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A few weeks ago I shared my new office setup, and today I wanted to share another essential part of my work space… my vinyl mat!
When I got my first white desk, I quickly realised that I would have to protect my work space… more than I did with my old desk.
Now, you probably wonder what I was getting up to to destroy the poor work surface while working on my crochet/knitting projects… but the real issue wasn’t really me or my work…
Hard to believe it, but yes… it was the cats! With all of their 16 paws and their complete disregard for personnal space… they were messing up the desk!
I wasn’t really happy with them because I loved having the white desk as picture backgrounds.
I started looking for a desk protection mat, but I couldn’t find anything to my taste… or within my price range. Because, and I’ve mentionned this before, I’m pretty cheap and I don’t like spending money all that much. I found it very frustrating to have to spend so much money on what would essentially be an oversized placemat.
So I decided to make my own using a leftover poster board and a roll of adhesive vinyl I found for next to nothing on amazon. It’s been a few years now and I use that thing everyday to protect the desk when I work, when I do watercolors and it’s also become somewhat of a signature background for my amigurumi pictures.
With the new desk having multiple work surfaces, I decided I would been a new mat… which would also give me more background options for my pictures. I could not resolve to toss my original mat, even if it is getting a bit tired, but I wasn’t able to find the same vinyl at a reasonable price. Off to the Dollarama we went!
I ended up with 3 brand new mats (about 70 cm x 50 cm) for less than 10$! And it is a very easy project, as you can see from the pictures above.
The hardest part is actually getting the vinyl onto the poster board with no air bubbles. The trick for that is to be slow and steady when unrolling and sticking the vinyl in place.
Because the vinyl is waterproof, these mats are resistant enough to survive the occational spill, and the surface is super smooth if you are using it as a mouse pad!
Do you have a favorite work tool or accessory that you actually made yourself?
La rose du rang 