I love beautiful cookbooks for kitchen styling as well as other areas around our home. There is something soothing about a pretty book cover and spine that makes decorating, even a space as functional as a kitchen, so much fun!
Finding pretty cookbooks that are also filled with just as delicious recipes can be challenging if you can’t see pictures of the whole book—spine and all—when purchasing online. In fact, I have 4 tips to evaluate cookbook covers and spines before you buy that I’ll share with you.
I’ve put together a list of 7 beautiful cookbooks that you can use to style your kitchen and anywhere else around your home.
Not unlike pretty coffee table books, I’m always on the hunt for pretty cookbooks that look as nice on a shelf as they do on a counter, console table and anywhere in between.
Typically I look for cookbooks that are neutral or pastel. Colors in soothing shades of white, cream, light sage green, pale blues and pinks, and linen. I have a black spined cookbook that is also nice for a bit of contrast, but, generally, dark colored books are not my favorite to display.
Give me a beautiful cookbook in a neutral or pale pastel and I’m in!
Tips to Buy Pretty Cookbooks Online
For some reason most books are sold with just one photo, the cover. Sometimes you’ll find a few inside pictures as a sneak-peak, as on Amazon, but not always, and they can’t help assess the spine.
Unless you happen across the book locally, you won’t know what it looks like under the dust cover or on the spine. To me, and probably to you, it’s absolutely necessary when buying cookbooks that you also want to look pretty. That’s where my 4 tips come in to help you buy pretty cookbooks online.
Important: A Word of Caution!
Each screen you view anything on online may be a different color than the real color is in person. All of my photos are filtered and adjusted to fit my brand identity, including brightening the image so the actual book will look slightly different. While these tips will give you a very good idea of what to expect, be aware that variation in color will usually occur.
Tip #1: Search for Images
When you’ve found a book you may want to buy but you’re not sure what it looks like under the cover or on the spine, do a Google search for the title and then select “Images.” Make sure to include the word “book” at the end of the title, as you’re more likely to find additional images than just the photo released by the publisher.
Tip #2: Check Book Reviews for Pictures
Check reviews of the book on Amazon especially, but other book review sites that allow pictures as part of the review. You can often find pictures accompanying reviews. While it can be hit or miss, it’s worth checking.
Tip #3: Visit Interior Designers Websites
If you still aren’t finding many images of the book cover and spine, visit interior designer websites as well as their home store websites. Interior designers that also have home decor stores, are more likely to have additional pictures of styled books in the product listing.
McGee & Co., Monika Hibbs Home, nest & nook housewares, Brooke & Lou, Scout & Nimble, and other home decorating bloggers like me, to name a few resources.
Tip #4: Scour Instagram and Pinterest Accounts of Interior Designers
One of the best places to see cookbooks styled is social. Interior designers are always posting their work on Instagram and Pinterest, which means you get to see books without dust covers and up close.
- Search for kitchen and pantry reveals by your favorite designers on Pinterest
- Scroll through Instagram posts as well, since you can usually catch books being used throughout styling photos
- Check their photographer’s account since they may have additional photos on their own social accounts
Studio McGee, of McGee & Co., and Bria Hammel Interiors, of Brooke & Lou, style their design projects with books all the time, so you’re sure to come across popular pretty cookbooks in kitchen reveals.
You may also want to check out YouTube channels of your favorite interior designers, because books tend to appear fairly regularly. Studio McGee is one I watch practically whenever a video comes out. To my delight, Shea uses books in what seems like every project.
Tip #5: Find the Book Locally
If all else fails, try to find a copy of the book locally. Target, Walmart, Barnes & Noble, your local library are great places to start. Target, Walmart and other major retailers usually show if an item is available near you. Viewing the item in person can make all the difference.
Beautiful Cookbooks You Need for Kitchen Styling
I have a growing collection of pretty cookbooks. At this moment in time, these are my favorite 7 beautiful cookbooks I use for styling our kitchen and around our home. I hope you find them just as pretty and, of course, filled with delicious recipes!
Mastering the Art of French Cooking
Daunting in its scope, intimidating for its author, Julia Child’s Mastering the Art of French Cooking is a must-have cookbook even by today’s standards. I have not made it all the way through this cookbook yet. In time, I know I will.
Honestly, and purely based on aesthetics, if I could only pick one cookbook that is my all-time favorite, it would be this one.
Bound in a buttery smooth genuine Italian leather in the softest pale pastel blue that has a subtle hint of green with gold embossed lettering, it truly is the most beautiful cookbook.
Since it’s bound in leather, it can be rather expensive but absolutely worth it, in my opinion. It would also make a lovely gift for any home chef.
Mine was a lucky HomeGoods find—if you know, you know—though a few retailers still carry it, including Pottery Barn, Hudson Grace and PBS (yes, that TV broadcasting station you know and love, PBS).
Read my Tips to Get Home Decor on a Budget for more on why HomeGoods and their sister stores (TJMaxx and Marshalls) are some of the best places to find high quality home decor, kitchen tools and so much more way below designer prices.
Fraiche Food, Full Hearts
Jillian Harris, interior designer, entrepreneur and TV star of Love It or List It and The Bachelorette fame, and her blogger and registered dietician cousin Tori Wesszer, creator of Fraiche Nutrition, took the concept and turned it into a mot beloved cookbook, Fraiche Food, Full Hearts.
Full of unique, vegetable-forward family friendly recipes, both the cover as well as the spine of the cookbook are too sweet for words. The spine is a light linen fabric that has a texture to it, similar to Magnolia Table, another book on this list.
A little pink heart as one of the “o’s” in the word “Food” gives this pretty cookbook a sweet personality for shelf styling.
Fraiche Food, Fuller Hearts
The follow-up to their beloved first cookbook, Fraiche Food, Fuller Hearts had to become part of my pretty books collection the moment I read about it!
Overall, they kept the aesthetic nearly identical. A different cover photo in the same tones, same spine material and so on. A blue heart in one of the “o’s” in the word “Food” is the only notable subtle change.
Sweet Paris
A new addition to my collection of beautiful cookbooks is Sweet Paris. Authored by Frank Adrian Barron, whom I learned is also known as “Cake Boy” around Paris. I haven’t delved into the recipes yet. The American-French fusion desserts sound utterly delightful, and is one of the reasons I picked up this cookbook.
A darker color than the other cookbooks, the spine is not fabric like Fraiche Food, Full Hearts or Magnolia Table. Instead, it’s made out of the same hardcover material.
Given how pretty the cover is, this cookbook looks just as stunning stacked or leaning on a shelf with the spine showing as it does with the cover on full display. Neutral creams and whites feature heavily in the cover image of a fittingly gorgeous cake-adorned marble mantel below an intricately carved white framed mirror.
I love cinnamon, so I can’t wait to try the “Cinnamon Swirl Bundt Cake.” Then again, his light “French Mousse au Chocolat” sounds equally divine!
Magnolia Table, Volume 2
Very few cookbook collectors can pass up one of Joanna Gaines’ creations. The eponymous entrepreneur, author, celebrated designer, and TV host—and too many other things to list here—has etched her name on an entire design movement, and reshaped a whole city in the process.
Similar to Fraiche Food, Full Hearts, the spine of the Magnolia Table, Volume 2 cookbook looks and feels like a nice light linen fabric. I love how whites, creams and linen colors all come together!
Her recipe for “Rancher’s Steak and Eggs” looks delicious!
Magnolia Bakery
If you’ve ever heard of the eponymous New York sweet shop, Magnolia Bakery, this is the cookbook by that very celebrated chef.
You may have seen the cover photo featuring her decadent pastel colored buttercream “Stars & Rosettes Cake” somewhere before, since it’s famous on its own.
While the cookbook cover background is white, the spine is actually a very soft, pale green that I was not expecting based on the cover. I tried to capture how subtle but still perceptible it is in pictures. I like the color and it looks lovely with my other cookbooks, so I don’t mind it at all.
Gather at Home
Technically, this is not a cookbook, but hear me out. Gather at Home is by well-known blogger Monika Hibbs. She filled the pages with family recipes alongside DIY projects, such as her delightful “S’more Roasting Station,” “Chalk-Painted Pumpkins” and “Christmas Countdown Pouches,” all arranged by season.
I can’t convey to you just how much I want to recreate the s’more station one day!
She is all about how things should look pretty as much as they should be functional, which is how I think and approach projects as well. Like my Matchbox Crafts DIY where I turned not-so-pretty long fireplace match containers into elevated decor.
The spine of this book is not actual fabric, rather it’s made out of the same hardcover material that is meant to look like fabric. It’s a soft beige-linen shade that looks pretty paired with any of the cookbooks I mentioned here.
It is such a pretty book—cover, spine and all!
There you have it, 7 beautiful cookbooks you can use to style your kitchen, console table or for shelf styling.
Together or separate, these pretty cookbooks will bring a designer touch to your kitchen while also being filled with delicious recipes you can try out.
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