Wednesday, June 19, 2013

DIY old books and a question

So I have this giant empty bookshelf in my front room that I have been meaning to style for awhile now, but without some pretty books that isn't quite possible.  So I finally made my way over to the thrift store to pick some up.  I was hoping for old ones because I like the used, beat up sort of look (not too beat up, we want to stay classy here) But all I could find were some books in pretty good condition that didn't fit my criteria.


So, I decided to make them old myself. I picked out some books that have a canvasy-fabric type cover in some colors and titles I wouldn't mind having around.  A lot of the books at the store had that shiny yet removable paper cover like The Great Leap above.  If at first glance you don't see any books that fit the canvas discription, peek underneath that cover to see what you might find. Next, I didn't take pictures but I figured it was  pretty self explanatory.  I took some fine grit sand paper and just sanded the entire cover focusing on the edges and any other places that would naturally get wear over time.  



On some of the books, I sanded right down to the binding so they have a really really old worn look.


And voila!! 100+ year old (looking) books :)

Now for the question.  I picked up this lantern-style light fixture that everyone seems to be giving to goodwill lately. Literally they had 5 or 6 on one shelf.  Anyways, I love the lantern look but can't decide what to do with this.  Should I paint parts of it and hang it somewhere? Or, should I take it apart and use the shell as an actual lantern prop? I originally bought this for a client but we ended up finding a more fitting chandelier. I'm voting take it apart. We'll see how it goes.



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