stained book bundles

We have a lot of books in our house and not all of them are for reading. The reading kind I hide on a bookshelf in the closet. They hang out in rainbow colored, disorganized rows. I’d rather not see them everyday. The decorative kind are the ones I keep laying around on shelves, desks, and tucked beside my grandfather’s typewriter.  

Pottery Barn used to sell books in bundles of two or three. They cost about $40 per bundle. Or you can find books at the local flea market for less than $1 a piece and create your own. I especially like books with cracked and peeling covers. Or sometimes I just rip the covers completely off and go for a totally different look.

This is how I do stained book bundles. You need a cheap book, instant coffee, old baking sheet, and some twine.

I think this book was an old reader’s digest. This is one of the prettiest covers I’ve come across. I actually cringed when I tore it off. But I bought the book for the illustrations inside so the cover had to go.

Fold the book back to back with the favorite page on top. Wrap it several times with twine and soaked for five minutes in a super strong coffee brew.

The longer you soak the book, the darker the coffee stain will be. Dry them out on an old baking sheet in the oven at 170 degrees for 10 minutes on each side. Please don’t forget them in the oven or you might be adding “fire extinguisher” to the list of supplies.

This is what they look like after one coffee treatment. They weren’t quite dark or destroyed enough for my taste so I repeated process again the next day.

Something about having ink and paper books around the house makes me feel a little less modern when I curl up with my kindle.