Do you have old hardcover books collecting dust? Grab the duster and use them to accessorize a room. Stacked on a coffee table with a floral vase on top, used to raise decor on bookshelves, set on a dresser wrapped with pretty ribbon - the possibilities are endless. But if you paint them in soft pastel colors, they make beautiful DIY decorative books for Spring.

DIY Painted Books With Timeworn Patina For Spring Decorating

If you're an avid reader like I am, you probably have stacks of old books you can use for this purpose. No worries if they have embarrassing titles like the 80s self-help books I used for these. No one's going to know after they're painted, especially when bound together with a pretty ribbon.

This is such an easy Spring craft project and a great way to recycle old books. I plan on using mine to create a pretty Spring vignette on our coffee table tray.


I chose four books around the same size, one slightly smaller than the other to add visual interest when stacked.


I gave mine a timeworn patina around the edges of the covers and spines. The book pages are also glistening with painted metallic gold edges. I'll show you how easy it is to get the look further down in the post.


Bound together with sisal twine and embellished with a small birds nest, they are ready to be displayed for Easter and Spring.


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So here's how I painted the hardcover books for Spring

Painting the edges of the book pages

The first thing I did was with the books closed, paint the outside edges of the pages with gold metallic paint. The gold looks so pretty with the pastel colors but we'll be doing more to the gold in a further step.

Painting the book covers

The possibilities for painting the covers are endless - choose colors that work well with your decor. For mine, I painted them soft pastel colors with leftover chalk paint that I had in the workshop. Vintage cupcake (pink), Pistachio (mint), Creme Brulee (yellow), and Elegance (blue), all colors from Country Chic Paint.


Two or three thin coats of chalk paint look better than one thick coat. The paint dries quickly so you can apply the second coat within 30 minutes.

Aging the painted book covers

Once the paint is dry it's time to have fun giving the books I timeworn look and I'll so you how easy it is to do.


If you've never done this before it may seem intimidating but just remember dark wax can always be removed with clear wax while it's still wet. The key is not to get too much dark wax on the rag and don't apply too much pressure with your finger. You want to feather the wax onto the books, one book at a time.

First, apply a coat of clear wax to act as a resist for dark wax so it doesn't stain the paint but rather makes it easy to blend. Rather than clear wax, I used white wax to soften the pastel colors even more. You can use a brush to apply it but my preference is a lint-free rag.

Use one end of the rag to apply the white (or clear) wax and the opposite end to apply the dark wax. Dab a little dark wax onto your rag and with light pressure feather the wax along the edges and spine of the book (pictured on the left below).


Before the wax has time to absorb blend the excess dark wax towards the center of the book in an up and down motion, leaving more dark wax around the edges (pictured on the right above). Don't panic if you put too much dark wax in some areas. Dab some clear (or white wax) over those spots to remove the excess dark wax.

Aging the book pages

With a small artist brush, apply dark wax onto the book pages around the spine of the book (pictured below). While you still have dark wax on the brush feather some on each end of the book pages as well where they naturally age over time.


That's it, you're done!

Ideas for embellishing the painted books

To make them even prettier when displayed as a set, wrap pretty ribbon, lace, string, twine, or sisal like I did, around the stacked books. Tie pretty embellishments onto the twine like beads, charms, wooden tags or whatever you like. I embellished mine with a tiny birds nest and decoupaged wooden tag.


The Easter floral picks, mini foam eggs, feathers, and moss were all purchased from the dollar store.


I used a small nest from the floral pick and removed the blue eggs. Next, I hot glued some moss inside the nest and replaced the blue eggs with green speckled ones that came in a package of 30. I found a bag of assorted craft feathers and glued a couple in the nest. Easy peasy way to embellish the books!

How to make a DIY wooden book tag

You can buy these wood tags readymade but I made mine with a sheet of craft balsa wood that I had on hand. Easy to make with a straight edge and sharp craft knife. I stained one side with this water-based stain and pretty decoupage floral scrapbook paper on the opposite side with Mod Podge and a foam brush. Super easy!


So what do you think? Have I inspired you to go through your bookcases for old books?


For more DIY inspiration visit my Easter|Spring Ideas Page and/or Spring ideas press Spring|Easter Ideas page.

If you have any questions about this DIY Easter Decor idea, please leave them in the comment section below or the Contact Me tab at the top. I love hearing from you!

If you enjoyed this painted book craft, I'd be so thankful if you shared it with a friend and pinned it to your Spring or Easter Decor board on Pinterest.




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