A Simple DIY Cabinet Update With Pergo


So my friends, it's official. One room in our house is D. O. N. E. done! Not done as in "I'm never ever going to change anything in the room" (because that would just be crazy talk, right?) but done as in "I crossed off the last thing on my to-do list". It's our dining room that's done and the last item that I crossed off of my to-do list was lining the back of the built-in china cabinet:

As you can see from the "before" pic below, our china cabinet is very simple, kinda charming, and didn't necessarily need to have anything done to it. But the crystal and white china stored inside faded into the white cabinet back and I wanted to add a backdrop that would allow those things to stand out more while also adding some warmth and decorative interest to the space. 
I'd been planning this little project for months and was originally going to use barnwood to line the cabinet back. I found a great barnwood source, spent over an hour going through all of the wood to pick out my pieces, and then had the guy total my cost up only to find that it was going to cost over $200. So I left empty-handed.
I considered other materials, including pallet wood, wood panelling, and grasscloth wallpaper but in the end I went with this:
Yep, Pergo. I fell in love with the tones of the Grey Yew Pergo (samples are available in Home Depot stores but it is an online-only product found {here}) and one $53 case was enough to cover my entire cabinet back.
Installation was pretty simple. We cut each Pergo board to the width of the cabinet and then added four strips of double-sided Duck Tape (bought on Amazon {here}) to the back. (You could also use Liquid Nails or some other type of glue adhesive but I wanted to use something that would cause less damage if I chose to remove the Pergo in the future)
The first board was placed at the bottom of the cabinet and then we worked our way up from there. The Pergo boards interlock with each other so there are no visible gaps between the boards (sorry for the grainy iPhone pic!):
The final board needed to be ripped lengthwise as well as being cut widthwise to fit the remaining space. I'm really happy with how it turned out:


I also changed out the small brass knobs on the glass cabinet doors to 8" oil-rubbed bronze pulls (Restoration Hardware Lugarno pulls):
The dining room finally feels complete! (To see images of the rest of the space, see {here} and {here})
It's about time that I finished off at least one room - can you believe that we moved into our house a year ago as of next week? I'm excited about putting together some posts showing you guys what we've gotten done on the house since moving in and also what we have left to do, including some scary never-before-seen shots of our master bedroom, hall bath, and family room. Be forewarned - those images are not going to be for the faint-hearted...