Old Painted Books for the Valentine’s Mantle Display [DIY]

diy painted books1

To warm up the house a bit for Valentine’s Day, I made these great faux antique glass candle holders to put on my fireplace mantle…but I knew I wanted to add a little more to the vignette.  I don’t like to go all out with pink and red Valentine’s decor scattered around the house (I’m really just not into the color pink), but I figured one little splash of it wouldn’t hurt!  I completely obsessed with elephants, and I got these amazing white lacquer elephant bookends as a gift recently…I knew I wanted to display them on my mantel, but I wanted to use books that had a nice, clean look.  I had nothing of that sort in my house…so I decided to create it!  I used basic, old books and simply painted the spines!  I love the way my old painted books turned out!

Creating this romantic Valentine’s mantle display was literally the easiest project ever…

Old Painted Books DIY

step 1

I started out with three vintage books that I didn’t mind painting, a little coral pink acrylic paint, and a number stamp

step 2

Next, I used a small paint brush to brush the paint onto just the spine of the books…

step 3

To tie the books together, and add a little extra detail, I decided to use a stamp to number each book, 1, 2 & 3…Once the coral pink paint dried, I applied a light coat of white mixed with silver paint to the stamp and stamped each book…

Here’s the books stamped with their numbers….

That’s it! Here’s how the books now look on my romantic Valentine’s mantle!

These DIY Painted books are part of our 10 Minute Transformation Series!

diy painted books

Have a wonderful Valentine’s Day!

2 responses to “Old Painted Books for the Valentine’s Mantle Display [DIY]

  1. Jordan, I love your blog! Your DIY projects and furniture re-dos are fabulous. But here’s my question: where are those gorgeous elephant bookends from?!! I simply adore them! I know you received them as a gift (LUCKY!), but do you know where they were purchased?

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