Dress up old furniture with Con-Tact paper

If you’ve got an old coffee table or desk that needs the surface refinished, there’s an easier way: Con-Tact Paper. You buy it at a hardware store, and it’s a little like wallpaper, with adhesive on one side and the color or pattern on the other. It comes in over 70 colors and patterns so you can always find something to your taste. You just peel off the backing and stick it to the surface.

Of course, you have to line it up with the edges, and you may have to line up more than one piece. Fortunately, there’s a grid on the back of the paper so you can easily measure it, put pencil marks where you need them, and cut them to your specifications. If you want to change the pattern later, you can just lay more contact paper over the top of it. This can start to look messy after a few layers, but one or two is no problem.

You can often remove old contact paper easily, but not always. If it’s really stuck, you can remove it with a heat gun, scraper and some safety glasses (the glasses are for you). So be aware that the adhesive can ruin wood surfaces and don’t use it unless your surface is already damaged (or you really really want to). Of course you can always sand the old surface down and refinish it someday (a lot of work, but really not as hard as it sounds).

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