DIY: Turn an Old Book Into a Book Nook

You love books, you love book nooks, and there is a hardcover on your shelf you are never going to read again. Here is how to turn it into something worth looking at: a miniature scene built inside the book itself, from materials you almost certainly already have.

What you will need

• An old hardcover book with thick pages
• A hobby knife or a sturdy pair of scissors
• Wood glue or paper glue
• Scrap cardboard
• Acrylic paint and brushes
• Anything decorative: paper, fabric, beads, buttons, offcuts of wood

Step 1 — Prepare the book

Pick a book with a rigid cover and heavy pages: it will hold its shape far better than a paperback. Draw a rectangle in the middle of the page block, leaving roughly three quarters of an inch of margin all the way around, and cut it out patiently with the knife. A few pages at a time, not twenty.

Keep the cut-out pages — they are your building material later. Run glue along the inside edges of the cavity to bind the pages together and stiffen the whole block, then let it dry completely before you do anything else.

Step 2 — Build the scene

1. Cut cardboard panels to the dimensions of your cavity. These are the floors and back walls of the scene.
2. Stack and glue them to create depth. Several shallow layers read better than one deep box.
3. Use the pages you set aside to cut out shapes: trees, rooftops, silhouettes, window frames. Paper from an old book has exactly the right aged tone.
4. Glue those cut-outs onto the cardboard layers to build the scene up in three dimensions, and let everything dry.

Step 3 — Decorate

• Paint the elements with acrylics. Vary the tones — a scene painted in one flat color reads as cardboard, a scene with three or four related tones reads as a place.
• Add fabric and paper for the fine details: curtains at a window, a rug on a floor, cushions on a bench.
• Raid your odds and ends. Buttons become door handles, beads become lamps, a scrap of wood becomes a bench.
• If you want the scene lit, a battery LED string tucked behind the top layer changes everything. Run the wire before you glue the final panel in.

Step 4 — Assemble and finish

Glue the finished scene inside the cavity, lining the edges up carefully so nothing shows from the front. Let it dry, close the book, and put it back on the shelf between two others. Ribbon, a label or a little cover decoration finishes the job if you want it to look deliberate rather than salvaged.

FAQ

Can I build one without cutting up a book?

Absolutely. Cardboard, wood or plastic all work for the structure. What matters is that the finished scene fits the shelf you have in mind. If you would rather start from a kit, our book nook kits come with everything pre-cut.

Does any book work?

Any book you no longer need, but a hardcover with thick pages makes the build much easier and the result much sturdier.

Where do I find ideas for the scene?

Browse the scenes in our collection for inspiration, then make it yours. The point of a handmade one is that it looks like you.

Why build one out of a book at all?

It gives an old book a second life, it costs almost nothing, and it makes a handmade gift for a reader that they will not have seen before.

How do I look after it?

The same way as any miniature scene — our guide on cleaning and caring for a book nook applies here too.