I wanted to decorate my book room but my budget was tight so I decided to use old damaged books to create a feature wall.

I used:

2 large paperback books

Pva glue or wallpaper paste

Water

Old ice cream tub

Soft paintbrush

Step 1: Get Started

Take your books and remove the covers. Tear out the pages.

Tear off all the straight edges - this is important as the straight edges will show through and spoil the flow of the finished wall, while torn edges will blend together.

Leave some sheets whole and tear some into smaller pieces.

Step 2: Glue or Wallpaper Paste?

I intended to use wallpaper paste as it is cheap but I didn't have any and I couldn't wait to get started.

I mixed up about 2 tablespoons of pva with half a pint of water so it looked like milk.

I soaked the paper in the mix and let it sit - you can see I lined the wet pieces up on the edges of the ice cream tub to absorb the liquid.

Step 3: Start Applying the Paper to the Wall

I wanted to get an evenly spaced effect so I worked on the wall as a whole rather than complete a small area at a time.

You can see that I began pasting sheets randomly all over. I used the brush to push the paper onto the wall firmly, paying particular attention to the edges.

Step 4: Add More Paper

Go on layering up the paper remembering to mix up the different pages from each book.

I used the larger sheets first then filled in with the smaller pieces.

Turn the text in different directions to vary the appearance.

Step 5: The Finished Effect

When I was happy with the overall effect, I trimmed off the ragged edges around the door frame, right angled walls and ceiling with a sharp Stanley Knife.

I will probably coat the wall in clear polyurethane varnish to protect it, although I could just repair it with fresh paper if needed.