If you’re looking to make an old looking letter, make a sketchbook or bind a nostalgic looking journal, then you’ll want to learn how to stain paper with coffee.
This article offers you a quick guide:
What do you need to stain paper with coffee?
1) Mug, tray or bowl
If you’re brushing the coffee onto your paper, a mug is a convenient way to prep your coffee. If you’re planning to soak the entire paper, use a wide tray or a bowl.
2) Coffee
Any coffee works for paper staining. Popular options include: instant coffee, ground coffee and used coffee pucks.
Instant coffee dissolves quickly and provides a darker shade of coffee liquid. If you’re going for a lighter shade, you can simply dilute your coffee liquid down or use lesser instant coffee granules.
Ground coffee is similar, but takes a comparatively longer time to extract. Likewise, you can dilute it down to reduce the shade.
My personal favorite is to upcycle used coffee grounds. They are generally lighter in color and can take a longer time to extract the colors, but they allow you to build on the lighter shade to create a wide variety of patterns and layers. And, it’s the most environmentally friendly option you can choose.
How much coffee to use?
This depends on how dark you’d like your coffee stain paper to be. For a start, here’re some references
- Instant Coffee: 2 teaspoons in 300ml (~10oz) of water
- Ground Coffee: 2 tablespoons in 300ml (~10oz) of water
- Used coffee grounds: 7 tablespoons in 300ml (~10oz) of water
A simple rule of thumb is to use twice the amount you’d usually use when you’re brewing your morning coffee. teacoffee99.com recommends using about 1 tablespoon (heaped) of ground coffee when you’re brewing with a French Press.
If you’re not sure how much liquid you need, simply fill up the vessel that you’d be using to hold the coffee with water. Then use that water to make your coffee liquid.
3) Paper: how to choose the paper
Most papers would work. Your choice of paper depends on what you wish to use it for.
If you plan to make a simple monthly calendar, then you could go for thicker paper. If you’re bookbinding a journal, you may want to go for thinner paper.
Here’re some of the most popular options:
- Printer Paper (~80 gsm): These are paper you buy in reams and use to print wherever you need to at home. These tend to soak up coffee fast.
- Lined Notebook paper (~60 gsm): These are great if you’re planning to make a journal with your stained paper. You should be extra careful when working and soaking these as they tend to rip apart rather easily.
- Artboard Paper (~120 gsm): These tend to take a longer time up coffee but would be less fragile during the staining process. You can use these to make greeting cards.
The general rule of thumb is; the thinner the paper, the shorter the soak time. (and the more fragile it’ll be when the paper is wet).
You should also remember that the stained paper would not be more rigid and not perfectly flat. These properties would affect the thickness of your eventual book or project.
4) Brushes
Use a brush or a sponge brush for greater control over your staining.
5) Hairdryer
This will come in handy if you wish to speed up the drying process of your stained paper.
6) Trash bags, old newspapers or used magazines
These can be used to cover your table or floor to protect those surfaces from the coffee. They also help to make the clean up process a breeze.
How to stain paper with coffee, by soaking
If you’re looking to stain larger pieces of paper or in bulk, then you should give this method a go:
i) Prepare your coffee
Simply add water to your coffee and wait for 3 to 10 minutes, depending on the type of coffee you use and how dark you’d like your coffee liquid to be.
If you’re using instant coffee, all you need to do is to dissolve the coffee granules and you’re good to go.
While waiting, prep your paper.
Explore different patterns by creasing your paper while you wait. The creases tend to retain more coffee, creating an interesting pattern.
If you’re using coffee grounds, you’ll need to remove the grounds before you proceed. You can use a metal sieve or a coffee sock to do this.
ii) Soak your paper
Transfer your coffee liquid to a large tray that your paper can fit into.
Submerge your paper in the coffee liquid, give it about 30 seconds for the fibers to soak up the coffee.
iii) Dry your paper
Remove your paper from the coffee liquid. Let excess liquid drip off the sides.
To speed up the drying process, you can press the paper between two cloths or use a hair dryer.
Once it’s dried, you can use the paper for your next bookbinding project.
Or, you could:
[Optional] Double dip to create interesting patterns with your coffee
Double dipping creates layers and interesting patterns when the paper is dried.
Let your creative run free and explore different patterns using a variety of tools. For example, you could dip a brush into the coffee and splay droplets of coffee liquid onto the paper. You could also use a sponge to transfer the coffee for a cloud-like pattern. The options are limitless!
How to stain paper with coffee, by brush
If you’re looking to age a paper and are going for a more natural look, this may be something worth exploring. Also, using a sponge brush gives you greater control over the coffee liquid, allowing you to create and explore even more patterns and effects on your stained paper.
i) Prepare your coffee
Simply add water to your coffee and wait for 3 to 10 minutes, depending on the type of coffee you use and how dark you’d like your coffee liquid to be.
If you’re using instant coffee, all you need to do is to dissolve the coffee granules and you’re good to go.
While waiting, prep your paper.
Explore different patterns by creasing your paper while you wait. The creases tend to retain more coffee, creating an interesting pattern.
ii) Brush your coffee liquid onto your paper.
Dip your sponge brush into the coffee liquid and wet the edges of your paper according to how you’d like the final product to look.
iii) Dry your paper
Once you’re done, it’s time to dry the paper.
To speed up the drying process, you can press the paper between two cloths or use a hair dryer.
Once it’s dried, you can use the paper for your next bookbinding project.
How to keep your coffee stained papers flat?
If left to dry on their own, coffee stained papers will wrap as the fibers contract.
There are two common ways to flatten your coffee stained papers.
1) Flatten them after drying
I think the easiest method is simply to place your batch of dried coffee stained papers under a heavy weight overnight. That usually does the trick for me. They’ll usually be good to go the next day and you can immediately use them in your bookbinding project.
2) Keep them flat while drying.
Place the stained paper between cloth and press it down with a weight while it dries.
Leave it under the weight for a couple of days, preferably under the sun.
After a couple of hours (3-4hours) under the sun, you can remove the paper, clip it on a hanger and let it air dry completely before you use it.
If you’re rushing for time, you could oven dry the paper while pressing it under a weight. Just make sure whatever you’re using is oven safe!
How to dry your stained papers?
There are three common methods:
i. Air dry
Simply leave your paper under the sun or somewhere warm. Give it a couple of days to dry off naturally.
ii. Oven bake
If you’re impatient, you can bake the paper in an oven at 200°F (94°C) for about 10 minutes. Oven baked paper tends to feel more crisp (especially if you’ve overdone it) and look darker.
iii. Use a hairdryer
This is only suitable for smaller pieces of thin paper. Otherwise, you’d be blowing your paper for the entire day.
Simply blow hot air over your paper to speed up the drying process.
If you prefer to learn visually, here’s a good tutorial that I referred to when I was exploring paper staining:
Start Staining Your Papers with Coffee!
I hope this guide has given you the courage to start paper staining. Give it a go and you’ll open up a new world of materials that you can play with in your future bookbinding projects too.
And don’t limit yourself to just coffee. Try different stains for a variety! If you have some butterfly pea flowers or rose buds, give those a try!