Can you use contact paper as wallpaper?

I got an email from a reader, Erin recently asking this very question.  You know I love me some contact paper so I'm intrigued by the idea. Erin's been around the web and back looking for examples of walls successfully "papered" using contact paper as a low cost alternative to wall paper. 

What's prompting such an idea?   A huge score of black and white toile contact paper at her local Dollar Store.  At $1 she quickly picked up 20 rolls. 

Toile Contact Paper available via eBay

Now we know she could do something like this.

Or even this...

But could she do THIS!?

Lauren's Breakfast Nook via Pure Home Style

Erin's hoping to combine it with some wainscotting so at the very least, the contact paper would be installed up high and away from curious, peel-happy little fingers. 

My experience with putting contact paper on dry wall is that it will stay up very well after you spend some time smoothing it down and working out any air bubbles.  My first reaction was to tell her to test a piece but I'm certain it will work for at least a few months so that doesn't exactly help her.  But long term (as in years) I'm just not sure.  

So I told Erin I'd put the call out to all you creative and fearless readers.  Has anyone done anything like this?  Any words or advice or caution for Erin?  If this works....OH THE POSSIBILITIES!! 

DIY Contact Paper Cityscape Photo Backdrop

As promised, today I'm sharing a few more photos of the contact paper cityscape I created as a photo backdrop for Knox's super hero 1st birthday party.  I have to say a big THANK YOU to my brother and his girlfriend Maggie who were my partners in crime & cutting on this project. 

 

This really couldn't be a simpler project.  I can't even call this a tutorial!  You only need 3 things -  black contact paper, yellow contact paper and a pair of scissors.  That's it! 

(p.s. Now you guys know why I had so much leftover contact paper for my Halloween decorations this year!)

Because I wanted the babies to sit in front of this scene, I decided to do one full length of just solid black contact paper across the bottom.  This allowed me to raise up the entire city scene so it would be visible above their heads.

 

The rest of this project is really just an exercise in cutting shapes and piecing them together into building-like silhouettes.  There's really no right or wrong way to do this.  Rectangles, round top buildings, small buildings, tall buildings...they all have a spot in your city!  

Here are a few tips I can offer:

--Lay the Foundation:  Working across your cityscape, start by add in rectangles of various sizes at (somewhat) regular intervals.

--Add Depth:  Now go back and pepper in another layer of buildings by overlapping some rectangles in front of your first layer.  Here you're trying to create the illusion of a background and foreground.

--Add Details:  Not every building on the skyline is flat topped so add in a few antennas, domes, etc.

--Light It Up!:  Use your yellow contact paper to add windows to your buildings.  Vary the shapes so you have different window styles on your buildings.  You can get really fancy with it and create mock architecture to your buildings like Maggie did with those columns on that one building.  I was just doing little square windows and she had to get all fancy with it.  She's awesome like that. 

--...But Leave Some Dark: Don't try to fill the entire building's silhouette with lit up windows.  Not every light has to be on! 

--Add Personality!: Don't be afraid to add in some personal touches or features to make your city unique and personal.  As we worked on this cityscape, it continually looked more and more like the Boston skyline.  See the Prudential building there all the way on the left?  And clearly that's the Zakim Bridge right?  The finishing touch was my brother's addition of the super hero light signal complete with a K for Knox!

 

Not bad for under $20 right?  I thought it was a great addition to Knox's super hero party, especially since most of his guests were pint-sizes babies who fit in perfectly with the cityscape scale!

Of course as with all my contact paper projects, the best part of this party feature was that it was 100% disposable.  After the party, I peeled the whole thing off and had my kitchen back to normal in under 3 minutes.  Can't beat that right?

DIY Halloween Contact Paper Silhouettes

I have been busy, busy, busy with my scissors for the last couple of weeks!  After planning for and celebrating Knox's birthday, I found myself short on time and funds for decorating the house for Halloween.   I couldn't bare the thought of not decorating for my favorite holiday though, so I had to get creative.

Enter my current favorite thing in the craft arsenal - contact paper!!!  After buying a roll for its on-the-go black out capabilities I had a ton left (like about 70' worth!) Some scissors and DIY templates are all you need to deck your house out in spooky, cheap and totally disposable decorations. If you can trace, cut and stick you can create anything here plus waaaay more stuff.  I've listed all the templates I used at the end of this post. And the best part, once Halloween is over these silhouettes peel right off the drywall, leaving no residue or any sign that they were ever there at all!

I made a huge witch using  a template from Martha Stewart that is technically for creating a plywood silhouette for the front yard. I laid out the whole series on 2 widths of contact paper, traced, cut and stick.

I improvised a broom for her.  It's a little stumpy but that's ok.  Plus I like that she looks like she's about to bash you in the head when you come in from the garage.  

She extended right onto the door molding and beyond so I just used an Exacto knife to keep the door functional. 

I gave her a little owl friend perched over our laundry room door.

 

Some creepy black cats grace our entrance and a little colony of bats are taking flight. 

My stairs are suffering from a serious rat infestation. 

The scary tree was the easiest of all.  I didn't have a template so I just improvised it, the crow and bat.

My brother felt the need to point out that my bat looks a bit bottom heavy...like he's been indulging in one too many mini Twix bars.  

Here are all the templates I used for this project:
Witch template
Owl template
Cats template
Rats template

Here's another idea - download some free Halloween silhouette fonts, enlarge, print, trace and cut.  VIOLA!  Your own free templates!

Some of my favorites:
KR Boo Lane 
Helloween 2
Kiddy Halloween
Boo

Contact paper black out shades (and other uses)

I am blessed with a baby who is a super sleeper baby.  He's been sleeping through the night since he was about 3 months old and will regularly give me a 3 hour nap (last week he even did 4 hours!)  I like to think that his wonderfully serene nursery has something to do with it, especially his blackout shades.

So when we're traveling or away on vacation, I try to do everything I can to recreate the comforts of home for him.  Along those lines, I learned a few things from our first beach trip with Knox but one thing I did not plan for was just how bright his room would be in the beach house we were renting.  Try as I might with blankets and draped towels, I just couldn't get the room to nap-time darkness.  The first few days of that trip were brutal.  A 20 minute nap does not allow mommy enough time to get through an entire issue of Us Weekly, much less a fruity adult beverage on the beach!

Well I learned from my mistakes and for our second beach trip I packed along my current favorite thing ever - black contact paper.

$7 and 5 minutes was all it took to turn his room from this:

To this:

 

Best $7 I've ever spent.  And the best part - at the end of the week I just peeled it right off the glass.  No residue and no signs it was ever there at all.  It is the PERFECT solution.  

Besides being an amazing on-the-go darkness creator, here are some creative uses for contact paper.

I love carving pumpkins...err...minus the actual messy carving part.  This year I'll be decorating with festive and spooky silhouettes instead. Printable silhouettes below.

Mice silhouette
Owl silhouette
Bat silhouette
Hissing cat silhouette
Jack-o'-lantern silhouette

via

Contact paper can be a renter's best friend.  Use it to transform a not-so-pretty refrigerator like Titti at Shoestring Pavilion did here.

 via

Or create some renter-friendly "wallpaper" like Stephanie of SabbeSpot did with her chevron wall here.

 

I have enough leftover that I'll be using it for a fun project for Knox's 1st birthday party this weekend.  I can't wait to show you guys the party!  I think it's going to be adorable.

What other ways have you used contact paper?

Chalkboard Contact Paper

I got a bunch of emails asking me about the Wallies I used to label the food storage jars in my pantry. I seriously love this product so much, I thought it was worthy of its own post. I think the idea of re-positionable chalk contact paper is pretty much brilliant.



I seriously don't know if I'll ever do chalkboard paint again after discovering these. Not only do they provide a smooth, perfect surface for writing but they are 100% re-positionable. How awesome is that? These 9"x12" sheets were all I needed for my pantry project but they also come in 25" x 38" mural sheets. Imagine, you could do a whole wall in a playroom and then peel it off a few years later and never even have to worry about re-painting. LOVE THAT!

They also come in blue, schoolhouse green and purple if that happens to work better with your decor. I love dreaming up ways to use these!

You could stick them to some galvanized metal sheets and immediately make a magnetic chalkboard.

Since they're removable, you could stick one at each place setting on a farmhouse table and channel your inner artist for some fun place mats (for kids or adults!)

You could stick them to the front of a kitchen cabinet and make a quick (and non-permanent) message board.

What else would you do with these?