she adds, "basically, we didn't want to buy furniture since the green way is not to consume more. staining the furniture was not an option since ikea uses laminate. i came up with the idea after looking at my parent's pantry. they used contact paper to line the shelves. i knew they made contact paper in a walnut finish which was the effect we wanted (we both adore walnut finishes).
the contact paper has a low stick backing and we just applied it to the surface. it's a two man job and while one of us held it in place, the other would use a dry marker eraser to smooth out the bubbles as we went. we had to use a very sharp blade to cut around edges and corners. in one of the photos you can see the original finish with the contact paper coming up and over the edge. we didn't do the insides since no one will see it anyways.it is a great way to give ikea furniture a face lift without doing a lot of damage, mess or hard work!
i also included some 'before' pictures.
before the makeover. the room, not the boyfriend.
