DIY Vintage Books

Happpppppy hump day my friends! I hope your week is going well and just think you are half way there. You can do it!

Today I’m sharing a super simple DIY tutorial for creating vintage books to decorate with in your home.

Yes, you can find some old vintage books at antique shops and on ebay and etsy. But they are so expensive and if you are like me, always decorating on a budget then you are in the right place.

Decorating with vintage books is so adorable, gives a great farmhouse cottagey feel and super in expensive. So, sit down, grab a snack, cup of coffee or whatever you like and lets get started.

Lets do this!

First off you need to pick up some old books. You can find them at rummage sales, thrift stores or even in your own attic if you have some books you no longer want. I headed to Good Will because I wanted them now and I knew all soft cover books are only 99¢ there and hard cover are $1.99. So that was a great price for this project.

What I look for when picking books is building stacks like 2, 3 or 4. Having the bottom one being larger and tapering up to smaller. You can get hard cover or soft cover whatever you like. This stack I am showing you was a mix of soft and hard cover. I also look for pages that are more worn and golden so the uglier the better!

First step is to unbound you book. Remember even though your books are not vintage we are going to make them look vintage so unbound books look vintage, right! So, tear those covers and backs off.

Much to white for my liking so lets get to work.

My pages were not vintage enough and looked to white so I decided to dirty them up and make them look even more old and worn. I used coffee for this step. Just make a cup of coffee but use only about 4 oz of water to one k-cup so you have really black coffee.

I then rubbed that coffee all over the top page, spine and edges. Yes, it will get wet but when it dries it will be more rustic, worn and old. The edges will even curl which is even more perfect.

Next, I decided to use the actual coffee ground and rub them all over for an even more dingy look. Yes, your pages will have a coffee scent but that’s not a bad thing, right? lol. The smell actually goes away so if you don’t like the scent of coffee no worries!

Lets really age those edges!

A few of my books I really wanted a bit more burn look like they really have been through rough times. So, I brought out my lighter, lol. I first wet a paper towel and had that nearby. Then I started the edges on fire. They really don’t burn like you think they would and if it does you just dab it onto the wet paper towel. This gave them a nice burned edge which gave that really old look.

Lastly, let your books dry if they are still wet from the coffee. You can then gather up stacks as you like and tie them up with twine or lace ribbon. Adding embellishments such as I did on one set I used a skeleton key. But you can do whatever you like.

End result!

I love the rustic and rawness of unbound books, especially when they’re paired with feminine lace or ribbon. There really is something about that combination that is just so darn pretty, and I just love them.

This stack I did not do any burning nor coffee grounds. I just used the black coffee to lightly distress them and curl the edges.

Here is the stack I used the skeleton key on. I also did not use any coffee staining nor burning. But I did use a piece of decorative paper to wrap the top and bottom book. I made this stack a long time ago before I started using the coffee method. So any of the styles look adorable.

Decorating with books will never go out of style so come on, get some books and have fun! Who would have known you could make some vintage books with so little effort and look at how adorable they turned out!

I hope this inspired you to do a little DIY with books and save a ton of money in the process. SCORE!

Thanks so much buddies for stopping by today. I would love to hear if anyone of you decorate with books or will be doing this DIY in the future.  So drop me a comment below.  Enjoy your day!