Repurpose Old Bricks Into The Most Adorable DIY Bookends For Your Garden

If you've already figured out the best layout for your garden, it stands to reason that you should also start decorating your outdoor space to the nines. This extends beyond just picking the right flower colors; you also need the right patio equipment for reading and hosting visitors, standout features like bird baths to attract natural guests, and unique pieces of decor to speak to your personal style. If you plan on using your garden as a reading nook or just have a few favorite novels you'd love to immortalize, consider repurposing old bricks into DIY garden bookends painted to look like books.

TikTok channel Hometalk recommends a fun way to take those classic red foundation bricks and give them a whole new lease on life as art rather than construction materials (though there's nothing to say you can't use decor bricks in your garden projects). It's a cheap and easy hack, only requiring that you buy paint and sharpies once you've secured access to a handful of old bricks.

There's room to experiment with the style of every book-themed brick you create with this garden DIY project, but the basic design philosophy is the same. You'll use the brick in an upright position with one narrow, tall edge as the spine and the other as the book's pages. The larger sides of the brick serve as the front and back book covers. Using white paint, color one lengthwise side and the two shortest faces surrounding it for what will later be pages. All the other sides of the brick can be painted whichever color you desire. If you're repurposing multiple bricks, it would make sense to make each one different for a more eclectic faux bookshelf. Once all your paint is dry, draw vertical, parallel lines lengthwise along the white brick faces to create the look of book pages.

How you decide to decorate the covers and spines of each brick book in your garden is up to you. The original TikTok goes with generic Victorian-style tome accents, such as double lines near the top and bottom of the book or a pseudo-compass rose. However, you could take things a step further with more specific markers like writing the titles of classic literary works on each spine. You can even change up elements like painting the "pages" with a lighter yellow or beige paint, giving the impression of an aged collection. Take this project a step further during the holidays with ideas like faux spell book decorations for Halloween.

One of the fun things about creating DIY brick bookends for your garden is they can slip into any other project. You can really spice up your garden's stackable brick retaining wall or your vegetable-growing raised garden bed by having a pattern of stand-out book designs spaced in. Add in the brick books while you're constructing the borders, or paint the edges of bricks that are already installed in an existing structure.

However, if you're using these book bricks as standalone pieces of decor and don't have to worry about parity with other building materials, you can go crazy and make pieces as unique as a Stonehenge of books in your yard. Instead of using the brick books to prop up your literary collection, you can use them to bookend sections of flowers or mix them randomly throughout your garden. These colorful stones might pair especially well with other garden transformations, such as painting gravel rocks to freshen up your landscape. What better way is there to show off your favoritism toward "Pride & Prejudice" than going out of your way to make an entirely unique brick copy?