Upcycle Sparkly Shelf
I honestly would be so happy if this post turned up on one of those 'news' feeds with the click bait headline “$2 Kmart hack you won't believe!”. I love reading those hacks and I think some people are so very clever - others I’m just like, meh. My hack came out of desperation to not have made an incorrect purchase and to reduce my fast homewares foot print.
Our little child is now a walking, and sometimes talking, toddler at 18 months old. He has started to become very curious about the things around him and really wants to get hands on. Initially I wanted a little shelf up high to store his creams out of the reach of fumbling fingers. I also thought it would be lovely to have somewhere to hang his little hats and jacket and anything else I might need to hang.
I found this el cheapo shelf with hooks at Kmart and thought the timber finish would be nice and work with the pine details in his cot and draws. But it did not. I loved the real timber hooks but the oak veneer didn't match the room, let along the hooks, and I was a little disappointed. I put the shelf to the side. I cursed myself for my foolish and ugly purchase.
One day, as I passed through Officeworks, I spied these beautiful and sparkly contact papers. I haven’t used contact paper since the only options were clear and holographic (er herm 1990s). As any good craftaholic would do, I purchased the contact paper without actually knowing what I was going to do with it.
Have you ever been accused of having a sad beige nursery? Well, that’s what my sister accused me of and I laughed my arse off. Enter the $2 hack that will bring the shelf back from purgatory, bring a bit of POP into the sad beige nursery and purposefully use the sparkly contact paper.
And so my $2 Kmart hack was born.
Once materials were gathered it only took about 40 minutes to execute the plan. Pick your own contact paper with your own style and go for it - have a happy sparkle bedroom!
Materials and equipment
Contact paper/Book Covering of your choice
Cutting mat or surface
Scalpel or Stanley knife (new or sharp blade)
Instructions
Very roughly cut of piece of contact paper about 1inch larger than the size of the shelf back board.
Starting at one end peel back the contact paper backing paper a few inches and attach it to shelf back board starting from the end and flattening and smoothing out air bubbles as you go. continue to peel and stick doing a couple of inches at a time will help to reduce the risk of air bubbles.
Once it is stuck down and the air bubbles are out use the scalpel to cut the contact paper overhang off - being careful not to cut the shelf.
Do the same for the top and bottom of the shelf. I used a different colour for underneath the shelf just to add some variety.
Use the scalpel to carefully cut out the holes where the hooks get screwed in.
Also, use the scalpel to pierce the contact paper wherever a screw needs to pass through.
I decided to leave the edges of the shelf and back board ‘raw’ as it adds a nice contract and ties in the raw hooks.
Assemble shelf as per instructions.
Mount to wall as per instructions.
Summary
I am just so happy with how the shelf turned out. For $2 I was able to rescue this average looking shelf and make it a real feature of his bedroom. I wonder what else I can put contact paper on to jazz it up.
