Turning Empty Books into High-end Interior Decor Items

A high-end book café has opened at Incheon International Airport (South Korea) where guests can enjoy drinks, read books, or even purchase a book they like.

On the highest shelves of the bookcases in the café, which guests cannot reach, there are 1,500 fake books displayed for decoration.

Inside the Starfield library in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea (Photo: Chosun).

These books are designed to look like real books from the outside, but in reality, they are just empty shells. These fake books are made of paper or plastic materials.

Empty or fake books are lightweight and can be made in large sizes, creating a better visual effect from a distance.

Furthermore, the cost of fake books is lower than real books, so the demand for fake books is increasing for interior decoration purposes.

Fake books have even made their way into libraries in South Korea. Earlier this year, the Starfield library in Suwon, Gyeonggi Province, South Korea, opened and quickly became a popular destination for the public.

The high bookshelves filled with beautifully arranged books excite visitors to come and take photos. The library management used about 20,000 fake books to stack on the highest shelves.

The library of the Bank of Korea also uses fake books in their interior decoration.

A bookshelf inside the Starfield library (Photo: Chosun).

The use of fake books has many benefits for displaying numerous books. Since fake books are very light, the risk of books falling off the shelves and causing injuries is reduced.

Fake books can be securely attached to the shelves to ensure absolute safety. The bookshelves are also lightened, reducing the chances of them collapsing.

Fake books have become a popular interior decoration item in South Korea, from public buildings, restaurants, cafes to homes.

Hwang Sun-young, CEO of Woojin Making company, a company specializing in providing and installing fake book systems for buildings, including the Starfield library, said: "Fake books provide a sense of aesthetics, familiarity, and comfort to the interior of the building."

A fake book made of paper material (Photo: Chosun).

A fake book made of plastic material (Photo: Chosun).

When we started providing fake books in 2006, we mainly met the needs of real estate companies and units operating in the arts and media fields. They needed props for display settings. But now, fake books have become a real business, meeting the diverse interior decoration needs of many people."

Fake books also serve as storage boxes, allowing people to neatly store items, including electrical wires and cables inside the house. To serve this purpose, fake books are made of fire-resistant plastic material.