Shelf liner [S. Worthen | Weblog]

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[Poll #1286000]

And the obvious, but accidentally omitted possibility: You know what shelf liner is, but choose not to bother with it.

I went to a decent kitchen shop today today to buy shelf liner, but they said they'd never stocked it, in all their years of operation. Am I looking in the wrong kind of shop? Am I looking in the wrong country? I've never installed it myself, but it's been a staple of most decent, owned-by-user, long-term kitchens (and often bathroom cabinets and drawers) I've experienced in my life.

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There are 46 comments on this entry. (Reply.)

I never used it in Canadia.

Here I have used greaseproof paper or foil or even tea towels to line shelves in shorter-term places, so that when I have to clean things when I move out it will be easy to make the shelves clean, but I suspect that is not what you mean.

That's exactly what I meant, except you're improvising instead of buying a dedicated product.

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This stuff may do the trick. I used that, too, but left it behind somewhere at some point.

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Oooh! I may just have been calling it by the wrong name. Drawer mat, not shelf liner, perhaps.

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Many years ago, someone gave me a roll of lightly perfumed shelf paper to install in my dorm room "for my smalls". I never got around to cutting the squares of paper, so I shoved the roll in the back of the drawer. It did smell nice.

Scented shelf paper is Right Out.

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We have some in the bedroom because it was a present. It had never occurred to me use it in the kitchen.

I do enjoy your domestic posts.

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my parents used wall paper pinned down. (well when i say parents i obvioulsy mean my mother since my dad probably couldnt care less)

That's sensible. Indeed, it wouldn't surprise me to learn there's no real difference between shelf paper and certain varieties of wall paper.

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Yep: my insanely OCD mother also just uses wallpaper.

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I view shelf paper as an extra line of defense against wet glasses/pans/etc, and it looks so darn good. It's one of the few nods to decorating I've made.

America has so many pretty shelf liners for sale! I've seen them around for most of my life, knowing they might some day come in handy when I acquired a kitchen I cared about.

And now I have, and the only ones I've found so far here - and those via websites - have been plain and practical - no designs at all.

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What about contact paper? Can you get that? It's pretty, it's ruled on the back for easy cutting and it sticks!

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Lakeland Plastics have a metallic shelf liner, and someone gave me some very un-me scented flowery drawer lining paper for Christmas one year, but apart from that I'm not sure I've seen it about, really. I just wipe shelves and cupboards periodically, which seems to work for me.

I won't do scented ones either. Of any sort. Of course Lakeland would have a solution! Not a pretty one, but functional, which is the first important thing.

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Was about to recommend the Lakeland metal one, works pretty well - I can't remember why mum wanted the stuff in the first place but its in our mugs cupboard and is functional and pretty, hardwearing too *nods*

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That's the only one I knew about! As I've never seen it or any liner actually on shelves, I wasn't entirely sure what it is for, though I am now enlightened by this post.

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Rubbermaid makes a really nice stop-glassware-from-slipping shelf liner (but do not know if it is available outside the US; here you can get it in a supermarket). IKEA also makes nice stop-glassware-from-slipping shelf liner.
I am fond of pretty shelf liner for decoration's sake but have never actually used it.

As far as I can tell - based on nascent web searches - there IS no pretty shelf liner in this country. Although I could use

rjw1's suggestion of wallpaper, which would open up a whole array of designs. (I don't want to have to glue it down though.)

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Blu-tack in the corners?

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I have shelf liner solely because it was there when we moved into the house. The only sort I find useful is the rubbery stuff which helps keep things from sliding around, and then only in limited circumstances.

Once shelf liner has been used, though, you pretty much are stuck with it. If you remove the old stuff the shelf tends to be permanently sticky, so you have to put new liner in. :-(

My parents' is loose on the shelf, so having sticky shelves was not a by-product which ever occurred to me. That would explain why so many people manage to keep theirs snug to the shelf though....

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There was contact paper on the shelves in our old apartment in Berkeley.
Every apartment we had after that had none and I never bought any or put down any sort of paper.

We have none in our present house, but I've thought about putting some down on one of our shelves since I'm using an Ikea bookshelf for extra kitchen storage space and the glasses leave rings sometimes if put away damp.

I don't like the spongey-rubbery-non-slidey stuff because ... well when I put stuff away I slide it in and not being able to slide it is annoying.

Since I can't see most of the tops of my shelves, I don't much see the point of pretty shelf-liner. It's totally invisible most of the time other than knowing that it's there?

My parents always used plain white, not glued down, not non-stick. That seems sensible to me.

Much as the pretty stuff is appealing, it seems more useful for the bedroom or maybe bathroom rather than dealing with all the hard-wearing required of a kitchen.

Still, there are some rather tasteful ones out there:
http://www.containerstore.com/browse/index.jhtml?CATID=69172 (although tractiony)
http://www.duckproducts.com/products/detail.asp?catid=5&subid=23&plid=104 (Mayan Leaf or Linen)

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Drawer liner I get. My dresser drawers are lined with remnants of the wallpaper my mother used to paper my first big-girl bedroom. Yes. It's been in there for 30+ years. And moved from Rhode Island to Brussels, two houses in Brussels, then over to Philadelphia.

Edited Date: 2008-10-28 04:36 pm (UTC)

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I'm not a fan of the stuff, because I've only ever had ugly, stuck-down shelf liner that I hated, but if I wanted protection I'd probably go with something that didn't have a print at all, or the rubbery non-skid drawer liner that you can buy in rolls.

I hate shelf liner, but I see the logic in it, so I use it. I just used contact paper for our shelves in the condo, and had to use it because the people before us had obviously use it and pulled it off, so the shelves were all sticky! I did find a non-permanent mat in Ikea to use in my silverware drawer so that the silverware tray didn't slide all over the place.

Oh, what a good idea for a non-sliding silverware tray! (We're back at the point where we're shopping for the tray still, now that we have drawers in the kitchen.)

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Shelf liner must be a con, because I've never heard of it and as a result can't think why I'd need one ;-p

Or it just may not be a British thing any more than modern-built sash windows are. I'm not sure.

They're not just intended for prettiness or to have non-slip shelves, as you might be led to believe by many of the other comments, although they can do that too. It's also meant to help keep delicate china from being chipped against hard shelves. Also, if you happened to have painted wooden shelves instead of plastic-coated ones, to keep the paint on the shelves from chipping. Also, it makes it easier to clean up messy cabinets and drawers, i.e. with spilled/broken bottles in them.

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Nooooooo - post eaten a second time.

Recap in bullet points because lj hates me:

Doesn't sound pretty to me, but having read the comments I now associate it with some tatty, ugly paper some people lay down on pantry shelves. I'm sure there is prettier paper out there, but it's not to my tastes.

Never known a shelf chipping problem (before now) and my Mum has quite an extensive china collection.

Don't see how it would make cleaing up easier, although I can see how it migth make it harder.

May be an American thing (never encountered it out there, but I was young) but that doesn't mean it's not a con ;-p

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My grandmother used to have the kind with the little fold down lacy edge.
I don't think I have a shelf paper kind of lifestyle.

Twee flowered (or, god help us, scented) shelf liners are pointless. Tasteful Florentine printed papers are useful for lining antique dressers whose old boards would otherwise tear holes in one's skivvies.

The real stuff is THIS, to which my mother introduced me and by which I now swear. Best thing in the world for large collections of martini glasses.

No, I'm not sure how you get it in the UK. But I'd be happy to bring you some in November!

That's similar to the stuff I was talking about in my comment, but the kind I meant comes in colors, and is probably less expensive. BB&B sells it, and so do a lot of grocery stores. I don't remember whether I saw any in Tesco, but there might have been.

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I would like to make a caveat to my "I use shelf liner", which is the addition of "sometimes". I think it's only necessary when there is a good reason I want to protect either the shelf from the dish (i.e. cast iron) or the dish from the shelf (i.e. sticky substance in a rental apartment).

You forgot "I looked at the shelf liner, looked at the shelves, judged what would be necessary to get the liner on the shelves, and said to myself, 'No, I really don't think so.'"

But I do use those rolls of slightly puffy non-skid stuff that keeps me from chipping the edges of my coffee mugs.

Another option: I use paper bags, wallpaper, or paper towels as shelf-liner.

(Advantages: Doesn't stick down so much you can't remove it again! Design choice! Plate mats also have the first advantage, but lose the advantage of cheap.)

Shelf paper reminds me of both my grandmas. :)

Hm. I've heard of, and use when necessary, drawer liner, which is what the scented paper is for. (Necessary if you have a nice old chest of drawers, because the inside of the drawers won't be painted, so you'll need something between your clothing and the wood. Not necessary with cheap foil-finished Ikea stuff, since it's finished inside as well as out.)

My mother and both grandmothers used drawer liner. AFAIK, neither grandmother used shelf liner, and my mother certainly doesn't. I'd suppose it depends on what the shelves are made of, whether you'd need it? I could see using it to protect paint from scratching, but I don't see how it would protect the dishes. Liner for pantry shelves makes sense to me, but how much protection from spills/leaks is paper going to be?

People who use contact paper on shelves need a serious slap upside the head. It's on some of the kitchen shelves where we rent now, and it's deteriorating, but you can't take it off or it leaves, as others have said, the shelves all sticky.

I didn't use shelf liner until college. I think it's necessary in my kitchen, because the 70s-era shelves in my cabinets are not in such fabulous shape. I might feel differently if I had new plastic-coated shelves, but never having had them, I can't say for sure.

Italian cabinets are frequently lined with papers printed with traditional designs. Not just the shelves are covered, but all interior surfaces are lined. That makes them really pretty when you open the cabinets or look through the glass doors. I can bring you some papers, I have some extra ones here or can buy sheets of this paper at Testolini. Green? Recently, bars here have started using a nifty perforated sponge-cloth as a shelf liner where they store drinking glasses. This material is sold by meter in most hardware and housewares stores. We have some of it now, and it is also great for opening difficult to open jar lids.

You omitted the category, "I think I possibly used shelf liner once but it was so long ago, I can't really remember." :)

Don't use it myself but of those who I know that do tend to use Wallpaper.

A.

I think Lakeland and John Lewis both sell it. My grandmothers both used it and my mother never has.

Me? Ha. Not my sort of thing.

I google'd drawer liners, contact liner, contact paper, and finally shelf liner, which referred me to this post ;)
Hooray for google, and lj, but boo for the stalking-factor...

~Jenn D

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