Hi everyone! I am so excited for this post! This is for all my bloggers or anyone who just wants a pretty background for you pictures and flat lays! If you are anything like me, then you struggle to find a place to take a nice flat lay. I made some boozy ice pops the other day, and I wanted to take pictures for a blog post to share the recipe with all you, but one problem. I didn’t know where I was going to take the pictures. I feel like food pictures always look so pretty, so of course I wanted my to look nice too. I heard about flat lay boards before, but when I looked them up, they cost like over $75! So I went to amazon and found some marble contact paper starting at $7.19 for a roll 11.8″ x78.7″ and had 4 sizes all the way up to 24″ x 118″ for $ 27.99. I ended up ordering the one for $7.19. I then went over to Lowes and bought a precut piece of plywood for like $4. The piece I picked ended up being 24″ x 24″. So for less than $12 I had my own DIY flat lay board!
Let’s first talk about what you need. So, first you need to decided what kind of background you want. I decided to go for marble (this is the one I used). I picked this one because it has a ton of amazing reviews, and it wasn’t too expensive. If you want marble, I definitely recommend this one, and it comes in a few sizes. As for the board I would go to your local Lowes or Home Depot, as they have a bunch of precut plywood that isn’t expensive. I chose to use wood because I want it to last a long time.
So the first thing I did was measure and cut the first section of the contact paper. I decided to just kind of go for it, so I lined up the front part and started to take off the back of the contact paper. Not gonna lie this part was a bit challenging, but the paper was really forgiving. I was able to peel it off and move it a little when it started to get a little crooked, so that was good.
After a few tries of making sure it was straight, I got the first panel down. There were a few air bubbles, but they were pretty easy just push out with my hand. So once I had the first section down I measured the next part, and did it all over again. The second one was a bit more difficult because you want to make sure you line it up with the other section. The last thing you want is some of the wood showing in between the two sections! My second section ended up overlapping the first one a little but it was fine.
Depending on the size of your wood/contact paper you might have to do it another time. My two pieces ended up covering pretty much the whole board, except the small part on the end. I could cover it if I really wanted to (as I have contact paper left over), but I ended up just leaving it for now. If it ends up getting it a picture I could easily crop it out, but considering my board is 2ft x 2ft I think I will be fine.
So here is my finished board! I have already used it, and I seriously love it. It really didn’t take that long to do it either.it maybe took 15-20 minutes to finish. It also costs a fraction of the price of ones online! So if you are looking for a flat lay background I would definitely recommend doing it yourself.
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