DIY Book Wall- Decor for bookworms

“That’s the thing about books. They let you travel without moving your feet.” Jhumpa Lahiri

During lockdown, like everyone, I was trapped in the house for months on end. Much of that time involved sitting around and trying to decide what to do. Was this a chance to reorganise my belongings? Should I garden? Should I do the long awaited task of putting up photos?

Gradually, I began to notice how plain my bedroom wall was. I’ve always imagined a bedroom to be a physical representation of a person’s soul, as though their personality has burst out and covered the room. True to this, my room is chaotic, always messy and covered in TV posters tacked to the wall. But many of the posters were outdated or ripped and lockdown seemed the perfect time to add something more artistic than a faded poster from my secondary school play in which I played a tree (in my defence, the trees could speak).

I scoured the various websites that sported names such as ‘Top Ten DIY Ways to Jazz up Your Living Room’ before coming across an image of a book exploding across a wall with American flags tucked in the pages. The flags didn’t interest me but the beautiful chaotic display of pages spiralling across a wall looked perfect. I have always been a bookworm and love the vintage, word aesthetic to the point where I have even invested in my own typewriter. I now had a new project to fill my repetitive days stuck indoors.

First of all, I wanted to personalise my display, with nothing so patriotic as a flag of my country. Instead, the idea of pages flying everywhere reminded me of Alice in Wonderland, the renowned book that was given to me as a child and which I have been hooked on ever since. The beautiful nonsense of Wonderland and the strangeness that fills it has always been thrilling to me which is why I unashamedly now own four copies, including one that is translated into French for some reason.

Having thought about Alice’s Adventures and the colourful aesthetic that is associated with it, I immediately thought of playing cards. I had a deck with missing cards that I had been saving for a DIY project and this was the perfect occasion.

My finishing touch to my design was my old hobby: origami. I had completely forgotten how to create any shape but I knew that there were plenty that beginners could make and I suddenly thought that creating shapes out of paper flying out the book as well would be almost poetic, the stories coming to life and taking shape before my eyes. These ideas had all appeared in my mind within a day, the endless drone of lockdown having suppressed my creativity until it had finally come bursting out. I was completely happy and ready to work how I would actually turn ideas into reality (always the hardest part for someone like me with no real artistic talent and an overactive imagination).

I had my plan based of my interests and skills, however this display could be personalised in a huge number of ways:

1. For those who love nature and indoor plants, tuck artificial ivy or flowers in the pages (or real dried/pressed plants).
2. Music paper would be perfect for any musicians (or anyone with an appreciation for music) and you could include your favourite pieces or even pieces you have played once you are finished with the paper.
3. For those with artistic ability, the pages could be painted upon to depict scenes or a quote from a favourite novel.
4. Antique maps would add a theme of travel.
5. Letters could be painted onto the pages to spell out your favourite quote.
6. Puzzle pieces in the place of playing cards could add fun and colourful shapes to the wall decor.
7. Even sweet wrappers or bottle tops could remind you of your favourite food/drink.

These are a few ideas for ways to personalise the display, whether you are changing the paper from pages of a novel or adding your own touch to the decoration. But the best idea could come from you. Just consider what you like aesthetically, the colour scheme of the room but most importantly what your interests are. Be creative!

Now onto the actual making of the display. I didn’t want to cut up any book I currently owned and in a stroke of luck I saw a large basket of books in the local supermarket. Some supermarkets have these books that have been donated and you take any you want after donating to charity. But any charity shop should have plenty of books for around 50p or £1 each, many of which will have yellowing pages which is what I was looking for to create a vintage look.

I used 5 books but depending on the size of the wall you can use any number or just have one book in the centre with pages erupting from it. I had the books open in different ways (photos below) with the pages folded on some. Feel free to use my designs or create your own.

Firstly, I chose the most simple design for my central book. The way I made the book stay this way was with PVA glue. I began by gluing a back section (the part I would later nail into the wall) together, leaving quite a few centre pages (as well as pages to glue over where the nail will be once it is on the wall). Once the bag was dry, I stood the book up and splayed out the middle pages and glued them in position with the book standing. Unfortunately, many of the pages still fell back or stuck together so they weren’t spread out. To combat this, I got the wooden skewers from the kitchen and placed them between some pages. I pushed them down towards the spine which meant the pages were forced to space out. Once I had around 6 skewers pressed into the spine, I glued the pages around them together so they were hidden from view and now it was far easier to make pages remain in the centre without drifting back. Once I could leave the book to dry, sure it would dry in the position I wanted, I moved onto the next book.

Once again inspired by origami, I tried out a few folds on a spare book (the one I was using just for loose pages) and settled on folding the pages in the pattern that can be seen in the photo. This was achieved by simply folding a page so that its corner was pointing just below the upper corner of the book. Then I folded the page next to it with the corner slightly lower and so on until the last page I folded was only folded in the corner and the corner was pointing downwards. Pages can be folded in any number of ways and so it was a good idea to test first on a spare book to check if you like the outcome before folding the display book. Again, with this book, I glued a lump of the back pages together where I would nail the book into the wall. (Remember to leave pages loose to stick over the pages that will end up with the nail in.)

For the 3rd book, I folded a few of the central pages in on themselves and tucked them into the centre, creating curls. These kept popping out and so I had to place paperclips to keep some of the pages in place whilst the glue dried.

For the next book I decided to simply fold over one of the top corners.

Finally, I wanted my last book to just be open but this looked flat and uninteresting so I glued the pages in a way that meant they were curved outwards (see photo) with the page edges pushed slightly in.

Once I had these books glued and ready to attach to the wall, I grabbed some nails, a hammer and a ladder and set to work. I had two books together and the rest spaced out with everything erupting from the central, largest book. I nailed through the back pages that I had glued together, taking care to avoid places where their might be wiring in the wall (anywhere under a light). Once both sides of each book were nailed in place, I got a pot of glue and a paintbrush and carefully applied glue to the page that I had nailed through, then pressed down the loose page I had left to cover up the nail. Make sure not to drip any glue down the wall or onto the floor!

Once I had repeated this with each book, stepping back now and again to make sure I like how the books are positioned, I was done and ready to move onto attaching the pages and playing cards to the wall.

First, the pages. I had kept a spare book back and had peeled back the spine so as to loosen the pages. This meant I could tear them out without them ripping. I pulled out pages, specifically choosing a few Chapter pages and pages with lots of paragraphs so that they added variety. For attaching them to the wall, you can use any paint safe double-sided tape but I used adhesive poster strips (click here to see on Amazon) which worked a treat, especially since the paper was so light that I could cut up each strip into thirds and so I only had to buy a few.

To mimic the chaos of Wonderland, I attempted to place the sheets in the most seemingly random way possible, with the pages at different angles, with some touching and some not and even some that went up onto the ceiling. However, this part of the design was just using sight to try and work out what would look best. The best part about those adhesive strips is that they are easy to remove so you can move the paper around if you make a mistake!

Now onto the origami. Since the pages were flying from the book I decided on paper butterflies but any origami shapes (flowers, animals, birds) would have looked effective. I followed a beginners YouTube tutorial, making my paper squares from the spare pages and soon (after many failed attempts) I had made 10–15 paper butterflies I was happy with. From my pack of cards, I chose a variety of cards (different suits, values, a joker) for the butterflies to sit upon.

Once again, what I did next needs little explanation. I simply glued the butterflies to the cards in various positions and once dried, I used the spare adhesive tabs to stick the cards to the wall. To add to the effect of everything flying from the central book, I had the butterflies facing away from it.

Finally I stepped back and viewed my work. The whole design took me a few days (although this was mostly waiting for glue to dry) and it was certainly worth it. The display is a constant reminder of my love for reading and it adds a gorgeous splash of creativity to my room. Most importantly, the idea that I have created it makes it seem ten times better. Whilst I often look back on the first lockdown and think ‘What a waste of time!’, this display reminds me that maybe a break was just what I needed.

I highly recommend this for anyone with a passion for books and an empty wall.

What you will need:

1. Spare books
2. A pack of cards (or any decoration of your choosing)
3. Nails and a hammer
4. PVA glue
5. Wall safe double-sided tape or adhesive tabs (click here)