"Antique" blue books

I needed a bookshelf for a corner of my living room but the black one we had didn't match the blues, grays, and whites of our living room.  So we painted it white! But just look at it. It looks so empty, so bland sitting by the beige couch and the gray wall.

It needed more color but I didn't know what else to add so I turned to Pinterest and found my inspiration! Books! Blue books! It was a bookshelf after all!  I especially loved the vintage French books.

FrenchBlue & Co

Houzz

 I went to antique shops looking for blue books and discovered that they were a bit expensive! One of them that I liked was $50! Eek! I couldn't justify spending that much on books that I wasn't even going to read! (Side note: Mr. H was not too impressed with my plan to put books I hadn't read on ANY bookshelf in our house. He thought it was too hokey.)

Solution: used bookstore!  I found these books and paid $3.50 for all four. I simply removed the jackets on the ones that had them. (Second side note: to counter my hokiness, Mr. H picked a book he actually wanted to read. And who says I am not going to read "Change of Heart"?)

Here is my bookshelf now. It looks much better, don't you think? I am still on the lookout for blue books to fill it up some more and I might actually read one or two!