How To Refinish Furniture with Contact Paper for Only $3!

Refinished File Cabinet Final

I loved this black and white French print as soon as I saw it… at the Dollar Tree. Yes, this refinish job only cost me $3! Of course, you must have furniture to put the paper on, too. I bought this oak file cabinet from a garage sale earlier this summer, knowing that I would redecorate it somehow.

Ugly cabinet, huh?

First, wipe down the furniture piece with degreaser or 409 cleaner. You don’t need to sand it because the contact paper will stick easily to a clean surface. The paper suggested dampening the surface a little to help the paper adhere, but my cabinet was pretty dry when I applied it.

Second, place the contact paper over the largest surface area and cut the paper according to size. I left a little extra paper around all edges so there would be no ugly oak showing along the edges.

Refinished File CabinetThird, pull the backing off the contact paper and line the edge of the paper with the edge of the furniture. Starting from the middle of the paper, smooth out the bubbles with your hands or a squeegee. You may need to pull the paper off and reapply it. This is totally fine because it will still stick just fine to the furniture.

It’s really difficult to see the seams with patterned paper. It doesn’t have to be perfect!

Refinished File CabinetFourth, repeat steps 2 & 3 until your entire piece of furniture is covered in the pretty patterned paper. I didn’t put paper on the back of my cabinet since it will never be seen. I folded the edges as if I was wrapping a present to make sure it stayed tight and neat.

Refinished file cabinet drawersThe hardest part of this project is making sure there are no bubbles. Since the paper is so cheap and can be either removed or recovered, you don’t have to stress about messing up!

My roommate loved the finished product. She thought I should sell it on Etsy, but that would be wayyyy to expensive to ship! I liked her suggestion of adding bold, black handles to it though. Maybe I’ll do that later. For now, it’s just what I wanted!

 If you like this easy tutorial, add it to Pinterest!

PS: The picture below is in our unfinished basement office, so don’t mind the mess!

Refinished File Cabinet

4 comments on “How To Refinish Furniture with Contact Paper for Only $3!”

  1. Marti says:

    That’s very pretty! Thanks for visiting. 🙂

  2. kay Keen says:

    This is very neat, Thanks for sharing, Kay

  3. Belinda says:

    Looks very pretty… I really like that paper. Just a friendly kind warning though… -when you snag it or a tear develops or get tired of that pattern – Good Luck trying to take that off- believe me it is so hard to fix. Or redo. My mother used to mac-tac everything. I redecorated something that she did. What a job… Just a warning- if its a piece you really want to keep …think twice before you do this.

    1. Thanks for the tip Belinda!

      Luckily, this isn’t a piece I want forever. It’s in our spare bedroom/my craft room so it doesn’t have very much traffic around it. I’m glad I know it is hard to remove or fix for better pieces of furniture though.

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