How wallpaper can transform your outdated kitchen

I hate my kitchen. No, seriously, it is so ugly.

My backsplash is little white tiles, and so it my COUNTERTOPS! My countertops are nasty, gross tiles. They are white, and they never look clean. I am telling you, they drive me insane.

Obviously, I cannot replace my countertops for under 100 dollars, so I was trying to find out what I could do to upgrade my outdated kitchen.

My answer was glaring at me in the eye. The previous owner had put up ugly checkboard wallpaper and grape wallpaper, and I knew it was time to remove it. The cabinets in my kitchen have also been poorly painted, so I wanted to strip down the cabinet doors.

 

I have always wanted open cabinets, but I was scared of the ugly backdrop. I decided to add a updated floral wallpaper to the back of my cabinets, so I could keep them open and show off my dishes.

WHAT I USED FOR THIS PROJECT

Peel and stick wallpaper

White paint I had leftover

Fabric softener

Dawn

Spray bottle

Putty knife

Measuring tape

Squeegee

Scissors

WHAT I DID

I ordered the Holly Sollinger Floralista wallpaper from Target after measuring my space.

I was dealing with two different types of wallpaper – accent grapes above the cabinets and checkerboard on the wall.

After doing some research, I decided to cover the existing wallpaper on the wall with the new wallpaper and actually remove the grape wallpaper.

While I waited for the wallpaper to come in the mail, I started removing wallpaper. In the spray bottle, I mixed equal parts fabric softener and water with dawn.

I thoroughly sprayed my wall paper and used a putty knife to remove it. The wallpaper came off super easy!

The next step was to decide what to do above my cabinets. I could easy apply the same wallpaper to that area, but that would up the costs. I decided to paint the area white with leftover paint from other projects.

It ended up look fantastic!

I also removed the cabinet doors and painted the inside of the cabinets white. However, I only painted the sides, top and bottom. I didn’t paint where I was going to add the wallpaper.

Then, once the wallpaper came in, I pieced it together. This part was way harder than I expected. I had to carefully calculate each piece to make sure it would look like one solid piece.

And, to make matters worse, I can’t cut a straight line to save my life. It’s also important to use a squeegee after you apply the wallpaper to get rid of any bubbles!

After a lot of trial and error, I finally got the wallpaper up, and I was already in love! I wanted to add some additional shelving above the sink, so I found two shelves at the Home Depot and installed them.

I am also planning on installing lights to really show off my plates in the kitchen.

This project cost me about $200, more than I wanted to spend, but the results are amazing. Finally, I can be proud of my kitchen!