Covering Books With Script Paper

In trying to clean up for staging my study, I decided it was time to deal with the books.  The room is dark and the old leather books seemed visually heavy.  You see many trendy book covers that are very plain.  They can be linen or paper.  Below are some photos from Restoration Hardware.

The photograph below reminds me of a project my daughter told me about.  She helped a friend stage an apartment and used brown paper sacks to make dust jackets.  It would be so easy to use a wax seal to embellish your work.  Below is a photo from Restoration Hardware.

From Restoration Hardware.  I love the wax seal!   

Juniper Books has many books to choose from.  I love this one:

From Juniper Books.  Isn't this soo clever!  It's pretty artistic to me!

 There are some wonderful sources for beautiful vellum look books.  The real thing is quite expensive--an antique vellum book can easily have you let go of several hundred $$.   Click here for an article Willow Decor did on antique vellum books.  The reproduction books also look nice for a fraction of the price.  I googled script vellum books and found these two sources:

E. Lawrence LTD.  

http://www.booksbythefoot.com/shop/pc/viewPrd.asp?idproduct=99

While I'd love to buy some of these beautiful reproduction books, I'm afraid I don't feel like spending the money to do a bunch of books in my library - I'd need about 200 books!  Someday I'd like to purchase some of the "books by the foot" for my pretty antique secretary.

  I thought perhaps I could copy some old documents and make some interesting dust jackets for books that way.  It seemed like alot of work, and I haven't gotten around to it.  I then found this paper on Ballard Designs.  It is called Document Gift Wrap, and it is $24 for 3 10-foot rolls.

I wrapped a few books -- and now have a trendy shelf of books.  It's perfect!  The shelf looks cleaner and less cluttered.  I also was going for a lighter look.  The 33" shelf below shows you  how much one roll would cover.  The tallest books took a 10" high strip of paper. 

Ballard Designs Document Wrapped Books

I'm off to continue working on the bookcase--and staging all those shelves!  In addition to doing the books,  I thought about papering the back of the bookcase instead.     

I hope someone else will enjoy my inexpensive decorating tip!