According to Ernest Hemingway, “there is no friend as loyal as a book.” If you find yourself short on this type of friend, look no further. Books By The Foot is here to fill any and all book friend voids in life. I have always loved the idea of books, the look and feel, the tangible promises of adventure, romance, knowledge. Whatever your preferred genre, Books by the Foot has taken the love object of bibliophiles to a whole new level. Find out how you can decorate your home or office by book style, genre or even color!
Books By The Foot
The Books By The Foot warehouse processes tens of thousands of books daily. Maximizing the value of each book is the company’s main objective. One way they are able to do it, is tapping into the book as aesthetic market.
Used by Interior Decorators and Movie Set Designers for Years
Used by TV/Movie set and interior designers for years, Books By The Foot is an offshoot of Wonder Books, founded by Chuck Roberts, a man who has a profound love and respect for books. Years ago, Mr. Roberts noticed a trend in which designers were buying books from his Wonder Book outlets in bulk for no other reason than their aesthetic value. Being a shrewd business owner Roberts hoped to keep books from pulping (the practice of dissolving wood or recovered paper into pulp for the purpose of papermaking). He recognized a whole new category and outlet for the abundant number of books he could not sell based on their value to readers due to overabundance (such as James Patterson books), obsolescence or condition. Books that can be read or have a high collector value are sold in brick and mortar stores or online. The rest go to Books By The Foot, are given away or, gasp, sent away and pulped.
New Tool in Your Decorator’s Tool Box
Consider Books By The Foot a new tool in your home decorating tool box. Books from Books by the Foot are available based on every imaginable aesthetic one could possibly dream up including color, genre, uniform sets, vintage, vintage by color…you get the point. Are you interested in unifying your seaside cottage living room palette? Why not fill the shelves with books the color of those sea glass teal stripes in the upholstery fabric of your overstuffed couch? Or, decorate your mid century kitchen shelf with cookbooks from the 1950s-1960’s? The possibilities are endless. Currently Books By The Foot offer 125 styles on their website and they love the challenge of special requests.
Photo TheBookwormMB
Not Just for Bookshelves
Don’t just limit your imagination to filling book shelves with Books By The Foot. DIY book project ideas abound far and wide on the worldwide internet. Some of the most interesting ones I’ve come across include, the above table lamp courtesy of Etsy shop TheBookwormMB and the vintage book planter below courtesy of Etsy shop pearlreef. Or, the always fun book safe project.
Photo pearlreef
Inspiration abounds like this stacked book side table from Etsy shop BeansBounties
Photo BeansBountie
Chuck Roberts believes in the enduring nature and need for books. In the 2016 interview below he indicated that publishers he knew believed the market for digital books “will top out at 30% of the market and the physical book will continue indefinitely.”
Books by the Foot has been featured in Country Living, The Washington Post, InStyle magazine, The New York Times, and now – Home Fixated, just to name a few.
Pricing ranges from about $10/foot for cheap paperbacks to $350/foot for premium vintage books. Most prices are between $10 and $80 per foot.
Books as decor is a bad idea. It tries to take advantage of the cachet or prestige of books without actually earning it. Anybody can look at a shelf of decor books and tell they have never been read, nor are they meant to be. So they make you look like a poser. Don’t do it.
I disagree. I love literature but sometimes do not know what I want to dive into. Receiving a box full of popular softcovers is like opening a treasure chest of beloved new books that I may not have otherwise heard of or purchased individually. It’s Christmas Day in a box.
Plus their “Glittering Literature” is by far my favorite line. They are beyond beautiful, and I fully intend on reading each one of them at some point in time.