Blooming Books

When I moved into my new apartment a few months ago, I really wanted my bedroom decor to be focused and intentional rather than a hodge-podge of stuff I already had.
I wanted to incorporate my existing bedding because I absolutely love it. It's pink and white striped Ralph Lauren sheets with a green Ralph Lauren blanket. It's so very me. (and apparently very Ralph Lauren too...) I bought some new white bedroom furniture online and switched out the white pulls for some dark bronze ones that help make the pieces look less mass-produced. I painted two of my walls a dark gray and hung a white shelf over my headboard.

(Try to ignore the cord to my very stylish IKEA light...)

And that's where I got stuck. I knew I needed something on that shelf, but I wanted something great, so I was patient until inspiration stuck.

Inspiration came to me in the form of this beautiful piece of art by Mandy Lynne:

I love everything about this photograph. I love that the flowers and stems are a perfect color match to my bedding. I love the old books. I'm a huge book collector and I especially love older editions. I like the use of pretty papers to personalize the look. I just love it and I decided it would be perfect for my shelf. I did considering just purchasing the artwork and setting the framed piece on the shelf, but I couldn't find it at a large enough scale to look appropriate. So instead, I decided to create my own version of it.

I already had a few books to choose from but I added a few extra from a thrift store because I liked that the inspiration photo had pretty colored books.

The Nancy Drew books were a gift from my aunt years ago. I have eight of them in a variety of pretty colors. Since I've read them a hundred times and I won't be doing any damage to them, I thought they'd be perfect for this. Added to some thrift store books and some more old books from a family friend, I made a nice stack.

A trip to Michaels helped in my hunt for pretty papers that matched the delicate, feminine look I was going for.

So pretty.

While I was at Michaels, I also grabbed the necessary items for the flower vase... but I didn't take any pictures of that process because it consisted of 1.Cut stems and 2. Place flowers in jar. Not rocket science.

To wrap the books in paper, I cut a piece just large enough to wrap the spine and cover the spine's writing with a little left over to hold it in place.

I didn't want to use any tape or glue at the risk of damaging the books, so I relied on the pressure of the stack of books to hold the paper in place.

I used a larger piece of paper on the second-to-top book since the top book is so much smaller. It gives the impression that all the books below are wrapped in a similar fashion. I chose to leave the two oldest books unwrapped because I like the variety and the titles are worn off anyway. (The top green one is Vanity Fair and the lower blue one is Gulliver's Travels.)

A strip of bandage stolen from our first aid kit and my book stack is complete.

My proportions are a little different then the original artwork, but that's creative license at work. And while I wish that cord was gone, I'd like to think the flowers help distract you from it. I think I achieved what I was looking for. I really like it and that was my goal.