Unless you’re lucky enough to have extra cabinet space in your kitchen (what’s that?!), your cookbooks, like mine, might be on the counter leaning against a corner or a small appliance. Decorative bookends can make your “out in the open” cooking library look less like a stack of books and more like you meant to do it that way.
There’s nothing wrong with having the cookbooks on display. In fact, it’s handy to have them available when you need them. The main problem with mine, leaning on the breadbox, is that they weigh more than bread and keep sliding over. Bookends can cure this problem.
One idea for easy do-it-yourself bookends is to use antique recipe boxes filled with something relatively heavy, like a small bag of rice or beans. I have a couple recipe boxes my grandmother gave me, and they fit the bill perfectly (see below.)
You can usually find those types of recipe boxes at thrift stores, but any box of about index card size will work, and you can decoupage food art or vintage advertisements to make them look more old-timey.
For holding up cookbooks, nothing can make a less obtrusive bookend than a recipe box that belongs in the kitchen anyway.