How to Make Easy DIY Bookends

Hey everyone!  Sometimes inspiration comes at the most unusual times and in the most unusual ways. Do you find that, too? Recently while browsing Pinterest, I’ve noticed so many different types of bookends for some reason so, of course, I thought about making my own. Then one day I spotted this beautiful scrapbook paper at Michaels and, voila, inspiration. (Stick with me, I promise it will make sense in a minute. 🙂 ) So today, I’m sharing how to make these super easy, DIY bookends with you.

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What you”ll need:

• Pine or MDF board
• Wooden or MDF letters at least 1″ wide (so they stand)
• Craft paint
• Paint brush
• Craft Glue or spray adhesive
• Chop saw or hand saw
• Hot glue gun
• Nail gun or hammer and small nails
• Scrapbook paper

The process:

These book ends started out as a simple pine board 21″ x 5.5″.

To get the size of the base, we measured the MDF letters which are 5″ tall and the A is a bit bigger than the Z at 3.5″ wide. I wanted the base to be a bit taller than the letters so we cut the board like this using a chop saw.

 

 

The knots in the wood didn’t really matter because I was planning on painting the pieces.  Tip: if you have knots that are deeper, use spackle or wood filler to fill them in and smooth out the area.

I sanded down each piece to get a smooth finish and then glued the pieces together with wood glue. I let them dry and then we used the brad nail gun to attach them permanently. You could also use a hand saw for this.

 

 

To make sure we had it right…

 

 

Now that I had the base, it was time to add the letters. Here’s where that inspiration comes in. This is the scrapbook paper I saw at Michaels and fell in LOVE with. The colors and pattern are just so pretty.

 

 

I turned the paper over and traced the letters on the back. First I found a spot on the paper where I would get the most of the flowers on each letter.

 

 

I cut out the letters from the scrapbook paper with my scissors being really careful with the center of the A.

 

 

Wow, I really need to refinish my table, it’s a mess!

Anyway, I glued the scrapbook paper letters to each mdf letter using simple craft glue. If some of the paper was showing on the edges, I used my Xacto knife to trim it up. Don’t forget to use a cutting mat when doing this.

 

 

As hard as I tried with the center of the A , it got a bit rough around the edges. Not to worry, I took care of it with some paint a bit later.

 

 

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I had originally painted the base white but realized that the shelf in my daughters room is white and the book ends would have just disappeared.  I chose a shade of lilac out of the paper and mixed up some craft paint to match.

 

 

*note – I should have painted the letters first and then glued the paper on. 🙂

I grabbed a really soft sandpaper and roughed up the edges of the letter just a bit and then used my hot glue to adhere the letters to the base.

 

 

The result:

Here they are all finished…

 

 

 

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I love how these DIY bookends came out!!! They are so girly and look so cute on the shelf. I chose to do the “A” and “Z” for the alphabet but you could also do the child’s initials, too and you can personalize them in any color with any print/pattern. The possibilities are endless. I actually have another set I’m doing for my son’s room which I will share in a video soon.

Where does inspiration strike you?

Happy DIY’ing!

Col

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