DIY – White Spine Books

On a normal day, I’m not a DIY person; I’d much rather buy something than make it. However, there are times, and they happen frequently, that I’m looking for something so specific that I have to accept the fact that I have to make something for myself. And the white books that you see in every home decor Instagram is the look that I’m going for and it’s been impossible to find!!! Seriously, I don’t know where they find these white spine books, so we’re making them ourselves.

Step 1: Head to your local Half Price Books (or any discount bookstore)

The clearance section is where it’s at!!! I spent a while walking through the isles and complaining about how expensive the used books were. Then I found the clearance section and luckily it had a great combination of book sizes, thickness, and colors. I found all the books on these shelves for either $3 or $4 each.

I decided to make it a little harder on myself by trying to incorporate the color blue (which is my statement color on the bookshelves, blog post to come). Through all my searching, the typical book spine colors are blue, black, and grey. That being said, I found all these awesome books, not going to lie I only got some of them for the name.

Remove the paper covers.

It’s starting to look a lot better, and in better unison, than before. But we have to fix some of that color!

Step 2: Head to your local craft store and buy white paint or off-white fabric

There are two times in your life when you realize white doesn’t mean white, when picking out paint and fabric. Pure white paint is a lot easier to find than white fabric and honestly I prefer the paint. I originally tried to fabric because I thought, “it’s just like in school when you had to cover all your books” #throwback. However, it’s not like that at all because I only bought soft cover books to save money 🤦🏼‍♀️. Overall, the paint was a lot easier so that’s the method I would recommend.

White Paint

White Fabric:

Step 3: Put it All Together 

(see all the pics from above)

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