I can’t be the only one that sees the potential in decorating with gift wrapping paper and contact (or wall) paper. I’ve been using both types in my home over the last four years and find it to be a budget-friendly option that can easily be changed out when you get tired of it.
Here are a couple of ideas on how you can decorate with paper.
Add Pattern to a Bookcase
My sister-in-law was getting rid of two bookcases and since we could put them to good use, they found their way into our house. They have been used all over the house, first in the guest bedroom, then in the basement playroom and now they have a spot in my home office.
To make them fit in with the other furniture a bit better, I gave them a makeover by painting them white and added contact paper to the backs of them. The bookcases still hold books, but now the paper is a nice background not only for books, but also the colorful storage boxes I have in there. You can read all about the complete project by clicking here.
Cover a Furniture Piece
Another brown piece of furniture that got a makeover was a little shoe shelf. I used the leftover contact paper from my bookcase project and covered the whole piece. Something that was still functional, but not that pretty and would probably have ended up in the trash, got a nice upgrade and found a new home in my guest room closet. Click here for the full project.
Cover Thrift Store Storage
On one of my pre-COVID-19 shopping trips, I found little storage containers at a local thrift store. While they weren’t ugly, they didn’t really fit in with my décor style. I wanted to use them in my closet to hold jewellery and have them out in the open meant they needed to change. Still working with contact paper leftover from my bookcase project, I covered the individual pieces of the container, as well as the container itself. A little time consuming, but now I have multiple pieces that work well together to hold my small collection.
Drawer Liners
Another storage piece in my closet is a three drawer dresser that used to be my daughter’s. Nothing remarkable about it (another thrift store find) but the inside of the drawers have seen better days. My solution: add contact paper. Yes, you guessed correctly, using more of my leftover bookcase contact paper (did someone say overbuy?), I added some to the bottom of each drawer. Now they look clean and fresh and provide a perfect spot for the smaller clothing items that I store in there.
Cover Closet Shelves
After cleaning and reorganizing our garage, I realized how much wood we had leftover from other projects. I measured all the pieces of MDF and realized I had enough to add closet shelving to an empty closet in our guest room. Since it was raw MDF it needed to be painted, but we realized it would take way too long and way too many coats. So I decided to use contact paper. For this project, I wanted a new pattern, so I bought a roll of wallpaper at Walmart. The shelves were only resting on the brackets, so it was easy to remove them, cover them with contact paper, and put them back up.
Cover Boxes
This has been one of my longer-term projects. I have a Keurig coffee machine and have been buying the same type of coffee pods since forever. They come in nice sized boxes and I’ve been saving a lot of them. I bought a whole lot of pretty gift wrapping paper at Publix once and cover the boxes to use them as storage in my office. I use them in my bookcase, my supply closet and even in my pantry in the kitchen. I used a different patterned paper to fit in with my current red kitchen theme.
Unify Random Items
Still in my office, I used smaller pieces of gift wrapping paper to create labels for my cabinet drawers. I covered a small box to hold random items on my desk, as well as two salt containers to hold pens on both desks. A metal container that holds some keepsakes got a new lid decoration and the fronts of my magazine holders got some color as well. While it seems like a silly way of decorating, it creates a playful unified look in my otherwise turquoise and white office.
Frame Gift Wrapping Paper as Art
I even framed some of the same gift wrapping paper I used for storage solutions in my office, as pieces of art. It gave me a nice pop of color on the wall for so little money. When I’m ready to change it, I can take it out of the frame and add something else.
Update a Plastic Storage Container
I’ve been moving a small plastic drawer organizer with me from house to house, always thinking it won’t make the next move. But it continued to be a useful item, so I still have it. I currently use it in my office closet, to store a lot of smaller, random items. To give it a quick update, I added pieces of gift wrapping paper to the front of the drawers, along with some chalk labels.
Clothes Storage
The last item that I have covered with contact paper, was done just this week. I used my 20% Off BigLots coupon to buy more contact paper, this time in blue and white. I then covered some bankers boxes for my sister-in-law, which she will use in her closet to store seasonal clothing and other items.
Do you decorate with contact paper and gift wrapping paper and what have you decorated recently?
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