DIY Wallpapered Side Table Makeover

*Today’s post was made possible by Fancy Walls, and features gifted product for the purposes of a candid review. All opinions are my own.

I’ve been spending a lot of time in the Dream Green DIY archives lately, and noticed something important: I don’t share nearly as many DIY projects on this blog as I used to! I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that I’m now 38 years old and I was just 24 when I launched this craft-focused website (that feels really weird to admit, by the way—whoa).

Back in my early twenties, I was totally fine with making my own home decor since our budget was tight and my expectations were pretty low. Don’t get me wrong! I think you can make some pretty amazing do-it-yourself home décor (today’s project being one example, of course), but these days I’m more focused on investing in the “real deal,” if that makes sense. I still love embracing the creative challenge of making my own home décor, though, and today’s DIY side table makeover project is just the beginning of what I imagine will be a whole year of budget-conscious crafty content just for fun.

The plan was to figure out a way to level up a plain inexpensive side table. How could I make this $90 table from Amazon look more bespoke and like it came out of a boutique home décor shop? With peel-and-stick wallpaper, of course! I hopped onto the Fancy Walls website (my go-to brand for wallpapering projects), and chose three patterns that coordinated well with this design that I had left over from my office makeover late last year. I was thinking that I could cover the sides of the table with the extra wallpaper I had on hand, and then I would order samples of the other three patterns and cut those to size to fit the trimmed-out detail on the table’s drawer fronts.

Covering the sides of the table with wallpaper was as easy as could be. I simply measured the height and width of the inset panel after assembling the table, then transferred those measurements to the back of my wallpaper scraps using a pencil (again, this is the pattern that I used for the table sides). Then, I cut the measured section out and pressed it into place, pushing any air bubbles out through the sides of the paper using a mini wallpaper scraper tool. There was a tiny bit of overhang from my imperfect measuring, but I was able to cut that off easily using a fresh, sharp razor blade.

Getting the panels cut to the precise dimensions and shape of the inset design on the drawer fronts was a littler trickier. I didn’t trust my ability to measure using an everyday ruler, so, instead, I grabbed a sheet of scrap paper (actually, I used the discarded backer paper from the wallpaper I had used for the side panels), and taped that to my first drawer front using painter’s tape. Then, I rubbed a piece of charcoal over the drawer front to transfer the inset design right onto the scrap paper. This left the perfect impression of the design, which I was then able to use as a template to cut my wallpaper scraps to size. Note that I used a thick black marker to make the impression a little more distinct after rubbing it with the charcoal before cutting out my template (pictured below).

This process made it super easy for me to get the exact shape needed for my DIY decals (I only had to do the charcoal rubbing step once, by the way—I reused the template on the other two drawers). I had to do a little bit of trimming using my scissors and razor blade to get the wallpaper to sit perfectly within the lines of each drawer front, but that wasn’t difficult at all. Click over to my TikTok here to see this project come together in video format since that might make the process a littler easier to understand. To get the drawer pull to go through the newly placed wallpaper, I just cut a small “x” through the existing hardware hole in each drawer front, and pushed the bolt through. Then, I screwed the drawer pull on tight from the front.

I love how the four coordinated patterns complement one another, and that they give this otherwise bland and boring side table some pizazz. The entire project took less than an hour, and I think the table looks so much more expensive than the $85 I paid for it while it was on sale. By the way, in case you’re curious, I used these patterns from Fancy Walls to complete this project: Gentle Sage Artistry, Faux Grasscloth, Minimalist Plants, and Sage Green Midcentury. Let me know what you think in the comments. And if you’d like an alternative color theme for your own coordinated patterned side table makeover, consider the designs in Fancy Walls’ “Mocha Mousse” collection here.

*This post contains affiliate links, which means that I earn a small commission when you purchase products that I recommend at no additional cost to you. This allows me to provide free creative content for you to read, save, and share. Rest assured that I never recommend products we wouldn’t use or don’t already love ourselves.