So the 90’s are back right? Well I think book covers should make a come back as well. We have all seen those beautiful bookshelfves on instagram with color coordinating books and accessories. I have rearranged my books a million times and it never lives up to a single picture I’ve seen online. My solution is book covers! Have you ever seen wrapping paper that is so special you can’t bring yourself to wrap a gift in it, only to be torn apart? That’s the paper you should use to wrap the books. I was at my magical local TJ Maxx and found this wrapping paper on clearance. It has great gold coral designs on a neutral background, but any design should work if you repeat it enough throughout the bookshelf.

So I thought I would make a blog post to either give you a refresher course or a quick lesson on how to cover a book without using tape, which is my preference but of course the tape version works as well. Remember these don’t necessarily have to be functional just pretty. So here goes ….

Step 1: You will need the book, roll of your favorite wrapping paper, and scissors.

Step 2: Cut enough paper off the roll to cover both sides plus about 2″. Then place the spine in the mid point of the paper and tuck one side inside the flap of the book to make a crease.

Step 3: Repeat Step 2 with the opposite side to create a crease.

Step 4: Open the book in the middle. Fold each corner over to create a triangle.

Step 5: Once you have created the crease with the triangle fold, open the crease and reverse it to tuck it behind the pages.

Step 6: Make cuts from the outer edge of the paper to almost the spine of the book on both the top and bottom of book cover.

Step 7: Flip the pages to one side and press the flap down and crease it. Repeat for both sides of the book. The end result should look a bit like this. It may take a few tries to get the technique down but once you do it will look great!

When you have several books you can place them back on the shelf for a pulled together designer look. Here are a few on my shelves.

We’d love to see how you use book covers for design!