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After spending thousands of dollars in our renovation on beautiful hand-stained wood cabinets, it hurt my heart to think of ruining it with adhesive drawer liner. But, it also hurt my heart to think about crumbs and drips of liquid ruining the beautiful stained wood.
I know there are temporary, non-adhesive liner paper, but I wanted something that would hold up to a lot of use and could be wiped and easily vacuumed. Trying to find that just-right compromise is how my new idea was born. My idea can be summed up very simply:
I cut poster board to fit each drawer, then covered the poster board with adhesive contact paper.
Boom. This version of a drawer liner doesn’t ruin the drawer, but is very easy to wipe or lift away to vacuum!
(This is the contact paper I used for my kitchen.)

Here’s some “in progress” pictures. I was still quite affected by the concussion when I did this – like I think my eyes were still dilated unevenly at this same time because when I went to find these pictures I took last fall, they were right next to some I took of my crazy-eyes. I ended up doing this over several days, a few each day. But hey, that’s life. Whatever your circumstance, if you want to do something, you’ve got to fit it in however you can.


I didn’t take pictures of every drawer, because the liner was often hard to see once stuff went back in. For this drawer, I took out some of the water bottles to take this picture.

And to give you a better idea of how I’m literally always tweaking things, it’s just a part of how I live, here’s this drawer in September:

And this drawer this week in January:

(These drawer dividers are a combo of these, these, and this one.)
Things are always changing, shifting a little here and there. That’s why I’m happy to think of a drawer lining solution that isn’t just easy to clean, but it will also be easy to change if the mood ever strikes me!
Let me know if you’re going to do this too!
From my home to yours,
Mary
Love this idea, Mary! You’ve inspired me!
Yay! That’s great!
I do like your idea and will copy it! I too struggled with the sticky liner in my wood drawers. Great, simple solution. Thanks Mary! Hope you continue to feel better. : )
I knew I wasn’t the only one with this dilemma! Let me know how it works out for you!
I love this!! Itās a great solution to put over the old contact paper in my kitchen. I couldnāt remove it because it came off in pieces and left to glue behind. Not ready to redo cabinets yet. Couldnāt put new paper over the old contact paper due to the condition of it. Canāt wait to beautify my cabinets and drawers.
yes! I didn’t think about it covering the old, but it would provide a smooth cover because of the poster board, so you won’t be able to tell what’s happening underneath. yay!
Awesome! Thanks for the great tip!
You’re so welcome!
Where did you get the plastic dividers for your drawer to desperate your baking supplies?
The drawer dividers are from Target – they’re a combo of these:
https://m.svnlnk.com/z/l31b
https://m.svnlnk.com/z/l31c
https://m.svnlnk.com/z/l3e4
Years back, I had read about doing this same type of drawer liners for your dresser drawers (from Martha Stewart). But instead of using contact paper, she used material.
Cloth would be so fun in a closet or bedroom!
Hi Mary, Where did you find that cute, green, contact paper?
It’s a really common con-tact design, I’ve seen it at my grocery store and on Amazon. Here’s the Amazon link if you want to look at specific details: https://amzn.to/36gtAuj