Update a Shelf With Washi Tape in Minutes

Remember this mess?

 

Well, L’s toy closet is all decluttered and organized, thank goodness, and now there’s space for this shelf:

 

This was a freebie: I was driving down the road just a few streets away from our house, and a man was putting it in front of his house.

I’m such a junk gypsy, I stopped and asked him if it was free, and he said yes and helped me put it into my car. He was happy, and I certainly was happy.

 

 

We can always use more shelves in the Blue Cottage. I was using this in my office for a while, then in my closet, and now that I’m redoing Landon’s toy closet, it’s going in there.

L doesn’t mind the pink, plus you won’t be able to see much of the shelf once it’s in the closet and loaded up with toys and games, but I wanted to get rid of some of the pink.

Instead of painting the shelf, I decided to use some of the many rolls of washi tape I have to update it.

It’s a super fast way to update furniture, and since washi tape is not very sticky, it’s easy to take it off again if you change your mind or want to try a different design.

 

Update a Shelf With Washi Tape

If you are not familiar with it, Washi tape is made out of paper and comes in pretty patterns and designs, making it a great craft supply for many decorative uses.

I decided to use the turquoise Scotch tape, since L’s room is turquoise, and the light green washi tape. I didn’t know how much I’d need and how far I would get with them, but I just started with those two.

 

I began with stripes on the middle section of the legs and longer tape sections on other parts.

 

I didn’t mind that there are some bubbles under the turquoise tape or that some of it isn’t perfectly straight — that won’t matter in the closet.

Here is one more advantage of washi tape compared to plastic tape: it doesn’t bubble.

 

 

I also added the light green tape to the edge of two of the shelves because the width of it fit perfectly.

After only 15 minutes, this is what the updated shelf looked like:

 

I have so much washi tape that I could have covered the whole shelf, but I decided that this was enough of an update.

We have a lot of LEGO stickers, and I was thinking of adding some of those as well, but the shelf is so colorful already, I didn’t want it to look too crazy.

I can’t wait to show you how the finished toy closet organization turned out!

Have you ever used washi tape? What did you use it for?