Ok, I’m going to make this super quick because I was supposed to post this a year ago, BUT that’s ok, because now I can tell you it has held up super well over the last 11 months.
I’m a renter so anything I do in my apartment has to be put back to its original condition when I move out. Because of this (as you may have noticed from the rest of my apartment) temporary wallpaper has basically become my best friend. I even covered my modern refrigerator in a cute retro blue before I brought in my vintage GE. Unfortunately, temp wallpaper isn’t ideal for stoves because of the whole ‘they get hot’ thing. Even though my oven door never gets hot to the touch, I wanted to be safe. I reallllly wanted a pink stove, but none of the vintage ones I was finding could fit in my kitchen. Besides it was already a pain in the ass to swap out the refrigerator. I looked for a solution similar to peel and stick wallpaper and that’s when I thought of heat wrap vinyl!
Update: my friend Cyn, a very talented set designer, used car wrap vinyl on her apartment’s vintage wall ovens and made a video tutorial for Instagram that you can watch here!
Anyway, I looked online and found a shimmery vinyl (you can find several brands and colors online) and set out with my hair dryer, a squeegee, and an exact-o knife to bring a little color to my kitchen.
The good news is this stuff is very forgiving! Look up some heat wrap or car wrap tutorials and you’ll see, its super pliable and molds to the curviest of shapes with the application of heat. It also has no or little adhesive so it peels off clean.
I took off all the handles and applied the vinyl as flat as I could to the front of the stove doors while smoothing and stretching as needed while applying heat from my hair dryer. Then I used heat and the corner of my squeegee to press and mold the vinyl into the curves and crevices around the glass window. I cut around the edges with a blade to remove the excess.
I wrapped the vinyl around all of the door edges and replaced the screws and handles.
I made sure to cover the sides too! I didn’t cover the cooktop because it most probably would burn and melt, being so close to the fire and all. I used the same method to cover the front of my dishwasher.
And here’s the final result!
It took a lotttt of patience, but once I got into the groove it went on a lot faster and smoother. It’s very easy to clean and has held up really well. Even with JV cranking the oven to ungodly temperatures when he’s baking bread. When I’m ready to move out I’ll just peel it off and be good to go. Yay!
{Update: We moved and it peeled off clean! I used a little rubbing alcohol and stainless steel cleaner to buff out any markings left behind and the appliances looked brand new.}
Melodrama 