Bring form and function together with DIY bookends you make yourself.

Bookends are a dual purpose home decor item. They are really quite helpful in holding up books, and they can also add a little pizzazz to otherwise plain bookshelves. You can even use them to create little vignettes on your coffee table or mantle. And they don’t have to cost a lot of money either–especially if you make your own DIY bookends.

Need a little inspiration? Read on for some easy ideas for how to make your own DIY bookends using stuff you might already have in your home.

7 Simple Projects for Making DIY Bookends

1. DIY Terrarium Bookends – Turn mason jars, or other glass jars, into living, breathing bookends and also add a little greenery to your space. Making your own terrarium is super simple, just follow the steps in this easy terrarium tutorial.

2. DIY Brick Bookends – Regular paving bricks are versatile and very functional bookends–they can even support heavier coffee style books. The bricks can be covered using fabric or paper, painted, stenciled or left natural for simplicity’s sake. The pictured ones are decorated with painted pop art designs. Image: FancyBrick

3. DIY Concrete Bookends – If you are looking for another study alternative, try making concrete ends to support your stacks. Here is an easy tutorial for making concrete bookends utilizing a plastic mold and added felt dots to protect the shelf. Image: mhoch3design

4. DIY Beanbag Bookends – Believe it or not those beanbags you learned how to make in camp can actually come in handy for holding up your books. If you don’t remember exactly how it’s done, here’s a simple how-to. These would be ideal for a kid’s room. Image: ColoringTheirWorld

5, DIY Thrift Store Knick Knacks – Turn fun and funky thrift store finds into functional bookends by mounting them to blocks of wood and spraypainting them. Use a monochromatic palette or get crazy and alternate the colors. Image: robinseggvintageNC

6. DIY Diorama Bookends – If you are a nature lover, consider making your own diorama bookends inspired by some of your favorite natural places. Here’s a fun tutorial that shares one technique for making dioramas. Image: heidis bridge

7. DIY Pipe Industrial Bookends – Have leftover metal or PVC pipe from a plumbing project? Repurpose it into bookends for both form and function’s sake. Here is a tutorial for a project that shows one technique for the how-to. Image: TheCleverRaven

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Unique bookends that will take your shelf from yawn to yowza.

Do you look at the state of your bookshelf and hear a sad trombone? Yep, me too. I’ve got the books and the pictures and the souvenirs and the kitsch, yet it’s still missing that all-important wow factor: That primary focal point that ties everything together. Enter unique bookends – and the more unique, the better.

These stylishly simple accessories not only bring order to your ginormous collection of chick lit, travel guides and biographies, but they do so while showing off your personality. Want to know more about a new friend? Just check out her bookends. (Don’t be dirty.)

Here are 7 unique bookends that’ll transform any blasé bookshelf:

1. Coral bookends

These refreshing coral bookends are overscaled for dramatic effect. The natural beauty of the coral combined with the pale wood and mother-of-pearl inlay will make your shelf look stunning.

2. Pineapple bookends

These pineapple bookends are whimsical and just the right amount of kitsch. And for those of us who aren’t so good at the whole taking time off thing, they’ll remind us to book our vacations when we’re supposed to.

3. Vintage bookends

You can’t go wrong with vintage: These 1940s cast metal bookends are in the form of lit genie lamps set on top of books. Word is they were made by Dodge, Inc. in L.A., best known for making Oscars and Emmys. Le swoon.

4. Arrow bookends

Clearly inspired by vintage highway signs, these arrow bookends will give your bookshelf the pop of color it deserves.

5. Bicycle bookends

These adorable bicycle bookends are made of wrought iron: Strong enough to support your bookworm tendencies without that cold industrial feel.

6. Recycled aluminum bookends

These stunning recycled aluminum bookends show two Harlequins kneeling down and pushing walls of pinewood. They’re handmade in Peru by artist Luitpol.

7. Hand-carved bookends

Hand-carved by artist Gulam Rasool, these wise owl bookends are made of soapstone and would be a chic addition to any bookshelf.

Do you use unique bookends to show off your fave reads?

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Image: Bookshelf photo via Shutterstock

The post 7 Unique Bookends to Spruce Up a Drab Bookshelf appeared first on EcoSalon.

Let other people wax poetic about their iPads or Kindles. I still love the kind of books you can hold in your hand, flip through in a book store, and proudly display on a shelf. Sure, eBooks are more space-efficient, but good ol’ paperbacks and hardcovers lend a certain literary charm to a room. And these XOO Bookends by Vessel Architectural Pottery are the perfect way to punctuate a row of books. They’re artfully modern, yet utterly functional.

Modeled after an iconic Los Angeles building (the American Cement Building, designed by Malcolm Leland in the early sixties), they’re made with clay, water, and fire, and are 100 percent recyclable – but let’s not get ahead of ourselves; I wouldn’t be recycling these beauties any time soon. I also love the fact that you can rotate these bookends vertically or horizontally depending on your shelf space.

Alas, the price tag ($220 for the OO Bookend, $190 for the X Bookend) is bit more than I can stomach, but a girl can dream, can’t she? What bookends do you absolutely love? Leave a comment, and let the swooning commence!

The post Be Still Our Book-Hoarding, Architecture-Loving Hearts! appeared first on EcoSalon.