Fri-DIY Custom Desk Mat / Cover!

Can you believe that it’s Friday already?

The days are going past so quickly and it’s coming to the end of my school holidays, which is devastating. I’ve had so much fun creating and trying out different things on my days off and I just don’t want this break to end!

Today I thought I should start getting back into the school spirit by redecorating my study space and making it more exciting. So why not make a custom desk mat/cover? 😀

Desk mats are perfect for keeping desks clean and tidy, especially if they’re white like mine. I always manage to get my table dirty with pencil and pen marks, so desk mats for me are a must. A lot of people who use desk mats usually get the plain transparent ones, but I don’t really like those because they’re so… boring.

The desk mat I made today consisted of a sheet of white cardboard, a sharpie and clear contact paper. This took me less than an hour to make – and it was fun too!

Keep in mind, you don’t have to write a quote like I did. Instead, you could print out some photos or cut out some magazine pics to stick onto your desk mat. Personalise it with your own design!

Now let’s get started!

Materials needed:

– Sheet of white cardboard

– Sharpie

– Clear contact paper

Steps:

1. Design the table mat. If you’re going to draw or write a quote like me, have an idea of what you’re going to write before you begin.

Funny story: I was originally just going to write Edgar Allan poe’s quote “there is no exquisite beauty without some strangeness”, but then for some reason I accidentally left out a word and I ended up having a lot of blank space at the bottom. So I added in the words ’embrace it’. Now I don’t even know if it makes sense any more… ;D

Anyway, back to business. If you’re going to use photos or printed pictures, stick them down with some double sided sticky tape so that they don’t move around.

2. After you’ve got your design ready to go, it’s time for the hard part: covering it with clear contact.

How I clear-contact-ed my desk cover:

3. Cut the clear contact paper to size. Leave at least a 1cm border around your cardboard.

4. Peel off a corner of the clear contact and stick down the corner of the cardboard.

5. Slowly pull the backing away. As you go, press the clear contact onto the cardboard to get rid of bubbles.

6. Once you’ve got the clear contact onto the cardboard, flip it over and stick edges onto the back.

And there you have it, your very own custom table mat. (Yaaaaay!)

I hope you enjoyed this week’s Fri-DIY! See you next time 😀

xx,