We at Modern Cottage love old books. When I was young, I read Nancy Drew religiously, and I still remember the day my mom brought me home a first edition of The Secret of the Old Clock she had found at a garage sale in a tiny town called Mackay, Idaho where we were vacationing at my grandparents' summer home. She excitedly instructed me to turn to a certain page to see Nancy's car referred to as a "roadster" :) I still have that old book - along with a few other early edition Nancy Drews. Typically old books in their dust-jacket-less state are just perfect in a Modern Cottage. However, in some cases, it's much more fun to dress them up in some graphic paper.
These books - the Mildred series - were given to me by my grandmother and were originally published in the late 1800s. Because they have quite a bit of detail that wasn't really playing well with our Modern Cottage style, I decided to modernize them a bit with punchy chartreuse and white printed paper. It was quite easy to do since the books had their original dust jackets which I used as a guide. I also managed to get the titles printed on the spine of the covers after some trial and error.
Now these special books are stars in our black display cabinet. A perfect way to add some zest to your decor! And the best part is, there are so many fabulous printed papers out there, you can easily change it up if the mood strikes.
This is such a great idea! I always want to buy great old books but don't because sometimes they are just too beat up. Plus, it reminds me of covering school books and writing notes on the paper :)
ReplyDeleteOh, wow....yes! I had forgotten about that. We used to cover school books from brown paper grocery bags. That makes me smile, too :)
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