A Bookish Bedroom

In the midst of preparing for visitors in September, I decided our guest room wasn’t the welcoming retreat I wanted it to be. The room was a mishmash of all the furniture we’d collected and moved over the years: pink lamps from my college dorm, a coffee table that was too bulky for the living room, a dresser originally from my childhood bedroom, an IKEA wardrobe, and absolutely nothing on the walls.

I settled on my new theme quickly: books. I saved some inspiration images to Pinterest and then did my best to whip up a refresh in time for company. In the end, I was quite pleased with the look. In the future, I’d like to get fancier bedding and perhaps paint an accent wall – but I’ll probably wait to do that until we have more company arriving!

An antiquey-gold color helped pull the mismatched furniture together. I replaced the pink lamps for gold lamps and a new gold reading lamp. A frame on the dresser tells guests our WiFi name and password. Nothing makes you feel more at home than WiFi, am I right?! Switching out the silver drawer pulls for these gold glass knobs created an instant update.

The wall art gave the room the biggest face-lift. To the left of the dresser, a collection of black and gold frames hold reading-inspired images: a book spine print my sister gave me, a picture of my baby reading a book at the library, a book page, and even a collage of my old library cards. Above the bed, a cute round frame and a metal photo holder gave the room some texture and provided a place for bookish quotes I’d gathered from Pinterest. A Nancy Drew book page graces the rectangle frame over the bed (I’d already dismantled the book for another bookish decor project, which you can see here.) A small faux marble table on the right made for a nice nightstand for a guest. A wire basket holding books on the wall and a chair create a cozy nook.

I hope our guests enjoyed their time in our bookish guest bedroom. 

Novel Nursery Notions

While adding a few items to my Target baby registry, I happened across an adorable picture of book mobiles—made from actual books—hanging over a glider. Etsy had some mobiles for sale, but they were rather pricey ($35, $45, even $60). I decided to DIY it instead. How hard could it be?! I used the advice of The Pleated Poppy and The Thimble Life and then went for it!

Since the color scheme of our nursery is grey, white, and yellow, I wanted some hardcover books that would match the room. I picked up three classic Nancy Drew novels at Half Price Books in town. I’m hoping the yellow color will pop against the grey walls. If you’re interested in how I created my mobiles, check out the following steps, or click the links to the blogs I mentioned above. Both blogs include helpful pictures for each step.

Materials You’ll Need

– A hardcover book you can bear to dismantle

– An X-Acto knife

– Hot glue gun and glue sticks

– Fishing line and a hook for hanging

– Optional: fabric or paper to cover outside or inside of book if it isn’t pretty!

Steps to Follow

1. Using an X-Acto knife, slice pages along the inside book seam and remove the first third of the pages.

2. Flip the book over and remove the last third of pages from the back of the book.

3. With the remaining pages in the middle, loop the pages into five sections. This will give the mobile its shape and keep the cover from being too floppy. Use the hot glue gun to keep everything in place.

4. Now that you have a stack of pages, create different sized loops, hot-gluing them closed. You can even glue pages together to create bigger loops.

5. Tuck the loops into the five looped sections in the book and build on to the shape. Hold up the book every so often to check the shape and length of your mobile.

6. When you’re happy with the shape, string fishing line through the center loop and hang from the book’s spine. Hang several at different heights for a dramatic look.