How to Cover Wire Shelving: $10 Foam Board DIY Hack

Is it just me or is wire shelving the worst? Let me show you how to cover wire shelving for $10 using this super easy foam board hack!

Not only is wire shelving ugly but the large gaps between the wires make them impractical too. Stuff can fall through the gaps so easily unless you’re only storing toilet paper! It’s safe to say that I’m not the biggest fan of this builder-grade shelving solution, which is why I am showing you how to cover ugly wire shelves!

I would love to replace all our shelving with wooden shelves, but that task is very low on the list of priorities for our fixer-upper! So I am using foam board and contact paper in the meantime! It makes the biggest difference and is super easy to do! Best part? It’s super cheap!! Plus, you can do this in the matter of one nap time and you don’t even need wood glue, a circular saw or even a trip to Home Depot! I just love a small effort, big impact kind of project!

This post is all about how to cover wire shelving! Lets do a makeover on your current wire shelves.

Pin How to Cover Wire Shelving for Later

Materials for How to Cover Wire Shelving

• Foam board – Check your local Dollar Tree or Walmart!
• Contact Paper – I love this marble one
• X-acto Knife or Scissors
• Flat edge – Like a spatula to smooth out bubbles

How to Cover Wire Shelving

My husband is a huge fan of this method because it doesn’t involve him or his circular saw! Once you learn how to cover your ugly wire shelving and see how easy it is, you are going to cover ALL the shelving in your entire house!

First Step: Measure Wire Shelving

First things first, Before buying your foam board, measure the surface of your shelves to get the correct dimensions and to see how many foam boards you will need. For our linen closet, one foam board per shelf was plenty. Remember the foam board will be covered with contact paper, so you can cut it as many times as you need to make a good fit on your shelf.

Purchase Foam board and Contact Paper

Check out your local Dollar Store or Walmart first when purchasing the foam board, because I’ve seen other stores charge triple the amount for the same exact thing. If you are paying more than $1 for your boards, then you are paying too much.

Contact paper comes in so many designs and colors, so be sure to shop around to find exactly what you want! Walmart, Target and Amazon have great rolls and patterns to choose from. My linen closet took less than a roll to cover.

Empty Your Wire Closet Shelves

Now that you have your supplies, next steps are to start this DIY! Start, by removing the contents of your linen closet and all shelving except for the lowest shelf. Emptying the closet will allow for easier installation. I took advantage of the empty space by wiping the scuff marks off the back wall with a magic eraser, did some closet organization and vacuumed the floor too.

Cut Foam board

Cut your foam boards to the correct sizes. Be sure to add about 2 inches to the length of your board to cover the lip in the front of the shelf too. Lay the foam over the bottom shelf to check sizing. If you like the way it fits, use this as your template for the other foam boards.

Attach Contact Paper to Foam board

Roll out a piece of contact paper big enough to cover the foam board. I made sure mine was big enough to fold over all sides of the board to create a smoother edge. Peel off the backing and lay it face down (non-sticky side) on a flat surface like your kitchen table. Lay your foam board on top of the sticky side, but don’t fold over the edges quite yet.

Smooth Out the Contact Paper

Starting in the center, smooth out any bubbles with a flat edge. I used a spatula. It doesn’t have to be perfectly smooth. If you get a few bubbles that are too hard to get rid of, you can poke a hole in them, but remember that most of it will be covered with bins and storage containers anyways. Once it’s as smooth as you want it to be, flip it over to fold the excess contact paper over the board. That’s it!

Install Foam board Covers

Lay the covered foam board onto the shelf. I used a few pieces of clear tape to anchor the front piece. Install another shelf and repeat the process until all the ugly wire shelves are covered. Now you have a better-looking closet with shelves that don’t have giant gaps! WOO-HOO!

Reorganize Linen Closet

As you can see, the before and after photo of our linen closet is quite different! Not only do the new foam covers make a difference, but I spent some time reorganizing it’s contents too! With its convenient and central location, our linen closet was starting to look like Monica’s secret closet from Friends! It was becoming the catchall for a little bit of everything in our house and it was driving me crazy! I started by limiting what I put back in the closet and then storing items in bins and baskets.

What I store in our Linen Closet

Obviously, no two families are the same which means our linen closets shouldn’t be either. However, I still think you will find it helpful to see what I decided to leave in our linen closet.

• Linens: Duhh it’s a linen closet! For our home, this is the best place for us to store our extra sheets.
• Towels: We store our hand towels, wash cloths and beach towels in our linen closet.
• Electronics: Extra chargers, cords and anything else electronic goes in here now!
• Cleaning Supplies: Our cleaning supplies are split between here and under out sink, but I eventually want to convert out coat closet into a cleaning closet.
• Dog Stuff: This is where all of River and Pearls stuff goes like meds, collars, shampoos and nail trimmers.
• Games: The top shelf has enough space to store our game tote.

Looking for More Organization Tips??

How to Organize a SUPER Messy Room Quickly

Kitchen Organization: Small Pantry Organization (this is where I covered our wire pantry shelves), Kitchen Organization Products, Kitchen Declutter

How to Organize Laundry Room – I want to cover the ugly wire shelves in the laundry room next!

Share How you Covered your Wire Shelving

I hope you found this DIY wire shelf cover tutorial useful and you are enjoying your new shelf covers!! I just love that you don’t have to mess with a single piece of wood, pine board, wood overlays or even wood filler to do this project!

As always, thank you for following along with me in my creative journey. Be sure to tag me and use #meagannicholedotcom when sharing your how you covered your ugly wire shelving! Thanks for stopping by MeaganNichole.com

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