During your next visit to a thrift store be sure to peruse the book section. Hardcover books are perfect to use for accessorizing a room. Stacked on a coffee table, used to raise decor on bookshelves, set on a dresser wrapped with pretty ribbon - the possibilities are endless. To make them even more eye-catching what about painting them in pretty colors? Here I show you how to paint decorative books in soft pastel colors for Spring and how to make them look old.

If you're an avid reader like I am, you probably already have stacks of old books you can use for this purpose. I grabbed some self-help books from the '80s that I have no plan on rereading. No one's going to know after they are painted, especially when bound together with pretty ribbon. 😏

DIY Decorative Books For Spring Vignettes

This is such a fun and easy craft project and what a great way to keep those old books from ending up in the landfill. These pretty pastel books will be used for my Spring coffee table vignette but would look pretty on a dresser in a child's room. But the color possibilities are endless for making them work with your home decor.

I chose four books around the same size, one slightly smaller than the other to add visual interest when stacked. I'm one of those people who love things asymmetrical and a little less perfect so my preference is to stagger the books on the stack.

The ends of the book pages are glistening with metallic gold paint and aged along the edges.

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

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So here's how I did it...

Paint 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 later in this post.

Paint the book covers

The possibilities for painting the covers are endless - choose colors that work well with your decor. For mine I painted them with soft pastel leftover chalk paint in the colors pink (vintage cupcake), mint (pistachio), yellow (creme brulee), and blue (I think Elegance but the jar wasn't labeled). All from the Country Chic Paint line.

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

Age the painted book covers

Once the chalk paint is dry it's time to have fun by making the books look aged. It's really quite easy and I'll show you how.

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. Also, it's important to age just one book at a time.

First, apply a coat of clear wax without buffing to act as a resist for the dark wax. I used white wax to soften the pastel colors even more. You can use a brush 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 below in Step 1).

Before the wax has time to absorb blend the excess dark wax towards the center of the book in up and down motions, leaving more dark wax around the edges (pictured above in Step 2). 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.

Age the book pages

With a small artist brush, apply dark wax onto the book pages around the spine of the book (as 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!

To make them even prettier displayed as a set, wrap pretty ribbon, lace, string, twine, or sisal rope, like I did, around the stack of books. Tie pretty embellishments onto the twine like beads, charms, whatever you like.

Embellish painted books with a birds nest

I embellished mine with a tiny birds nest and decoupaged wooden tag for Spring and Easter.

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!

Embellish painted books with a wooden 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 decoupaged pretty floral scrapbook paper onto 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 old books?

For more DIY Easter and/or Spring ideas press HERE.

If you have any questions about this makeover, please leave them in the comment section below or press the Contact Me button at the top of the blog to drop me an email. I love hearing from you!

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