Distressed Skull Bookends
Add a touch of dark academia to your bookshelves with these heavy, distressed skull bookends. Start by purchasing two hollow plastic skulls and two simple wooden blocks or sturdy cardboard boxes from the dollar store. To give the bookends weight so they can actually support books, fill the inside of the plastic skulls with plaster of Paris, concrete, or even dry sand mixed with glue. Once the filling is dry and heavy, use hot glue or a strong adhesive like E6000 to secure each skull to a wooden block that has been painted black.
To make the plastic skulls look like carved stone or aged bone, paint them with a base coat of dark gray or black acrylic paint. Once dry, use a dry-brush technique with light gray and off-white paint, lightly dusting the raised surfaces to highlight the facial structure and cracks. Finally, apply a dark wax or a watered-down brown acrylic wash into the eye sockets and deep crevices to add depth and shadow. These gothic bookends look incredibly expensive and serve as both a functional and stylish Halloween accent for your home library or study.