During a recent trip to Restoration Hardware to buy paint for our kitchen makeover, I took a quick peek around and instantly fell in love with this look:
A closer inspection revealed a small stack of what appeared to be old paperback books sans covers and bound together in a neat little package with twine.
I was surprised to find a price tag – RH sells these bundles for $15 each! Are you kidding me?!
I loved the look but decided I could probably create it myself for close to free.
So I marched right home and instantly went to work. Okay, it was really about two weeks later in the middle of the night when I couldn’t sleep and was looking for something to do and remembered the book idea.
I pulled out some books that I was getting ready to donate and reviewed my stack of recent thrift store book purchases, too.
I was completely delighted (insert happy squeal here) to discover some twine in my husband’s workshop. Yay, Honey for having twine!
I was able to quickly put this bundle together in just a few minutes:
And this one:
Then I quickly re-swizzled my bookshelf. Really there was no “quick” about it – it took me a couple of hours and multiple tries.
Big shout out to my talented sister-in-law Michelle for teaching me to divide the shelf into thirds. Yay, Michelle!
I achieved this look by following her advice and removing one shelf on each side. Makes such a HUGE difference, dontcha think?
Some before pics:
To start the project, I decided which books I wanted to use by looking at sizes and page color.
Then I removed the covers from the paperbacks (aka just rip them off). I kept the hardcovers in place.
Then I bundled them, reversing every other one to create the look that I wanted.
I used Hubby’s twine to bind them together to create a nice little package:
Total cost: $0 using items I already had!
I didn’t even have to buy twine! Yes, I’m still very excited about the twine – but it was 2am and I couldn’t sleep – I guess I’m easily entertained at 2am.
This project is quick, fun, and requires zero skills. You can even involve the kids – they’ll love to rip the covers off your books!
Here’s a final shot of one of my “new” book stacks next to my thrift store lamp that I purchased for $7 just last week:
Have fun tearing into some old books!
Around My Home 
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