Daily DIY Project: Covered Glass Doors

Glass cabinet doors can add tons of light to your kitchen or dining room and are an ideal way to show off your heirloom dishes and antique crystal--but they also require keeping your cabinets neat and organized on a 24/7 basis. Give yourself a break with these simple instructions from Craft for turning them from transparent to transcendent.

Showing off your favorite pieces in a glass cabinet can add plenty of color and interest to a room--but if you'd rather not have to keep your spices, colanders, and other less exotic kitchen goods in pristine condition at all times, covering the doors with decorative paper lets you off the hook. Scrapbook paper, wallpaper, wrapping paper, or even fabric will work for this; choose a pattern that blends in to focus the attention on a different part of the room, or pick a colorful, graphic pattern to coordinate with the rest of your furnishings. Make a template from butcher paper (these instructions recommend leaving about 1/2 inch all the way around to make sure no errant bowls peek through) and then cut out your panel; attach it to the inside of the door with thumbtacks, and you're finished: in this case, showing less really is more.

We love how the author of this project cut three different pieces of paper at the same time so that she could swap pink and aqua birds for silver marble, and silver marble for an orange and green print at a moment's notice. And of course, since the paper is attached only with thumbtacks, you can take it down entirely on those rare occasions when the contents are perfectly in order (go ahead--show off a little). However you decide to put this project into action, you'll be able to redo your kitchen--while reusing your favorite papers--without replacing any of your current materials.