I Opened My Own Bookstore, And I Created A Beautiful Arch Out Of Recycled Books
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I own an independent bookstore and receive lots of books that are simply at the end of their lives. Old investment books from before the financial crash, books with cracked binding, or missing pages start to pile up in the corner. So, I decided to be creative and upcycle these books into something fun.
I built a frame out of 2×4’s and plywood to provide a stable base. I added rows of books and used a pneumatic framing nailer to secure the books to the frame and one another. I had to cut books with a miter saw to fill in odd gaps. This was a team effort, and it took over 4 weeks to complete!
The upper ‘rainbow’ section are paperback books arranged and cut into blocks. The colors are from the publishers, and I did not paint them.
I added some books by my favorite authors including Neil Gaiman (well, the store is named after the Sandman Comics), Pierce Brown’s Red Rising series, Andrew Smith’s Ignition (local author), and Kristine Kathryn Rusch.
More info: sandmanbooks.com | Facebook
Finished arch project at Sandman Books!
Rough structure of the book arch is constructed out of 2×4’s and OSB. Each side is 2 feet
Kitty Wan Kenobi inspecting the book arch
I used a framing nailer to attach the books to the frames. Over 10,000 nails were used in construction of the arch
Books stacked in piles ready to be placed in the book arch
Constructing the book arch column out of recycled books
I cut off the damaged sections of these titles. Many were water-damaged copies of Michael Crichton, John Grisham, and Nora Roberts
Bottom pillars are now secured and bolted to the floor
Preparing the paperback books for the rainbow effect on the front of the arch
Placing the rainbow paperbacks. My wife named the compressor ‘big kitty’ because it hisses like a cat
Crown molding installed. Just needed to fill in extra books!
Placing the last yellow paperback book. Almost done!
Finishing up the crown molding
Finished book arch
Inside view of the book arch
Book arch at night
We have a wedding scheduled in March under the arch!
Sandman Books is located in Punta Gorda, Florida
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Aside from these beautiful arches, this is a FANTASTIC independent book store. Folks come from all over SW Florida to patronize this store. It is worth a trip. We are lucky enough to live about 25 mins away and go once a month. See you there!
Oooooh, I am envious!! I would spend so long in there.
It looks good and all but ... I don't know how I feel about books being vandalized.
he said most of them were water damaged. i feel okay about this one since i doubt the damaged books would have been easily readable
A lot of books on the photos don't look like damaged
rereading it now i see that the basket with cut off book halves is the water damaged ones. i guess the rest were just recycled. now i don't know how to feel
There were a lot of old dime novels in that arch and that makes me sad. These novels are an excellent picture in the culture of their time and rarely make it to modern day because they were just left on a bus. I'd rather they had more used harry potter in those pillars because there's probably another 10 copies of each of those books for sale in the same store's shelves. Nothing against the Potterverse but the loss of one volume isn't impactful in 2022. I would bet money there's at least 1 book in that pillar that was the last copy ever. Never destroy a book unless you are 100% positive of the location of another copy.
Well, at least he didn't throw away the books. It's amazing!
Aside from these beautiful arches, this is a FANTASTIC independent book store. Folks come from all over SW Florida to patronize this store. It is worth a trip. We are lucky enough to live about 25 mins away and go once a month. See you there!
Oooooh, I am envious!! I would spend so long in there.
It looks good and all but ... I don't know how I feel about books being vandalized.
he said most of them were water damaged. i feel okay about this one since i doubt the damaged books would have been easily readable
A lot of books on the photos don't look like damaged
rereading it now i see that the basket with cut off book halves is the water damaged ones. i guess the rest were just recycled. now i don't know how to feel
There were a lot of old dime novels in that arch and that makes me sad. These novels are an excellent picture in the culture of their time and rarely make it to modern day because they were just left on a bus. I'd rather they had more used harry potter in those pillars because there's probably another 10 copies of each of those books for sale in the same store's shelves. Nothing against the Potterverse but the loss of one volume isn't impactful in 2022. I would bet money there's at least 1 book in that pillar that was the last copy ever. Never destroy a book unless you are 100% positive of the location of another copy.
Well, at least he didn't throw away the books. It's amazing!