The IKEA display kitchens taught me a cheap trick for fake marble countertops

I was walking through the showroom in Brooklyn last week and noticed they used peel-and-stick vinyl wrap on one of the MDF countertops to mimic marble, so I tried it on my own laminate counters for $30 and it's held up through three months of coffee spills and hot pans, has anyone else tried this fake stone hack?

3 comments

3 Comments

keith_bennett1mo ago

Tried the same thing on my bathroom vanity last year and it’s still looking good after daily toothpaste splatters and hairspray drips. Just make sure you wipe the surface down with rubbing alcohol before sticking it on, otherwise the bubbles will drive you crazy.

ivanbell1mo ago

Had a buddy who did this on his kitchen backsplash (the peel and stick tile stuff) and he skipped the alcohol wipe step. Now he's got these little bumps under half the tiles from trapped moisture and dust. He tried to fix it by poking holes with a pin to let the air out, but it just made it worse. Took him a whole weekend to peel it all off and start over.

amy_craig281mo ago

Poking holes in peel and stick tile sounds like a great way to turn a minor problem into a full weekend project. Gotta love the classic "let me just fix this real quick" move that backfires into scraping off a hundred sticky squares. Your buddy probably learned that skipping the alcohol wipe is basically inviting every bit of dust and grease to party under those tiles forever. At least he learned it the hard way, which is the only way some people learn anything.