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Rooms Take a Page from Book Wallpaper
Turn your walls into well-read companions even without a library, using the novel design idea of book wallpaper
I am a Brooklyn-based writer, who writes about all sorts of DIY ventures like cooking, crafts and decorating. When I'm not on assignment, I can be found dreaming up projects for my home, which I chronicle in my blog The Little House in the City (thelittlehouseinthecityblog.com).
I am a Brooklyn-based writer, who writes about all sorts of DIY ventures... More »
A library is a stately addition to any home, but few people have a collection of books that could fill floor-to-ceiling shelves. Consider instead library look-alike wallpaper to cultivate the appearance of a well-read intellectual without showing off a thousand tomes.
Many wallpaper manufacturers offer patterns that give a tromp l'oeil effect of shelves full of books. From hyperrealistic to highly stylized, these faux library prints add a winking intellectual air to any room from the bathroom to the bedroom — or even a library. Here are five rooms and five papers to inspire you to consider a bookish print for your own home.
Many wallpaper manufacturers offer patterns that give a tromp l'oeil effect of shelves full of books. From hyperrealistic to highly stylized, these faux library prints add a winking intellectual air to any room from the bathroom to the bedroom — or even a library. Here are five rooms and five papers to inspire you to consider a bookish print for your own home.
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This charming pattern was designed for Brunschwig & Fils by Richard Lowell Neas, who was an interior designer and decorative painter. It's no surprise that this eye-tricking paper is Neas' design, as he was well known for his trompe l'oeil murals.
Talk about bathroom reading. Angela Gutekunst Interiors gave this powder room a whimsical look with the Bibliotheque wallpaper.
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Reaume Construction & Design has created a stately, library-like bath with the same wallpaper. A bureaulike sink vanity and balloon-style curtains add to the sense that this is serious room. For similarly regal facilities, Kohl's Memoirs collection offers traditional-looking toilets.
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| In this bedroom by Ed O'Donnell, the wall behind the headboard becomes an accent wall when papered in a faux bookshelf pattern. The oversize knit of the blanket adds to the slightly surreal feeling in this room. |
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| Lisa Borgnes Giramonti divided the walls of this dining room with tongue-and-groove wainscoting on the lower half and a realistic bookshelf wallpaper on the upper half. Coordinating the wainscoting color to the color of the paper's shelves adds to the eye-tricking effect. |
by Splendid Willow
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Just because you choose a bookish wallcovering doesn't mean you can't display art as well. Blogger Monika of Splendid Willow hung a framed photograph on top of this paper from Andrew Martin's showroom in New York.
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This wallpaper is the multicolored version of the black and white one in the previous photo. Andrew Martin's Library pattern is one of eight in his whimsical Inventor collection, which also includes a pattern that makes your walls appear to be papered in handwritten love letters.
by Anthropologie
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A twist on the usual faux library patterns, this design by Tracey Kendall is made to look like a towering stack of paperbacks. The London-based wallpaper designer has several different stacked book patterns in her Stacking collection.
by Vertigo Home
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Cole & Sons produces this Ex Libris wallpaper, which is based on a 1953 Fornasetti screen design. It is available in three colorways: yellow/brown (shown), silver and gold.
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by Deborah Bowness
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| Designer Deborah Bowness encourages her customers to enhance the effect of her black and white design's illusion by adding real objects, like shelves, pictures or frames, on top of the wallpaper. More: Get Ideas for a Cozy Library Space DIY Project: Vintage Book Wallpaper |
Ideabook published on April 13, 2012.
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But to the people that call it decadent, I have to disagree. We're in the age of the Kindle and the Cloud. People who love to read may never own actual books, or at least not enough to stock a personal library. The home library will eventually become just another 'look' for many people. Just look at the fake candles in your chandelier, or the silk flowers in a room that doesn't get sunlight, or the fake wood logs in your gas fireplace, or the retro rotary phone that really is just a dock for an iphone.
Some people will always have real books just like some people insist on a real wood-burning fireplace. But it's not always an option for everybody even if they still like the look of it.