Shabby Sheik on a Dime

I posted this on Facebook and was rather surprised at the amount of likes and comments I got, so I figured I would blog. I haven't blogged about anything in a long time now. I didn't forget about this blog, and I've had plenty I could be blogging about. I'm not sure what the deal is, but I will try to do better, but I digress.

I don't own the house I am currently living in and we have always known we would not be living here forever. We also know that this house will be torn down eventually and the owner really isn't into fixing things up or updating anything. We did a lot of work when we first moved in to make it livable while trying not to really work too hard on something we won't enjoy for years to come. Most things are done as cheaply as possible and as easy as possible. Enter my kitchen counters. O.K., not counterS, just one counter. I could really go into a huge diatribe about the kitchen here, but I would lose a lot of people along the way. After all, why should you really care about my kitchen. What you may care about is your kitchen, and your counter, or if you are lucky, counterS.

My counter did match the rest of the colors in the kitchen when we moved in, and if this was the 70's I probably would have loved it. However, the mustard color is just not for me. Now, you can paint formica counters, but that was more time consuming than I was willing to do. Enter my bright idea, contact paper or shelf paper. I didn't take any step by step pictures, because I didn't plan on blogging about this, and I didn't think there would be so many questions about it. It's pretty self explanatory anyway. Clean your counters to remove any grease and dirt, stick contact paper on, smooth out any bubbles with your hand and you're done. I lay a full sheet across the sink and after sticking it down I cut around the edge with a box knife. Easy. Peasy.

I did do this before on this counter and it's held up for at least 5 years of regular kitchen counter stuff. Don't put anything hot on it and don't use it as a cutting board and you shouldn't have any problems. I've cleaned mine with all types of cleaning solution, had the sink flood all over them and had several kool-aid related spills without staining. Even if you mess up a space simply peel it up and stick a new piece down.

Before.

And after. 

Pitcher added for design appeal. 

Next I must do something about that wall.... :)