File this under: Something you could do right now that would instantly update your shelves.
I was reloading the shelves in the reading room after Halloween–truthfully, Thanksgiving day–and it was all looking so busy. I didn’t have the energy or time to really redecorate the shelves that day, but I did something simple that changed everything. I removed the dust jackets on all of our books!
Here’s a quick sampling of the impact:
Ahhhh, so much better. Each book now has one solid color instead of a myriad of colors. It just looks so much cleaner and streamlined. I’ve heard of people framing their jackets, or even wallpapering with them. I put mine in a box for now, but will probably end up just recycling them after a year or so.
Do you have the jackets on your books still? I thought, why in the world do I still have these on?! They annoy me almost every time I am reading. And now our books look as good as they read.
Psst. I have been busy painting the stairwell and hope to have an update on that for you tomorrow or Friday!
I don’t like to fuss with the dust jackets either. Especially on my kids’ bookshelf, since the jackets usually end up getting pulled off and separated anyway.
If the book is special or old, KEEP the covers! A book’s value is much more with original dust jackets.
I like to leave the jackets on because I am a person who constantly re-reads their books. I leave fingerprints and all other sorts of junk all over the cover. Also, some of the covers are too beautiful – I can’t even imagine the Harry Potter books without the beautiful covers!
That looks great!
I am sure there is some craft waiting to be done with those book jackets.
When my daughter was little she couldn’t stand having jackets on books. The OCD in my said to keep the jackets and put them back on at a later time. I still have them in a box. Now she thinks it would be cool to frame her favorites for when she has kids. That could be fun.
Great idea! My husband makes great bread from that Artisan bread in 5 minutes a day book. It was kind of neat to see that someone else has it too!