Free Home Decor Project~Books

The Challenge   Now that we are days away from our basement renovation being complete, I need to furnish and decorate.  While the furniture will be trickling in over the coming weeks I still have to add those decorating extras!  We splurged on good furniture that can withstand teenagers.  And with 1000sq ft to furnish money gets tight for decor to finish the space.   I challenged myself to decorate on a very tight budget but free is even better.  Here's where you can cheat.  You can go the expensive stores like Restoration Hardware (which I LOVE) and drool over their decor like me.  Then go home and figure out a way to make it on a dime.   Yep, I saw these books tied with twine at Restoration Hardware when I was buying my Media Console.  What a brilliant concept.  Now before you start sending me hate mail for destroying my books... my husband is in the book business (third generation) so books are a huge part of our lives.  And decorating with books like this just really fits.    These are some of my favorite books that I wanted to display.

 I used paper back books and stripped off the cover and spine of the books exposing the paper.  Jane Austen is one of my favorite authors and I have read these over and over. 

 

Once the books have been stripped you're ready. 

 

See, I'm stripping!  I'm not very good at it, but you don't need to be!

 

I grabbed some twine, my scissors and my Vintage Photo Distress Ink.

 

I lightly inked up the edges of the books including the spince, cover and back.

 

Then I cut a huge piece of twine and wrapped it like you would ribbon on a Christmas present.

 

See how pretty that is.

 

Next I made a tag using parchment paper and TH Tag and Tie By die, #5 if you don't have the die.  The sentiment I printed on the computer.  Then attach to your stack of books. 

 

And here is my FREE Home Decor project sitting on my new shelves next to yesterday's Halloween Pumpkin project.

 

 Take a look at some of your old books.  The more you've loved them the more worn they are and the better to display.  There's nothing like holding a book and flipping those paper pages.  And because I only removed the cover and spine, I can still read any of these books.  All my pages are intact. 

 

I hope this inspires you:)