Prepare yourself for another post in our Crafty Chaos series...
Looking to show off some bibliophile love in the garden, we recently posted about some brick pavers we painted to look like books — the first of many "books" to come. We picked up some pavers in a recent Memorial Day Special buy at Home Depot and created a few new additions to our garden library this past weekend — a Jane Austen collection. (We both love Jane Austen, although one of us gravitates more to the books and the other to the movie adaptations...but that's neither here nor there. No names will be named. No sides will be taken. Probably.)
If you read the previous post, you know we're working towards having enough pavers to line the bottom of my sister's raised garden beds. You also know there were a few learnings — and things we wanted to try differently — with our next set of "books." This post will outline that we tried differently this time around...and of course, we just wanted to share some pics, since they turned out a bit different and might spark inspiration for your own project.
Difference #1
On the first set of pavers, we used colors that were darker and/or brighter than we used on this set. Those colors covered the pavers really well (and only needed one coat — a dream scenario, honestly).
However, since we used much lighter colors on these pavers, we quickly found we did need to prime them first — unless we wanted to do approximately 47 coats of paint. (We did not.) This was especially true for the more pastel shades. Lesson learned: pastels are pretty...but high-maintenance.
Difference #2
Last time, we used painter's tape to create the lines where the "cover" wraps around the sides to meet the "pages". Since we're planning to make a lot of these, we wanted to try a less wasteful process.
This time, we used a ruler and pencil instead of tape. The ruler (about an inch wide) left a nice "cover" edge when centered on the side of the paver (about 1/4 inch). It may be too narrow for thicker bricks, but it worked well for these.
After painting three sides ivory (for the "pages"), we centered the ruler on those same sides and drew a line on either side with a pencil. On the short edges, there was an extra line since three sides had that border. From there, we filled in that skinny border with the paint color right up to the line.
This method did take a bit longer than taping, since painting along pencil lines is more tedious. However — as mentioned in our prior post — the tape lines weren't super crisp because the pavers aren't smooth. So honestly...we like how these turned out better and plan to use this method again. Slower? Yes. Worth it? Also yes.
Difference #3
We used a stencil to dress these "books" up a bit. We used the same Jim Holtz floral stencil on all six pavers, but we didn't position it exactly the same — or even use the same sections — on each one.
We wanted them to feel cohesive but not perfectly match (because let's be real, perfectly matched is not usually our brand anyway). You can especially see the variation on the "spines." We stenciled both the front "covers" and the spines.
Learning: Because we did an entire set by the same author, it probably would have made sense to create a stencil with Jane Austen's name. So that's a learning we'll keep in mind going forward. Future us will be so organized. Present us is doing our best.
These were super easy to stencil! So we'll probably incorporate more stenciling into the next set of "books." We'll let you know how it turns out...for better or worse! (It's always one or the other.)
Everything else followed the same process as the first set of brick books we created.
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Materials:
- Brick pavers
- Paint brushes
- Stencil
- Stenciling brush
- Paint (see below for specific color we used)
Paint Colors:
Choosing color schemes isn't something we always feel wildly confident about. We actually hopped on Pinterest and searched for "vintage color palettes." After we found one we felt Jane-Austen-ish and garden-cute, we did our best to match similar paint colors from our stash. Below is what we used:
On All:
- Black (Delta Ceramcoat)
- White (Delta Ceramcoat)
- Antique White (Delta Ceramcoat)
Pride and Prejudice:
- Waterfall (Delta Ceramcoat)
Emma:
- Straw (Delta Ceramcoat)
Sense and Sensibility:
- Gypsy Rose (Delta Ceramcoat)
- Please note: this paint is very old - it came from a decades-old paint collection someone was downsizing. Unfortunately, this color is no longer available for purchase.
Persuasion:
- Green Tea (Delta Ceramcoat)
Northanger Abby:
- Cottage Rose (Delta Ceramcoat)
Mansfield Park
- Sea Foam (Delta Ceramcoat)
We've been having so much fun creating these cute "books" around the garden bed, and we can't wait to make more!1
Who's your favorite author? Please comment below — we're always looking for inspiration for future garden "library" additions.
P.S. If you liked this post, don't forget to check out our other posts and leave us a comment! We love hearing from our readers and truly appreciate your support.
