5 Super Stylish Modern Drawer Liner Ideas

Which Are Simple and Easy to Install

Sick of the standard drawer liners that you can get in hardware stores?

This post will give you ideas on how to make your drawers even more stylish. These drawer liner ideas will look great in a minimal modern or Scandinavian-style home.

How to Make Drawer Liners Incredibly Stylish

Let’s be real: The typical drawer liners in hardware stores, especially the non-adhesive ones, are not made to look cute. They are just functional. You’ll feel inspired to fill your drawers to the trim, to hide the liner material underneath.

Sometimes – even worse in my eyes – they have some patterns printed on that are supposed to look good but are just not at all in line with a reduced modern style.

There are other ways! Just think outside the box…

3 Tips for Drawer Liners That Match a Modern Aesthetic

Here are some tips to make your drawers an eye-catcher:

• Stay away from standard drawer liners with prints
• Go for aesthetic materials you would use in the rest of your house. Felt or cork for example work great as kitchen drawer liners.
• For patterns, go for wallpaper or wrapping paper that reflects your personal aesthetic

Modern Kitchen Drawer Liner Ideas (non-adhesive)

In the examples below I have tried 5 different drawer liner materials.

All of them fit the modern minimal aesthetic of a Scandinavian-style home or a home in all beige and neutral tones.

5 Best Materials for Drawer Liner or Shelf Liner in Your Kitchen

I loved to test out different material aesthetics for these examples!

Get inspired and make your own DIY drawer liners.

PS: These will fit almost any drawer; Desk drawers, dresser drawers, bathroom shelves and drawers, and also shelves that need protection – in your pantry or kitchen cabinet for example.

1 | Felt Kitchen Drawer Liner for a Minimal Look

This dark grey felt mat makes your drawers and cabinets look sophisticated and dampens the sound of utensils, glassware, and ceramics all in one.

I love the aesthetic for any place that will stay spill- and crumb-free.

Can you believe these are from IKEA?

It’s the UPPDATERA drawer mat, sold in the kitchen supplies section.

Tip: If you are more into light colours, their KOMPLEMENT drawer mat, sold in the closet section, creates a similar look, all in light grey (it’s a thinner material though).

2 | Cork Kitchen Drawer Liner – Natural Tones Aesthetic

Another great material to soften sounds in your cabinets and drawers is cork.

Cork has a warm feel to it and its colour perfectly fits the trendy nude and beige interior style trend for example.

I love cork because you can easily wipe it off, even when you spill food over it.

I haven’t seen this a lot but I think cork is a great idea for kitchen drawers and as cabinet liner.

This cork is rather thick (so it stays in place no matter what) and I bought it on a roll (made for large-sized pinboards. But you can also find much thinner material in textile shops or buy cork placemats or desk mats and cut them to size.

3 | Paper Kitchen Drawer Liner – Go Natural or Black

Sturdy paper is another material that works well as a drawer liner and is a totally affordable option which is easy to cut and install.

Simply cut it to size.

In this example, I went with a natural toned paper but for a classy sophisticated look, black would look stunning too.

4 | Wrapping Paper or Wallpaper – Plain or with Stylish Patterns

If you would love a stylish pattern, go for (leftover) wallpaper or gift-wrapping paper you love.

To make the liners, cut a piece a bit larger than needed and fold the edges to size. Folding will make the liners less wavy and it’s a lot easier to install them.

Another great option for a really low price!

And I love the idea of picking up the wallpaper you used in your space in your drawers – a totally unexpected place. That makes for amazing details in your home.

Wrapping paper or wallpaper is the only of the five examples that I would glue down. Simply use some double-sided tape or mounting putty to hold your lining in place.

PS: If you don’t have leftover wallpaper at home, simply get a role at a paint store near you or online.

5 | Clear Kitchen Drawer Liner with Postcards or Photos

A fun idea for the end:

To make the standard transparent drawer mat a bit more unique, what about putting some postcards or photos underneath?

This will work best in a drawer that’s not too deep where you see a lot of the liner material. Like in my kitchen utensils drawer in the photos.

I used the IKEA VARIERA non-slip drawer mat (transparent) but any transparent drawer liner will do.

These plastic liners are most easy to wash off so they are suited for any area in your kitchen.

How to Install Drawer Liner

The utensils you will need are:

• drawer liner of your choice
• cloth
• tape measure
• self-healing cutting mat
• (rotary) cutter or cutter. For most materials, you’ll also be fine with scissors
• pen

Follow this step-by-step tutorial on how to install your drawer liners for a full break-down. It’s on shelf liners but will work the same for your DIY drawer liners.

Why use drawer liners?

Like shelf liner, drawer liner will protect the surfaces from daily wear and tear, from stains, spills and any other mess that potentially happens.

All the drawers in your house will benefit when you cover them with liner but in my experience, kitchen cabinets and drawers will thank you most 😉

Should You Use Self-Adhesive Drawer Liners?

Self-adhesive drawer liners, also called contact paper, are a popular choice.

If you own your house, it can be worth it. But if you are renting or don’t want to deal with a mess when you peel the liner off in future, I recommend going with non-stick materials, like the ones shown in this post.

They need surprisingly little taping; most of them will actually stay in place without any adhesive at all!

This post gave you kitchen drawer liner ideas. Have fun choosing your liner material and making your drawers look stylish with an easy DIY project.

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