A book shelf made from books…almost! (sorry Mr Titchmarsh, but I did read it twice!)
Phew! Managed to get out of pinterest.com! Like lots of other folks I’ve been spending far too much time there, but when there’s so much stuff to look at it’s hard not to! Pinterest works for me because the human brain can scan images far quicker than long lists of text excerpts, hence being a huge fan of Google images too.
Anyway, after being suitably inspired and wanting a project that would free up some valuable bookshelf space. I decided to use up some of the old ‘trashy’ paperbacks I have cluttering up the place and use them to create a ‘Billy Bookcase Upgrade’ by making the shelves themselves look like they are made from books. Here’s how I did it….
Take one ordinary and boring Billy Bookcase
The idea is to use old paperback book covers to create the illusion that the shelves are make from books. Choose books that are around 18mm thick or close to the size of your shelf thickness.First…
Hold firmly and gently pull the cover away from the spine of the book.
Gently work down the books spine easing the cover away.
Second, using strips of clear sticky tape along the books outer edges, wrap the book cover around the shelf edge starting at the top corner and pressing tightly around and underneath.
Hold the corner of the book tight against the corner of the shelf and press the tape down.
It’s important the book covers are held tightly in place against the shelf edge before pressing down the sticky tape for a convincing look. You’ll likely have to cut a thinner strip to finish each shelf off. You can get several strips from one book for this.
Carefully butt the second and subsequent covers up to each other and tape down.
I also ran extra lengths of tape over the joins in between each book to make them look seamless. Then pull the books forward a little onto the book covers if necessary to make sure none of the original shelf is visible.
Here is the finished shelf looking like a row of floating books.
That’s it, repeat as necessary across the other shelves!
Let me know if you have any great ideas for things to make out of your own old books.
Stay well
Ian Anderson
DISCLAIMER More than a few books were harmed during this project. None valuable and none worthy of another read, well in my humble opinion. And yes, I did find it hard to destroy books, old habits die hard!
