Makeover Ugly Old Books for a Beautiful New Look!

Looking for an inexpensive way to update your shelves or bookcase? I’ve found an easy way to makeover your books for a beautiful new look!

Do your books look like this? Colorful and sticking out like a sore thumb in your bookcase? Mine have been like this for years. Finally, I decided to tackle a book makeover and create a more neutral look in my family room cabinet.

Clearly I’ve got an interesting set of books in my repertoire. I’ve had a long standing interest in marketing 😉 By using an “old school” and NO tape method my mom taught me, I’m going to show you how to inexpensively makeover books!

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How-To Makeover Hardcover Books with Paper 

First up is wrapping the hardcover books in white craft paper. Do schools still require this? In my school days, I remember my mom wrapping my school books to protect them in brown paper grocery store bags.  

She is the one who taught me the perfect method to wrapping books using NO tape. So the paper book wrappers are completely damage free, temporary, and removable!

Supplies

1. Mix of old hardcover books
2. Scissors
3. Frog Tape
4. Roll white art or craft paper

I wrapped 10 books and had a TON of paper left over. It was only $8 for a roll! My plan is to use the leftover paper for wrapping paper and draw on it with crayons for fun 🙂

Step 1

Layout out paper under the book, with the book OPEN. Make sure to leave about 3 inches on either side, so they can be folded over the book cover and the book can be closed. 

Using the Frog Tape, fold paper over front cover and secure. This will help keep the paper straight, as you fold over the paper on the back cover. 

Using your fingers, push down on ALL edges of the book. Top, bottom, and all sides. This will be your folding template later. 

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Step 3

Remove Frog Tape (gently to not tear the paper) and remove book from paper. Open up the paper and lay flat on the table. 

To give you visual perspective, I’ve left the book open to show you how the paper will be folded. Using the previous CREASES fold over the top and bottom parts of the paper, which is equivalent to the top and bottom parts of the book cover. 

Step 4

Place book on top of paper as shown and gently slide the folded edges over the front of the book cover.  Keep sliding until you hit the crease you created earlier.

Step 5

Repeat the same process for the back cover and slide the folds over the cover. Make sure you can still close the book. Make adjustments as needed by sliding the paper.

Now the book is COVERED! Wow, wasn’t that easy to do and kind of fun 🙂 You can see that there is a bit of a stripe effect where the black book shows through the paper. It really doesn’t show much, when the books are placed.

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Depending on the book in relationship to the width of the paper, the amount the book cover that will show through will vary. I liked the visual interest it created. 

How-to Makeover Paperback Books by Removing the Cover

This one almost seems TOO easy, but it creates a really cool look mixed in with the wrapped books!

If you have old books you know you won’t read, this is a good option. OR you can look for flea market finds in second hand stores for pennies on the dollar.

Removing the book cover literally takes 30 seconds! Just pull VERY gently.

Don’t you love this look with the cover removed? For my bookcase, I removed the covers of 4 paperbacks and think they look SO COOL. Isn’t upcycling an old item the best feeling ever?

Any color paper you can find in a roll or even brown craft paper would look nice and neutral to makeover books. It all depends on your home decor and I was going for gold, white, and pale blue look of course.

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Was this tutorial helpful? Find more helpful tips and DIY projects by clicking HERE.  To see the FULL makeover of this cabinet, click HERE.

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Until next time…

Porch Daydreamer

Tracey