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DIY * How To Make New Books Look Old

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How to make new books look old is the focus of this tutorial. You might ask, why would you want to make something new look old? If you love vintage displays there is just something intriguing about rumpled pages!
vintage-looking-books

It’s no secret that I love to create vignettes and many times I use books in my styling. Old books with ruffled pages set my heart on fire. I have picked up bunches in my travels over time. These particular books date to the 1800’s and are French. We will be recreating the look here shortly.

Old-looking-paper

They just add that “je ne sais quois” to this autumn mantel setting for me! I even stuffed some books and pumpkins into a lantern for autumn…which you can see in THIS post of my HOME TOUR fall 2015

antique-books
old-antique-books
They can be used to give height to objects and can be turned so that the ruffly pages are on the outside for texture.
paper-crafts-book-pages

If you don’t have a trip to France planned in the near future to find books are from the 1800’s, it’s pretty simple to create the look with this little DIY.

HOW TO MAKE NEW BOOKS LOOK OLD

book-page-crafts
Get yourself some paperback books that aren’t literary masterpieces and not worth saving. The best place to find them on the cheap are obviously thrift stores and yard sales. I have been downsizing the stuff in our home and what better way to add to my “old” book collection! Aged paper just looks delicious to me and smells good, but new paper made to look old has less issues.

Use Old Outdated Travel Books

The travel books are outdated and the stock book came from my husband’s office (he’s a hoarder at times:~)) and he actually had 2 of the same copy. Please don’t tell him that I took one, wink…wink
aged-paper-crafts
The first step is to rip off the covers and any pages inside that have the editorial text that is usually in larger print.
tea-coffee-staining-paper
Find yourself a deep bowl with a flat bottom that is wide enough to fit your paperbacks into lying flat as well. This one is actually the top of a Tupperware cake saver. I knew that I must have had that around for SOME reason.
paper-diy

Make yourself a pot of strong coffee and pour it over the books, as shown. If you have enough to cover them that’s better. Open up the pages and get them soaked really well. This will help the pages absorb the liquid and ruffle up nicely. Leave the books to soak for several hours if possible for more stain…
I know that some people use tea for staining but I prefer to use coffee. As a result of using coffee you can achieve a deeper stain.

old-vintage-books
The books were soaked for about a 30 minute period of time. In the left stack, I ruffled the pages by hand as I set them in the coffee to soak.  The books on the right were not ruffled to create a different look. Finally, set in the sun to dry when finished soaking if possible to avoid any mold.
how to make new books look old
 
I hope that you have a chance to try this out and let me know how it goes!

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Comments

  1. Tania says

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    Wonderful Janet, thanks for the Tutorial. I plan on sorting out my books this weekend for this project. ?

  2. Katie Mansfield says

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    I'm doing this tomorrow! Love this idea.

  3. Cocoanlace says

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    Thanks for the tutorial. I've been wanting to do this but I was thinking I'd have to scour garage sales, find old books, and with much guilt, rip off the covers. Your method is much better.

  6. Palemoon4 says

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    Gorgeous…I love this idea, going now to give this a try. TFS, you ROCK!!!

  8. Made In a Day says

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    OMG I love this idea, they came out so old and pretty! Thanks for linking up to Merry Monday! Sharing on Fb & pinned! Have a great week!
    Kim

  9. Rebecca at SimplePracticalBeautiful.com says

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    I love project that use stuff I already have. And what a great idea to turn old paperbacks into a cool decor piece. Thanks for the tutorial!

  10. Melissa French - The More With Less Mom says

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    Thanks for posting. Hello from Treasure Box Tuesday.

  11. pamela lepage says

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    Thanks for how to on the books. Will be using Pinterest to save so it on the party with my ftench country cottage.

  12. Cat Golden says

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    Great idea and so simple! Thank you for sharing with Dream. Create. Inspire. Link! I hope we'll see you again next week!

    Cat

  13. Dee says

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    How exactly do you “ ruffle the pages “?

    • Janet says

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      They should ruffle somewhat naturally if you use this technique. Some of the books pictured are genuine antiques and we are going for the look in this tutorial.

  14. Odessa Graham says

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    This weekend I am going to try this aging process on some no longer needed books I have. Then I am going to cover the covers with Christmas design paper. Thank you, Janet!

    • Janet says

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      That sounds like so much fun Odessa and will look great for the holiday season!

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