Oct 9, 2012

diy: book page decoupage


I've mentioned before that I live in a pretty sizable freakin' huge loft. It is a really incredible space and we are so lucky to be living here, but the amount of furniture required to fill this space up and make it look livable is kind of unreal. The same lovely lady who brought up our fireplace mantle also had two tri-fold screens created for us to help us break up our basketball court of a space into more reasonably sized individual living spaces. The screens were raw wood when we got them, so we immediately started spinning our wheels about what to do with them.


I remembered seeing a book page decoupaged wall in John Derian's NYC apartment in an old Elle Decor and, after finding this image, knew it was the perfect solve for our screens:


So I hit up the .50¢ rack at Housing Works and came away with some perfect finds. Tom Sawyer, The Beautiful and the Damned, The Grapes of Wrath and a few other classics got ripped to smithereens that night. 


My roommate was responsible for the trim color and picked Sherman Williams' "Neighborly Peach", a sweet light peach that looks perfect against the yellowing old books. I had originally been leaning towards a glossy black and I'm so glad she dissuaded me - the peach totally brightens up the room. I picked up the Mod Podge, brushes, and a high gloss varnish for the trim and we were off. 


We started by painting the trim - two coats. We covered the hardware with painter's tape first.


Then we moved on to the decoupaging. I applied the Mod Podge to the raw wood, placed a page, covered it with another coat and repeated. 


I am so happy with how it turned out! We've only completed one of the two screens so far, but plan to tackle the second one this weekend. 


Check out how much the new screen helps us break up our space. The first photo was taken from our main living space, and the second was taken from the small seating area (study?) by the window. These two spaces used to just mesh into one another, but now they really feel like two separate areas. 


So, there you have it! I am already scheming up my next decoupage project - I might be addicted.

3 comments:

  1. What an amazing idea!! Your's looks great! Newest follower :)

    Katherine

    http://mintedglam.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  2. This seems like such a great idea, even if I don't really believe in tearing books up like that ;(

    ReplyDelete