Our shelf runneth over.
We've books in every room (except the bathroom-- that's where we keep our ceramic ram's head, duh). Our kitchen has housed a small stack of paperbacks we picked up on sale at Anthropologie a few months ago from the Penguin Great Food collection. I think they were something like two dollars a piece. Coralie Bickford-Smith strikes again, the evil genius...like I needed more books!
Even though the spines are pretty, I wanted to display the books so I could enjoy her cover designs. I also wanted to make sure the books stayed intact for when I get around to reading them (I have many questions about how to manage my 17th century household). Plus, we already share initials and a first name; heaven help me if I'm going to associate myself any further with Lauren Conrad, convicted book killer.
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| Photo of spines from Bickford-Smith's portfolio |
We have a square Ribba frame from Ikea, but I've never quite been happy with it where we had it, nor with the art in it. The frame comes with an inner square frame, the placement of which allows you to either use the frame traditionally (with your art pressed to the glass) or as a shadowbox. Out went the 2-D print and it was time for some shadowboxin', baby.
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| Supplies: 3M command strips, foam core presentation board, boxcutter, frame, and books. |
First I used the mat that came with the frame to cut the foam core board to the size I needed. Once I did that, I played with arrangements before coming up with a final layout.
Then I used one Command strip on the back of each book, pressed for the advised 60 seconds, and put it all back together. Voilà. Shadowbox book art for the kitchen.
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| Let's ignore the floor/ coffee table mess, shall we? Also, I'm still figuring out how to use the manual settings on my Canon. Let's pretend these photos are much clearer. |
More kitchen art to come, featuring this guy:
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| The book jacket for What to Cook & How to Cook It |
P.S. Oh, to have a nook of one's own! Jaw dropping.