for a reason: it costs nothing, it comes in endless prints, and it turns the inside of a plain drawer into something you actually enjoy opening. It also has real limits, and they show up within a few weeks if you ignore them. Can you use wrapping paper as drawer liner? Yes, with one condition: treat it as a loose liner, not a permanent one. Wrapping paper is made to fold around a box once and be torn off, so it is thin, it often has a curl from the roll, and it tears where a heavy object gets dragged across it. Under folded sweaters, scarves or linens, none of that matters much: nothing scrapes it, and when it gets tired you swap it in two minutes. Where it struggles is the busy drawer. Cutlery, tools and chargers slide and catch, and a thin sheet with nothing holding it down wrinkles toward the back within days. Our guide on how to keep shelf liner in place explains why loose sheets creep, and the same physics applies here. One more line worth drawing early: wrapping paper is not made for food contact. In a kitchen drawer, keep anything you eat in its own packaging or a container rather than sitting directly on the print. How to line drawers with wrapping paper so it stays flat A liner that looks deliberate comes down to fit. Here is the order that works. Empty and clean the drawer. Vacuum the corners, wipe the bottom with a barely damp cloth, and let it dry completely. Paper laid over damp wood will cockle. Make a template. Press a sheet of plain paper into the drawer, crease it along the inside edges, and cut along the creases. Old drawers are rarely square, and a template catches that before you cut the good paper. Flatten the wrapping paper. Roll it the opposite way for a minute, or lay it print side down under a few books overnight. A curl you ignore now will lift the front edge later. Trace and cut slightly small. Aim for about an eighth of an inch inside the template on every side. A sheet that fits exactly will buckle against the drawer walls. Back it if the paper is flimsy. This is the step most people skip. Wrap the print around a piece of thin card, such as poster board or an opened file folder cut to the template, and tape the overlap on the underside. You now have a stiff insert that lies flat, resists sliding and lifts out in one piece for cleaning. If you want it to stay put without a backer, a few small pieces of removable tape at the corners will help. Test the tape on a hidden spot first, because some adhesives leave a mark on raw or older wood. Scrapbook, parchment, tissue and newspaper: how the other papers compare Scrapbook paper Heavier than most wrapping paper and usually sold in 12 x 12 in squares, scrapbook paper suits small drawers, such as jewelry or desk drawers, and lies flatter on its own. The catch is size. A dresser drawer will need several squares butted together, so pick a small allover print where the seams disappear into the pattern. Parchment paper Parchment is paper with a silicone coating, which makes it slick and nonstick. That is useful in a kitchen drawer where crumbs collect, since you can lift the sheet and tip it into the bin. The same coating means most tape grips the top surface poorly, so cut it to fit snugly and let it rest. Tissue paper Tissue has almost no body and moves with every garment, so it is a wrap rather than a liner. If you are storing heirloom linens or a christening gown, museum textile guides commonly suggest unbuffered acid-free tissue around the fabric and a barrier layer between the textile and bare wood, though practice varies. For anything genuinely precious, ask a conservator rather than relying on a blog post, ours included. Newspaper Lining dresser drawers with newspaper is an old habit, and the paper least suited to the job. Newsprint is high in lignin, which library preservation guides link to yellowing and brittleness over time, and the ink can rub off onto hands and pale fabric. Use it as a template, not a liner. Where a loose paper liner beats a sticky one Some drawers are better off with loose paper, even with a self-adhesive sheet on hand. Raw wood drawer bottoms. Many dresser drawers have unfinished bottoms. Main Street lists sealed wood among the best surfaces on our how-to-use page, and unsealed wood is not on that list, so a loose liner is the gentler option there. Antique or borrowed furniture. If the piece matters to you, or belongs to someone else, anything that does not stick is the lower-risk choice. Drawers you redo often. A nursery dresser that changes with the season, or a craft drawer you rearrange every month, suits a liner you can swap without peeling anything. Our article on closet and dresser liners goes further into what a liner does for clothes in a dresser, if you are still deciding whether to bother. When a self-adhesive paper sheet is the better drawer liner Switch when loose paper starts working against you: a drawer you open many times a day, contents that slide, or a wrinkled liner that is the first thing a guest sees. A peel and stick paper sheet solves the sliding problem at the root, because the whole back is adhesive. Main Street's Classic Sheets are paper wallpaper sheets measuring 11 x 16 in, about 1.22 sq ft each, and the product pages list the application surface as painted, sealed and finished surfaces. That describes many kitchen drawers and plenty of newer furniture, but check what your drawer is actually made of first. A few practical notes from our own guide: Clean the drawer with a mix of 30% isopropyl alcohol and 70% water, then let it dry fully. If you painted the drawer recently, Main Street recommends waiting at least 4 weeks before applying. Have a utility knife and a smoothing tool ready. Peel back a few inches of backing, align the edge, and smooth as you go. Buy every sheet you need at once. Many of our 12-pack pages note that slight color variations can occur from the printing process. Sizing is simple. A drawer bottom up to 11 x 16 in takes one sheet. A 15 x 22 in kitchen drawer takes two, placed side by side. A 30 x 16 in dresser drawer takes three. If you want to see what different print scales look like inside a small box first, our piece on decorative drawer liners walks through pattern scale. For a drawer of soft knits, a lively print like Total Vibes gives the inside some personality. For a cutlery or junk drawer, a busy small-scale pattern such as Floral Sprinkles or Eucalyptus hides scuffs and seams. And if you like the calm of plain white parchment but want it to look finished, Carrara Marble reads clean without being blank. One limit to respect: Main Street's paper sheets belong in dry drawers. Our how-to-use guide lists areas exposed to moisture, such as bathrooms, showers and wet zones, among the places to avoid, so the drawer under a sink is not the spot for them. A middle path: keep the paper, upgrade the method You do not have to choose one approach for the whole house. Founder Jan McCallum is a classically trained oil painter, and painters learn early to decide where the eye lands first. The same idea works for a chest of drawers. Spend the self-adhesive sheets on the drawers you open daily, like the top dresser drawer or the utensil drawer, and use backed wrapping paper in the deep drawers of out-of-season clothes. A print like Peony Party in the drawers you show off, and the leftover wrapping roll in the ones you do not, is a perfectly sensible split. Frequently asked questions Is wrapping paper OK for drawers that hold clothes? Generally, yes. Folded clothes are soft and do not drag across the paper, so a loose wrapping paper liner holds up well in a dresser. Make sure the drawer is completely dry before you lay it in, flatten the curl first, and replace the sheet if it starts to tear. For heirloom or delicate textiles, ask a textile conservator about acid-free materials instead. How do you keep wrapping paper drawer liner from sliding? Give it some body. Wrap the paper around a piece of thin card cut to the drawer's template and tape the overlap underneath, so you have a stiff insert that lies flat. A few small pieces of removable tape at the corners also help, but test them on a hidden spot first, since some tapes mark raw wood. Is scrapbook paper good for lining drawers? For small drawers, it is one of the better household options. It is heavier than wrapping paper, so it lies flat more readily, and the usual 12 x 12 in squares fit jewelry, desk and vanity drawers neatly. Larger drawers need several squares, so choose a small allover print that hides where the pieces meet. Can you line drawers with parchment paper? You can, and it works best in kitchen drawers where crumbs collect. Parchment is silicone coated, so it is slick and easy to lift out and shake clean. That coating also means most tape will not grip the surface well, so cut each sheet to fit snugly and let it rest in place rather than trying to fix it down. Can you turn wrapping paper into contact paper? In principle, by backing it with a double-sided adhesive sheet, but you are rebuilding a product the hard way, and the result depends entirely on that adhesive. Thin wrapping paper also wrinkles easily once glue is involved. If you want the print to stick, starting with a peel and stick paper sheet is simpler and more predictable.