Easy DIY Marble Backboard for Instagram (And Home Decor)

Want professional looking flat lays? Learn how to make this easy DIY marble backboard for Instagram photos. I LOVE this for room decor as well!

A sleek marble backdrop for Instagram that doubles as decor for your bedroom.

This post contains affiliate links. See my disclosure for more info.

I just moved into my first house, and I’m still adjusting to life away from my apartment. There are things I like about it, and things I don’t. But one thing is for sure–I’m loving the amount of room I have to decorate. It’s so exciting! To make things feel more homey I bought a few plants, one of which is a cute little snake plant that warms up my bedroom. It’s adorable on its own, but I knew something was missing. I grabbed my marble contact paper that Pinterest inspired me to buy a while back and created my own little (super easy) DIY marble backboard that I could use for both Instagram flat lays and bedroom decor.

What You Need:

• Marble contact paper: I got this entire roll of marble contact paper from Amazon for only $7.00! The dimensions are 17.7″ x 78.7″.

• Particle board: I got mine from Home Depot for $4.00. They came in 2’x2′ sheets. I had an employee cut one side to 16″ so the final size was 16″x24″–the perfect size to fit the paper I had (plus a little leeway).

• Scissors: For some simple cutting–you don’t even need to be good at cutting straight lines!

• Squeegee: Or in my case an old gift card since I don’t have a squeegee. Either will work, but you just need something sturdy to smooth out bubbles.

• Paper towels: To clean your board (and wrap your makeshift squeegee like me).

• Hair dryer (optional): If your paper won’t stay down, a hairdryer will help it stick.

Instructions:

1. Wipe down your particle board with a dry paper towel. You don’t want any stray hairs or crumbs getting stuck under your contact paper!

2. Put your board on top of a raised surface. I used this bar stool so that I could have 360 degree access to work on my project.

3. Roll out the contact paper. Make sure to roll out enough to cover the board entirely with an inch or two extra hanging over all the edges (we will use the extra to wrap under later).

4. Cut your sheet of contact paper. It’ll be so much easier to work with once the rest of the roll is outta there. There is a ruler grid on the back of the paper if you’re dead set on having a straight line. But it doesn’t really matter if the edge is straight because it will just be folded under and out of sight at the end anyway.

5. Get your squeegee (or make one). I wrapped my old gift card in a paper towel to create a makeshift squeegee.

6. Line up the contact paper so it is centered on the board and peel the vinyl from the backing. Roll the backing under as you do this. Only peel a little at a time so you don’t end up with bubbles you can’t smooth out.

7. Carefully stick the vinyl down on the board (making sure to keep that extra bit hanging off the edge) and squeegee. Squeegee in the direction toward the backing you just peeled. Once you’ve pushed the entire strip down, then you can continue slowly peeling the rest of the backing under and smoothing the vinyl down.

7. Squeegee and peel as you go. Once you get in the rhythm of things, you can squeegee with one hand and peel the backing under with the other. This will make things go a lot more quickly so you aren’t starting and stopping with every little section you peel back.

8. Keep going until you’ve smoothed out the entire board. Hopefully you measured properly and still have a little hanging over all of the sides.

9. Cut one of the corners of the paper to the corner of the board. Get as close as you can to the corner of the board. Trust me. It will help you later on.

10. Squeegee one of the short (16″) sides of the board down. Since the sides are so thin, it was difficult to get the paper to stick. But if you push hard, it will eventually.

11. Pro tip: if yours won’t stick, bust out the hair dryer. Heat small areas at a time, and push flat with your squeegee. The heat helps activate the adhesive. Keep squeegeeing until you’re positive the entire short side has completely adhered.

12. Cut the point off of both ends of the short side you just stuck down. Make sure you cut the paper flush with the edge of the board or you will have trouble later on.

13. Fold the short side under the board. Since you already cut the points off, it should fold under nicely and line up perfectly. I started this part using my squeegee and then opted for my thumbs instead. I found that folding under is easiest if you put the tips of your thumbs together and push down. But by all means, stick to the squeegee if you like that best.

14. Repeat the same process for the other short side. Make sure you do this to both 16″ sides before moving on.

15. Squeegee one of the long (24″) sides of the board down. When you get to an end with a point, pull it taught and wrap it over the short side like a present. Do this to both ends.

16. Repeat these steps for the other long side of the board.

16. Cut in a straight line up to the corner of the board. You’re a pro at this already, but get as close as you can to the board.

17. Repeat the previous step for all edges and fold under. The cuts you made should allow you to fold everything neatly under the board, leaving clean corners.

Here’s a picture of the back of my board. It’s not very even, but it doesn’t matter. You’ll never see the back side anyway. But if this bothers you, cover the back with marble paper. It’s definitely not necessary, though.