Painted Books for Decor

Looking for a quick and easy way to add decor to your home with items you already have? How about painted books? Using painted books for decor is the perfect way to get the exact colors you need. So grab some old mismatched books and get ready for this fun DIY tutorial that you can do in under 30 minutes! 

Painting Books for Decor

Painting books is not a new idea, but I think it is often forgotten about. Since I love Miss Mustard Seed’s® MilkPaint™ and use it on everything, I just knew it would be perfect for painting on some book covers! 

I used Miss Mustard Seed’s® Milk Paint in the color Curio and instantly fell in love with this rich chocolate brown color! Let’s get to work!

Materials Needed

To paint your books, you will simply need: 

*Miss Mustard Seed's® Milk Paint in a color that will match your decor. I chose Curio! (You can see all MMS colors here).

* MilkMix-EZ™ Anti-Foaming Agent 

*paint brush

*jar to mix paint in

*books ( I found mine at the dollar store)

*painters tape

*rub n buff 

*mini-handheld mixer

*paper towels

 Gathering the Books

The biggest part of this project is finding the books you want to use. I found my books at the Dollar Store! They are good quality and inexpensive, and I didn’t have to worry about them getting ruined. You could also use books from a thrift store, garage sales, flea markets, or ones you already own! There are so many options, and I love using books in my home for decor!

The good news is that we are just painting the outside of the books, so these books are not being ruined. Just simply remove the book jacket before painting, and then you can put those back on if you want at a later time.

How to Paint Books for Decor

Now for the fun part! First, I gathered up my books, laid out some craft paper, and got to mixing the paint. 

My mom was over, and she made these painted books go even quicker! We painted six total books.

For six books, I mixed ⅓ cup of Curio with ⅓ cup of water. I always start with equal parts water and paint and then work from there. This was the perfect consistency. I used my favorite handheld mini mixer and then added 3-4 drops of MilkMix-EZ™, my favorite Anti-Foaming Agent.  

Painting the Book Covers

Once the paint was mixed, we decided that we wanted to add some fun designs to our books. So before we got to painting, we used some painter's tape to make some stripes on our books. Not on all of them, but a few. We kept it simple with stripes, but you could add any design you want with the help of the paint. How cute would they look with a buffalo check or chevron pattern?  

The books we chose to paint were light blue and white, so we figured this would contrast beautifully against the rich chocolatey brown of the Curio paint! 

Once we taped off a few parts of the cover, we got to painting. The paint went on beautifully and dried quickly, just like it always does. After the first coat dried, we made the decision to paint a second coat, and it was perfect!

We found that it was easier to paint the books by opening them up in the middle and laying them down with the covers and spine facing up.

Finishing Touches on DIY Painted Books

Once the paint was dry, we removed the tape, and the stripe looked so good! But it also made us realize that part of the inside of the cover’s original color was still showing. So we set the books up and painted the inside front and back cover of the books so the brown paint would look continuous when it was closed.

We also thought it might be fun to add some gold rub-n-buff to the edges of the pages to give it just one more fun and personalized look. To add the rub-n-buff, we used paper towels to spread it over the edges while the book was closed.

And that was it! Such a simple DIY paint project that can be used to personalize any books to any paint color needed to match your specific decor color of choice. This would be a fun project to do with your kids due to its simplicity! 

The best part is if you were to use these books in a child’s room, they would be perfectly safe since MMS MilkPaint™ is 100% natural, organic, non-toxic, and VOC-free!

Using My Painted Books on a Tablescape

Once the books were dry, I couldn’t wait to try them all around our home. In the end, they found their home on my blue and brown Fall tablescape, and they look gorgeous! 

I love stacking them, standing them up, and arranging them around my table. Who doesn’t love affordable custom decor? MMS Milk Paint is my go-to for transforming boring items and making them special. There seriously is no limit to what I might consider painting! 

I love that I was able to paint books to match exactly what I needed. Customized decor using paint is one of my favorite tricks! Plus, the overall process only took around 30 minutes and resulted in almost instant gratification. I have so many other colors I want to try on book covers now!

Painted Books for Decor

Thanks for stopping by today! Now I can’t wait to hunt for more books to use in my decor! How about you? What color would you paint your books? Would you add designs or color to the edges? 

Leave a comment below, letting me know how you would use painted books in your decor! Then come on over and visit me for more fun and easy DIY and decorating ideas over on my blog, The Tattered Pew!