Wednesday Decor // Style Vintage Books

Usually any decor posts on Wednesday are named Dorm Dec Wednesday...but since I've graduated & we're moving on up, I thought I'd change the name.  Though we are currently living in a teeeny tiny one bedroom apartment, I am no longer decorating a dorm room & thought up a more grown up title for the the Wednesday decor inspiration: Wednesday Decor.  I think it's a welcomed change & if you pick up a copy of the Blogging Basics eBook that's now out, I talk about how change can be good for you in blogging.  Since life has this tendency to just happen you'll go through change & it's alright if your blog does to!  Blogging is about discovering yourself rather than talking about yourself anyway!

This past weekend Zach & I went home decor shopping.  We went because it was a 3 day weekend & we didn't have much to and because we hardly agree on anything decor related (I've mentioned how we've used pinterest to solve this before)!  We decided it would be good for us to go somewhere that we could pick up & move objects to see what we liked best.  It turned out to be a fun trip where we decided on bedding (yay! + a DIY coming soon!) and bedframe styles.  My favorite stop was when we decided to take a look around Ethan Allen.  I fell in love with how they styled their store!  There was an especially large bookcase filled with different book collections (the first picture below) which got me thinking of all the ways to use books in your home decor with out having them sitting neatly in a row on a book case.  It's much more interesting to have them all around you, unless your into neat rows of books!

Zach & I are always on the hunt for interesting books.  I love bright colors & shapes and Zach looks for interesting topics & sets.  Together we are a great pair of book hunters!

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(if you could help with the exact sources, I'd love it! Some of these were found on pinterest pinned months ago!)

4 Ways to Incorporate Vintage Books into your Home Decor:

Mix & Match Collections in a Book Case //  This is perfect if you have a huge book case but not a huge book collection (yet).  Display your books in piles by color, size, genre, author, & mix in other display elements like knick knacks, book ends, sculptures, & even photos.  Create zones and display all nautical related books with shells & family beach photos, for example.  Create an ombre or rainbow effect by displaying books by color.  

Unique Photo Display //  Sometimes we find books that are a little worse for wear but the insides & the covers are in an awesome distressed condition that would make them perfect to repurpose.  We can't stand to do it, but using the book bones to make a great photo display can add to your inspiration space in your studio, create a cool entry way display, & add a bit of interest to any room.  Consider using all one color, all one genre, all one topic, etc for a cohesive look.

Display a Curated Collection // Displaying a carefully assmebled collection can say a lot about a room's decor & your interests.  In the 516VINTAGE shop, we curate our book collections currently by subject matter.  Curating a collection by more than color creates depth to a room & allows your true interests to shine through your decor.  Consider our collection of children's study books as decor to a nursery or child's room.  A collection of late 19th & early 20th century American History School books is perfect for a history buff's office

Elevate a Lamp for Better Lighting //  When I was in college a lot of my apartments didn't have overhead lighting.  I am a lighting snob: I have to have all the available lights in the room on or else I can't see squat!  I used to elevate my bedside lamp & my desk lamp on books in order to gain more lighting.  Not only is this functional but its pretty too!

Books have to be one of our favorite things to collect.  Zach can't stand to see a good book let go & I love thinking of all the hands that once touched them & all the minds that ones enjoyed them.  It's great to be able to connect with others & use books to bring a bit of warmth into your home.  Check out the 516VINTAGE instant book collections (expanding oh so soon!) because a house filled with books is a good place to live!

How do you use books in your home? Are they purely practical or do you mix it up?

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Make it Monday // Instagram Picture Inspirational Journal

A long, long while ago (when we were in Michigan actually) I ordered some pictures from Postal Pix.  When we got home I got them in the mail & they sat on top of the microwave for a long, long time.  I had no idea what to do with them.  One day I decided that it would be cool to have them in a sort of journal because they backs of the photos are blank.  Perfect for writing!

So I took a cue from this tutorial & made them into a book.  Here's what you'll need:

Line up two photographs with one face down & one face up.  Tear a piece of tape & place it where the two pictures join.  This becomes your binding.  Trim up the edges of the tape so that they are even with the pictures.  Repeat for a second set of pictures to make another signature, or bound set of pictures.  Then join these two signatures together in the same fashion. Place the first signature with the pictures face down & the second signature with the pictures face up.  Tear off a piece of tape & place it where the two signatures join.  Continuing making signatures in pairs & joining them.  Then join each pair of signatures together by lining them up & taping down the center & until you have a full book.

To make the outside binding, use pieces of masking tape or decorative washi tape or woodgrain contact paper.  I still have a load of woodgrain contact paper left over from other DIY's.

I knew I wanted to use my book for some of my favorite quotes so I decorated the cover with another strip of woodgrain contact paper & wrote QUOTES with a sharpie.  I then cut out circles of the contact paper & stuck them to the blank side of the photos.  Then had at it with quotes from my Hello Monday pin board.

You could use your's as a travel journal, a journal for a wedding or event, or even just as an everyday journal.  Also, you can add onto it if you get more pictures by just adding more signatures.

I also have an idea to make sort of an album that you could use for either a smaller option from postal pics or for your instax pictures involving the same sort of binding.

Coming up with cool ways to get my photos off my phone & into real life and coming up with ways to use them has been a cool challenge.  I don't want to do too much with decor since I know I'm moving around August.  But I am definitely keeping a photo wall in the back of my mind for our next apartment!

How do you get your pictures off your phone & into real life?

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Fan Fridays // Do - It - Yourself Books

Last year for Christmas (2010) I asked for a load of creative & crafty books.  I mentioned before flipping through them & flagging some pages but then I just put them back on the self.

Lately I've been super inspired to make somethings & can't wait to get back into the groove.  I can't decide if I should clean up the spare room & craft in there or just wait it out & craft all over the house!  I thought getting out of my parent's house & into a house of my own (or a place of my own) would help with the creative process.  Little did I know that renting from people & not from a college means that things rarely get finished on time and hassles are around every corner.

My room is too small, we still haven't unpacked, we all have too many things, etc, etc.  I think Katie & I are looking at moving into a real house.  A big house.  A house where we can actually store things.  One with a garage.  One we can actually make in!

My pinterest boards are filled with creative things & my blogger dashboard is just over loaded with DIY inspiration.  I want to share what I can make!  I want to inspire others to make!

These books are some of the greatest.  I also have Big Ass Book of Home Decor that seemed to be MIA while I gathered the books to photograph.  Here are some pages I'd flagged last year:

this monoprinting I actually did while in a print class in college.  I'd bookmarked it to try at home but then took a class.  Being away from college has really made me want to get back into experimenting with printmaking!

You've already seen this image & heard my plans in this Dorm Dec Wednesday Post

My hands are just itching to create! As I sit & write this (at work, shhhh!) I am feeling so inspired.  My little notebook of ideas is no where near me though because I haven't been carrying a purse! I need to get back on that otherwise my brain may explode!

I am also inspired by all of this color to get back into opening an art & decor section to the shop.  I've been slacking so bad lately.  

How do you stay inspired? What motivates you? How do you get out of a rut? Let me know!!

Dorm Dec Wednesday // You Better Swatch Yourself!

This year I plan on being the super craftiest girl around! I am going to start by reviewing some craft books I have and making a game plan to make some awesome things.  Last Christmas I asked for about 1000 craft related books (really, only about 7).  I went through them, flagged some things I wanted to do, & just put them on the book shelf.  I blame my lack of making things on the fact that my house isn't unpacked (due to the dryer issue earlier this summer), I started dating Zach, & I just plain don't feel like doing!

My whole goal for moving to where I am now was to have my own little space to craft in.  Well that space is now filled with boxes because we don't plan on staying longer than a year in our house so why turn a room into a studio when you'll have to turn around & pack it all back up?  I hate it.  But, since I've been inspired I really, really want to start making again.

The first experiment I want to try was inspired by this photo from the inside of the DIY book I got at the National Gallery:

It reminded me of paint chips at the hardware store or those pantone chips/booklets scattered through out design labs on campus.  In the book, these are just spare bits of paper that are test swatches of colors that were mixed.  I like how they resemble Pantone color swatches.  For Christmas, I got about 5 flat panel canvases that I think I am going to use for these 'test swatches'.  Sort of abstract color pallets if you will.  I would love to have them displayed in a grouping on a wall.  

Inspiration from my pinterest board Color

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On a side note, I find myself making things for the walls & never hanging them because my room mates don't particularly care for my boho decor style.  Zach & I have had this conversation as well.  He too is pretty 'traditional' when it comes to decor.  I guess to each his own but I sorta want a house that I am also living in to reflect a bit of my personality, too.  I am probably going to open up an art & home decor shop here in the future since I am going to try to make more & more & more things.

That's another thing I need to get back into; my dream of a sucessful shop! I really want to pick up Kaelah's great Marketing E-Book but haven't done it yet.

Perhaps I'll break out the brushes this weekend before New Year's activities.

How do you use color swatches?

Lifestyle Idea: How to Keep a Book Open

You know when your sitting on the beach tanning, reading that romance novel & trying to keep the pages open forcing you to lay in an uncomfortable position? Or perhaps you are cooking a delicious meal from one of your mother's or grandmother's old cook books struggling to keep the pages open so as not to serve a horrible dish like Rachel's catastrophe on Friends?

I stumbled upon a clever idea today from Bloomize on keeping a book open to the right page:

using a flexible curler, cable twist tie, & a piece of craft wire.

I like the look of the curler.  It's so funny!

For a cleaner & cuter look, cover the wire with a bit of ribbon:

sources

Visit the original post on Bloomize inspired by a discovery of another product that twists & holds. 

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