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.
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
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
Use Old Outdated Travel Books
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.
Tania says
atWonderful Janet, thanks for the Tutorial. I plan on sorting out my books this weekend for this project. 😊
Katie Mansfield says
atI'm doing this tomorrow! Love this idea.
Cocoanlace says
atThanks 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.
pauline morris says
atThanks for sharing ! Love the results !!!
Sonya Lemacks says
atLove this tfs♡
Palemoon4 says
atGorgeous…I love this idea, going now to give this a try. TFS, you ROCK!!!
stamphappy2001 says
atLove your display. What a great idea for a fall display.
Made In a Day says
atOMG 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
Rebecca at SimplePracticalBeautiful.com says
atI 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!
Melissa French - The More With Less Mom says
atThanks for posting. Hello from Treasure Box Tuesday.
pamela lepage says
atThanks for how to on the books. Will be using Pinterest to save so it on the party with my ftench country cottage.
Cat Golden says
atGreat idea and so simple! Thank you for sharing with Dream. Create. Inspire. Link! I hope we'll see you again next week!
Cat
Dee says
atHow exactly do you “ ruffle the pages “?
Janet says
atThey 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.