Rustic Mouse Pad Makeover

Rustic Mouse Pad Makeover

Do you love your mouse pad? Go ahead and look down at it and let me know if it makes you smile. It may seem like a silly thing, I mean it’s just a mouse pad after all, right? Well, it’s actually pretty amazing what a difference a mouse pad can make, especially if it’s something you use frequently {like me}. And I’m happy to report that my mouse pad makes me smile. It’s the little things in life 🙂

As you may know, I recently built a new copper pipe double desk that both my husband and I can work at if need be. When I got to set up both computers I realized both of our mouse pads well… sucked. They were boring, ugly and didn’t match either which bothered me. Who wants to use a boring mouse pad? Not me!

What you probably don’t know is that I had a mouse pad fail quite a few months ago when I was gold-ifying everything. I spray painted one of my mousepads gold, but over time it started to wear off. I should have put a sealer or mod podge over it, but didn’t and just kept thinking I would eventually re-do it again.

Well eventually finally happened thanks to my BFF, contact paper.

Contact Paper

Scissors

Old Mousepad

I should mention that the above mouse pad had my husband’s work logo on it so I photoshopped it off. They had given it to him but it just felt weird to show it.

Side note: If you are using a magazine as a mouse pad because you haven’t gone out to buy one {been there, done that}, then it may be worth mentioning that I have seen mouse pads made using cork trivet or foam board and rubbery shelf liner or felt.

For this makeover, I used some rustic wood grain style contact paper I had on hand. I’m all about rustic modern designs and felt this would be the perfect way to incorporate that style onto our new desk.

I had ordered the wood grain contact paper online a while back, but have also seen smaller rolls at the dollar store. You could also use some gold or copper metallic contact paper, or any other fun designs you find or have on hand.

All you do is place your mouse pad on top of the contact paper, trace around it, cut it out, and then peel off the backing and stick it on your old mouse pad. Super easy! I did this with the first mouse pad and then for the second one I just cut out a square of contact paper that was a little larger than the mouse pad, stuck it on the mouse pad and then cut off the excess that hung over edges. This was actually even easier.

I will say that both mouse pads were a little different, to begin with, and the contact paper went on differently on each. The one I had {and I have no idea where I got it because I’ve had it forever} was super flimsy and sorta soft on top so the contact paper stuck on, but not nearly as well as my husband’s old mouse pad. His was a lot sturdier, to begin with, and felt a little more like plastic on top.

So I think the sturdier your mouse pad, the better this works. I am also using his mouse pad now, haha.

What do you think of our rustic mouse pad makeover?

So if you don’t love your mouse pad, I hope you feel inspired to give it a little makeover.

Update: It has been 2 years and this mousepad is still holding strong, which you can see on our new pull out desk 🙂