Create an elegant gift for the horse enthusiast in your life with this easy DIY project. Traditionally styled, with a glamorous twist, these golden DIY horse bookends set will add action and vibrancy to any bookshelf!
Supplies:
- Breyer Horse (Amazon.com is where I found the horse I used for this project)
- Two Matching Wood Scraps (about 12” tall and 4” inches wide)
- Metallic Gold Spray Paint (Hardware Store)
- Liquid Nails Glue (Hardware Store)
- Metal Heel Grinder (Walgreens, Rite Aid, or similar store in the bath and beauty section)
Tools from Around the Craft Room:
- Q-Tips
- Work surface cover for spray painting
- Hacksaw
Step 1
Using a sharp hacksaw, slice your Breyer horse neatly in half. Naturally, you’ll want to make the cut as straight and clean as possible.
Step 2
Even though I used a very sharp hacksaw to cut the horse in half, there were still little rough particles along the edge. Ordinary sandpaper isn’t strong enough to handle the plastic edges, so I used a metal heel file, and it worked perfectly! Just visit the bath and beauty section of any Walgreens or Rite Aid, and you can pick one up for a few dollars.
Using the metal heel file, smooth out the rough edges along the midsection of the horse-halves. You can see in the photo for Step 2 that the half of the horse on the left side of the picture has been smoothed out nicely with the heel file, and the half of the horse on the right side has yet to be done.
Step 3
Spray both sides of the horse with a few coats of metallic gold spray paint. Let it dry completely.
Step 4
Using the Liquid Nails glue (with lots of ventilation!), attach each half of the horse onto the wood scraps. Make sure that your two wood scraps are close to the same height, clean of any dirt, and flat on at least one side (to sit flush with the bookshelf).
Apply a generous amount of glue along the edge of the horse-half and press it onto the board. The glue will gush out, but simply use damp q-tips to immediately wipe away the excess. Don’t skimp on the glue, because you want a nice, tight hold!
Once everything has dried for at least 24 hours, you are done!
Did you enjoy our tutorial on how to make a DIY bookends? Let us know in the comments section below what your thoughts are on this horse bookends. Do you have any other craft project you’d like to share? Share it with us and we’ll give it a try. We love doing cool DIY projects by making craft projects, home decor projects, upcycling ideas, recipes, tutorials and anything you can do yourself. That’s why we created this site, we want people to be more in touch with their creative side and realize that there’s a lot of things that they can do themselves. We’d love to hear from you and create a community of DIY enthusiasts where any project is just a click away. Stay connected with us on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Instagram!
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I love this! So clever, so easy, and so unique! Thanks!
Thanks Julie! Glad you loved it!
I’d suggest filling both sides of hollow horse, with lead fishing weights (pellets) to make them sturdy(ier) or more beefier and able to handle heavier loads of books. Great idea though, thank you!
That’s a great tip!
Great idea! I’m wondering if they are heavy enough for large books or meant to be used with smaller?
Hi Brandy, with the scrap woods used on this project, it’s meant for smaller books, but you can customize it still by using a larger wood to accommodate bigger books. Hope it helps 🙂
Love this so much. I’ve been looking for more horse projects! 😀
We’re glad you liked it Taylor! 🙂
I was wondering if filling each half with sand would work to make them “hefty” enough to stand up to larger and/or more books.
Love them…Thanks for the great tutorial!♡
Yes Tina you can also do that. We’re glad you enjoyed the tutorial 🙂