A Fun Project...

Quote for the Day:

"Heidi, bring out whatever ridiculous thing Tim souped up today!" 
-Al Borlen, from Home Improvement

I am going to confess that I have a little "quirk"...I DESPISE shelf liner paper.  Actually, "DESPISE" is really not a strong enough word.  I know I know...I'm pretty crazy about stupid things at times.  But seriously, lining shelves with paper ranks right up there with having a root canal.  I hate fighting with the paper, then cutting it too small, then cutting it too big.  Then throwing the scissors and paper out the nearest window.  You know what I'm talking about.

Anyway, when we installed the new cabinets in the kitchen...oh, say about 2 years ago...I never lined the shelves.  The cabinets were all nice and new and pretty, I didn't want to cover up the shelves with paper.  

But as a realistic person, I did realize that I would need to do something to protect the shelves.  

After using "peel and stick" floor tile last March to cover the shelves of this shelving unit for my sewing room, I really knew I was on to something...

It makes for a nice, smooth, easy-to-clean surface.

I went back to "Ollie's", which is a liquidation store in Bridgeport, and picked up two more boxes of the same floor tiles.

As a shelf liner/protector, they don't have to be anything fancy or heavy-duty...just cheap and easy to use!  :)  These are the same ones that I used on the shelving unit in the above picture.  You get 25 sq. ft. of tiles for $9.99.  Very cheap!

Notice that these particular tiles have a "stuning" high-gloss!  LOL  Maybe that misspelling is the reason that they are at the liquidation store???

Anyway, onto today's project.  Lining the cupboard shelves.  Sorry, I have no "before" pictures, but basically, it was a standard "shelf".  It did have some sort of wood-grain paper laminated on 1/2" particle board.  

Using a utility knife, a tape measure, a large plastic cutting board, and my 12.5" square-up quilting ruler, I cut the tiles to size, pulled the backing paper off, and stuck the tile to the cabinet shelf.

The first shelf turned out very nice, so I continued on.  

The upper shelves were super easy to do because you just remove them from the cabinet and do it all right on the table.  

Don't they look GREAT???  I love how they look and that they are so easy to clean!  Whenever I get around to redoing the walk-in pantry, I'm going to paint everything white and then apply these to the wooden shelves.  It will make cleaning up spills and sticky yuckies so easy!!!

I still have more of the cabinets to do in the kitchen, but I got 2 cabinets (6 shelves) done today before my back started hurting.  This is definitely a project that you can do a little at a time as you find bits and pieces of time.  Eventually, I'll  get it all done.  But I think I need to go back and buy more of the tiles so I'll have enough to do the whole pantry, too.  Things at "Ollie's" are usually discontinued items so when they are gone, they are gone.  Technically, everything doesn't have to match, but I kinda think it would make it look more cohesive if they all did.


BTW, I saw on Pinterest that you can also use these "peel and stick" tiles on metal shelving to create a more flat surface and so small things don't fall down through the metal shelves.  Cool, huh?  

And one more tip...to cut the tiles, simply score the front of the tile a couple of times with the utility knife.  Then "bend" the tile back at the scoring until it "snaps" where you scored it.  You will then need to take the utility knife and cut the backing paper at the bend to separate the two pieces.  Very, very, very easy to do and makes a nice clean edge on the tile.

Loretta