Create beautiful books for your decor by painting decorative book covers. Thank you to DecoArt for sponsoring my post!
I love books and I love decorating with them almost as much as I love reading them. I have some decorating books that have pretty decorative book covers, but recently I had an exact idea in my mind of what book covers I would like to decorate with with spring approaching (finally!!) Since taking the Make with Paint series, I’ve been having so much fun trying new painting techniques and I’ve really been loving creating watercolor effects with acrylic paints, so I decided to create some spring themed decorative book covers.
You can make covers for books you already have or you can buy some nice solid books at the dollar store to cover if you’re looking for a particular size.
Painted Decorative Book Covers
Supplies
- Books (hardcover with a thick binding is ideal)
- Americana Acrylic paints in Cotton Candy and Bahama Blue and Americana Multi-Surface Satin paint in Lavender Fields
- Large watercolor paper pad
- Fold and score tool
- Paint brushes
- Tape runner
Directions
Because I wanted my book covers to only have decoration on the binding and I didn’t want the binding ridge getting in the way, I decided to paint my designs on heavy watercolor paper rather than painting the actual books.
To start, simply mark with a pencil the top where the top of the book ends and cut the paper to size.
Place the book inside of the book cover and close the cover over the book so you can see where you will fold the binding edge (and also where to cut off excess paper on the sides).
Use a fold and score tool to make a sharp crease for the binding.
Now you’re ready to paint some beautiful decorative book covers! I used 3 spring-inspired colors and 3 abstract designs, but let your creativity run wild! I doodled dozens of designs before I decided on these to fit the theme I’m going for with my spring decor this year.
For my first book cover, I used Americana Multi-Surface Satin paint in Lavender Fields and created a wash of gradient brush strokes. You can get that gradient or ombre look by starting out with more paint (just a little bit of water) on your brush and then adding more water as you want to fade the color. This almost reminds me of a heartbeat.
For my middle book cover, I wanted to create blush watercolor blooms, so I used Americana Acrylic paint in Cotton Candy to paint round swirls with varying amounts of paint and water filled in throughout the entire binding.
Of course I couldn’t resist mixing in a little buffalo check (hi, have we met? 😉 ) so I painted 3 solid stripes of Americana Acrylic paints in Bahama Blue vertically along the book cover binding and once that dried, I watered down the Bahama Blue considerably to paint the horizontal buffalo check lines.
My painted book covers bring a perfect burst of spring color to my living room, now if nature would just follow suit!
Have a wonderful day my friends and thank you for stopping by!
Emily says
I’m in love with this!!!!! Thanks so much for sharing such super ideas! My blank JD cover is going to be sparkly and beautiful by the end of the day!
Lydia says
Yay thanks so much Emily! 🙂
Debrashoppeno5 says
I love this idea to coordinate the books with the decor. I use books all over the place and read them also 🙂
Lydia says
Thank you Debra! 🙂
tortugo says
Thanks for the advice on gradients and the very useful resources Shane. I have not tried it yet but was thinking of doing this on the background of my web site. Can you do a multiple select of all the separate colour points together and adjust the overall opacity of the gradient and them globally as well as individually ? It would make sense to have a balance slider?
Lydia says
Hello Tortugo! I’m not sure how to do it on computer, I just used good old fashioned paint and paper. 😉
Teresa says
Wow! My bookshelf would look awesome with these! What a cool idea!
Lydia says
Thanks so much Teresa!
Nicki says
Boooom! What a great idea to add more flare to my library!
Petra says
Can I tell you how cool that idea is! I have books just sitting there but have no style or grace. I feel like this is a way to get my creative juices flowing on something not traditionally used as a decorative piece in a place that could use it!
Lydia says
Thanks so much Petra! Yay for creative juices flowing! 😉