We love to integrate books into our decor, but does your child have favorite books that aren't quite in display condition? Beat up paperbacks can easily be turned into custom hardbacks with some scrap cardboard, fabric, a gluestick, and an inkjet printer. Unleash your inner graphic designer with this quick and easy tutorial!
Materials:
cardboard
about 1/3 yard of cotton fabric
glue stick
tape
one sheet of cardstock
1. Lie your book on the cardboard and trace it. I used white cardboard because the fabric I used is pretty thin and I was afraid brown cardboard would show through. Add 1/4 inch to the height of the cover you traced, and subtract 1/4 inch from the width. Cut out 2 like this with a sharp craft knife. Also trace the spine. Add 1/4 inch to both the height and the width, and cut it out.
2. Cut a piece of fabric that is 17 inches wide and 11 inches high. Adhere the fabric to a piece of cardstock as shown in the photo (sort of folded in half like a book around the cardstock) with gluestick. Smooth it out really well making sure that it's totally stuck to the front of the cardstock. Trim the right side edges of the fabric so they don't hang over the edge of cardstock. Leave about an inch at the top of the cardstock for your printer to grab onto. Tape around the top and right side edge to help the cardstock slide more easily through your printer.
3. Create any book cover design you want on your computer. I used these gorgeous, downloadable labels from Poppytalk. Print directly onto your fabric-covered cardstock.
4. Lay out your 3 pieces of cardboard with the spine in the center and 1/2 inch between each piece. Cut two strips of regular white printer paper and gluestick them as shown in the photo to hold the cardboard together.
5. Carefully peel the fabric off the cardstock and align it on the cardboard. If you hold the whole thing up to the light, you can see through it to help you get the fabric lined up properly. Fold about a third of the fabric down and apply gluestick all over the cardboard. Smooth the fabric back up, and lift up the rest of the fabric, applying gluestick underneath, and then smooth it back down, too. Smooth out all the wrinkles.
6. Cut triangles into the fabric as shown (fig. c). Gluestick the top and bottom edges of the fabric to the cardboard, tucking the corners in as shown (fig. d). Gluestick the sides of the fabric to the cardboard.
7. Apply gluestick all over your paperback and stick it in the new hardback cover. Make sure the spine lines up and is pressed strongly against the new hardback spine (fig. h). Let the glue dry really well before reading your new book.
You're done! Great job!
More projects to try:
Thrifted Picture Frame Kid Chair
Small Cool Lessons: Discovering Small Space Design Ideas That Really Work
Beatriz's Fun & Functional Workspace
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Sheex Bedding
A Work Week Menu Plan That You Can Do
How to Make Fresh Pasta Dough in the Food Processor
Love this idea! What kind of printer did you use? Did you have trouble with the cardstock/fabric piece jamming your printer?
This is brilliant! I can't wait to try it. We definitely have some books that could use new covers.
Oh my gosh, I love it. This reminds me of how we "published" books for projects in college. But what a great idea for those timeless paperbacks. Ohdeedoh! I love you! I'm linking up here...
http://onthelap.blogspot.com/2010/08/turn-old-paperbacks-into-new-hardbacks.html
Graciously,
Aimee
Thanks so much! I have an old Epson Stylus CX4800 printer. Nothing too fancy. I didn't have any problems with it getting jammed. Just make sure it's very smooth and not wider than whatever width your printer can handle. And crease that fabric fold really well. I think the key is having the top half inch or so of the cardstock sticking out so the printer can grab it nicely. It really is fun. I hope you guys have fun with it!
Oh, and I used two different types of gluestick while I was experimenting (one repositionable and one regular) and they both worked equally well.
Some warnings from an experienced bookmaker:
Be careful while cutting, gluing, and lining up. If everything is not cut and lined up at a right angle, the new cover will torque the book slightly every time it's opened. This pulls unevenly on the covers, making it possible for them to slowly weaken and tear off, and causes uneven pressure in the spine, which can lead to pages falling out.
More importantly, regular old cardboard, cloth, and glue are not archival quality.
Archival means that there is no acid in the substrate or binding so that the book will last indefinitely. One kind of paperback -- trade -- is archival, and the other -- mass market -- is not.
-A trade paperback is the nice kind of paperback. It is archival because it uses the same pages that were used inside the hardcover edition of the book. Treated nicely, this book will last a very long time without yellowing, crumbling, or falling out of the spine.
-Mass market paperbacks are not archival. They are cheap and will eventually fall apart even with gentle use -- think of romance novels you see at convenience stores.
So, before undertaking this project, think about whether this book is one you'd like to keep and pass down to your kids. If it's just to look cute on the shelf and you don't care about it brittling, go for it.
adding to akay's warning/advice, a few bits would take this from basement craft project to legitimate bookbinding.
-- corrugated cardboard really isn't a suitable substrate. davey board (or binder's board) is pretty easy to procure from a local craft/art store or from online resources. the corrugated cardboard is soft and will dent or bend too easily.
-- chances are your innards aren't of archival quality, so your binding materials don't really need to be finer than your content, but you can do better than a gluestick. use sobo craft glue thinned with a bit of water. use a gesso or stencil brush to evenly and neatly coat the boards before adhering to cover cloth/paper. a careful use of a no-steam iron (and protective sheet of scrap paper) can help adhesion.
-- when working with binding materials, "relative" measurements are often better than inch-measurements. i've found that a spine should be the thickness of the core (the book) plus the thickness of the binding boards + bookcloth/endsheets... and the hinge between the spine and cover boards should be 2-3X the thickness of the cover board (less = hard to open/close / more = sloppy and floppy).
-- you would actually be benefitted by removing the original cover (you're going to destroy it with glue anyway) and add endpapers to the front/back. the end papers are glued to the innermost 1/4in of the core. you can even choose to reinforce the spine with more glue and mull cloth.
there are several online resources for book-binding how-to info. avoid the ones that recommend duct-tape or similar garage-materials... like a lot of things, finding, choosing and using the right materials and tools doesn't take that long up-front and can pay off later in saved frustration or dilapidating projects.
I'm so in love with the commenters on this site!
To Katie and all the contributors here, thanks for the great article!
I think this should go in ApartmentTherapy too.
Are any cheaper alternative to Davey Board? 3$ per sheet would be definitely too expensive for me and possibly more expensive than the books themselves.
this is brilliant!
I've run paper-backed bookcloth through inkjet printers. I't nice and stable and lies flat for pasting and positioning. Art supply stores and bookbinding suppliers have it.
I wonder if you could also use ink-jet iron-on paper.
Alternative to Davey Board = old hardcovers sacrificed for the project. I have gleaned many large children's books for this purpose. Often the insides are destroyed leaving the covers in decent condition.
Great idea! I have so many well-loved paperbacks from childhood, and I'd love to be able to pass them along in a sturdier, more beautiful form.
This is a great idea and something I've been doing to my own paperbacks and worn out hardbacks for years. Absolutely consider the value of the book before you invest in the material. I've also skipped the board altogether. When I want to reinforce the strength of a favorite paperback (because I read and reread books over and over again), I've used archival quality glue and line the inside cover with stiff card stock and the outside with lightweight book cloth or decorative paper. It won't last forever but it does let you continue to handle the book for a bit longer plus you can have some fun drawing or printing on the outer cover to make your own cover art.
Hi guys! Yes, absolutely consider whether your goal is archival quality preservation or making a bookshelf look cuter as you chose your materials. For me, I was going for cute and cheap. The more you spend, the more it may make sense to just purchase a hardback.
And, yes, you could use iron transfer paper or store bought fabric printer sheets, but the beauty here is that you don't have to. You can stick your own fabric (any color or print) right into the printer!
Have fun with it!
Many of the other experienced bookbinders beat me to it....glad you guys could offer some good advice. In the long run though, I appreciate that there are "cheaper alternatives" for people who may not fully appreciate well-made handcrafted books. And it allows the trade to stay a specialty, which will help the sales of those who choose to make and sell handmade books.
Good, inexpensive tutorial for beginners though. It's addicting!
I'm all for inexpensive tutorials, however I can't help but think this won't last very long. I make professional artist books, and must recommend that rather than using a glue stick (an non-archival and generally temporary choice as far as glue goes), that PVA glue should be used instead. PVA (Poly-vinyl Acetate) dries fast and is best applied with a trimmed chip brush (about $1 at home depot, PVA is about $6-8 at an art supply store, and lasts a while). Once applied to the cardboard, (again, I would also recommend using a thin book board, ((a very common type is called Davey Board)) and trim it using a ruler and xacto blade.) using a piece of clean scrap paper on top of the cloth and a bone folder (handle of a butter knife works as well), rubbing the paper to make sure there are no air bubbles in the cloth.
Other tips.. To print on the cloth without using a printer (or somehow finding a letterpress), try using a chartpak pen (transfer pen) with printed text from a laser jet or xerox machine that's printed backwards. It works remarkably well, with practice.
Or, instead of book board which is usually very thick and hard to cut without a paper cutter, matte board. It's much easier to cut and it doesn't have the corrugation that will cause the cover to bend and crease as easily.
printing on the fabric? i wouldn't do so, because it may hurt your printer in a bad way ... in an extrem case use the stencil-technic to create your own modern art style. for saving the original cover desing cut away the front and back, glue it onto the middle of the hardcover and fix it with clear vanish. you'll get it in a well sorted hardstore or in the store for automobile equipments. onto the spine you are to write with a felt tipped pen, though the style of all your books is equal. if necessarry fix the bookblock into the cover with a sheet of stronger paper (standard 80 g/ qm), better you'll use about 120 g/ qm. that will make the fixing of a real better quality.