How To Protect Contact Paper | Shanetta DIY Life

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Tips For Protecting Contact Paper On Surfaces

It's no secret that using contact paper to update your home or Furniture is the easiest and most cost-effective means to get a totally different look without buying a totally new piece of furniture.

What's even more amazing about contact paper is that you can use it to cover your floor and get a new look without going through all the hassles of contractors or spending thousands of dollars.

No matter where you use your contact paper, the number one thing you must protect is it.

Now it is true that contact paper is a type of plastic over its top, so it is waterproof. However, it is still paper that can easily be ripped or torn when you analyze it in a totally different way than what it was made for originally.

When I went to Dollar Tree and found this gorgeous brown wood contact paper, I automatically knew this would be perfect for helping me change the floor and my basement craft.

Once I placed this all over my floor, it looked so good, but then I automatically had an issue where my floor was ripped a little bit from my son's walker, and I just knew I had to find a way to protect it.

So I did a little research and did not find much information on protecting your contact paper. That was really annoying, so I had to experiment to see what could help me in my situation.

I found that using oil-based polyurethane was a good fit over the top of the contact paper.

Many professionals in the industry that dealt with chemicals were shocked that it even adhered to my contact paper and praised me for attempting this type of project.

I mean saying this on my floor for two years without any rips, tears, or problems at all.

I knew that I only applied two coats of this polyurethane, and this would allow me to change out my floor once again because I have an issue with keeping things the way they are for long periods of time without changing that.

When that day finally came, I decided to remove the polyurethane contact paper, and it was fairly easy.

Since polyurethane was a success over the contact paper's top, I wondered what other products could be utilized to protect the contact paper.

I use satin at the finish for the polyurethane, but I know people use this for the countertops and other areas, but you needed to be a bit more durable than polyurethane.

So I went out and purchased a few products that I felt would be the best option to protect polyurethane on different levels.

After doing some research to locate other products that could work perfectly on top of contact paper, I created two different videos that will show you what you can use to protect your contact paper for any area, whether it's the floor, countertop, wall, or furniture you name it you can protect it.

Here is part 1

Here is part 2

I hope these videos provided you some insight into how to protect contact paper on your projects.