Thank you, Mixbook Photo Co. for sponsoring this post. All opinions are my own. 

I have a problem, a photo problem. Are you like me? I want a picture of every moment. Every. Single. Experience. Some people don’t get why I have such an obsession with photos. I’ve always been in love with visual things – art, nature, the sky. Now that we all have cameras in our purses and back pockets, I often feel like I’m bombarding myself with photos, so many of which get lost in the mix of yet another iPhone pic. Sure, social sites like Instagram do help us express our photography and share our favorite photos, but I often feel like I don’t get to cherish them as much as I want to or ought to. I miss the simpler days of film photography.

Do you remember that moment when you’d go to pick up your photos from the photo shop? I distinctly remember that anticipation. I’d hold my breath, hoping that perfectly staged photo in front of the capital building with my favorite friends turned out just perfect. Sometimes it did, but many times it didn’t. Pictures somehow felt like they had more value back then – something about the printing process and the act of physically holding them.

Fast forward nearly two decades, and we just don’t print pictures anymore. I can’t tell you the last time I printed a photo. In some ways, that is a technological miracle – that we can hold so many memories in our phones, in the cloud, on our social sites, but there is something to be said to holding it, feeling it, touching it.

I recently had the opportunity to collaborate with Mixbook Photo Co. to create a photo book. I racked my brain to come up with coffee table book ideas I’d be excited to create. Almost immediately, I decided to create a travel photo book. I wanted to capture all of the amazing adventures I’ve had over the past few years. Leaving my job in Phoenix was tough. I not only got to travel to Africa, South America, Europe and all over the U.S., I also met and worked with some of the most amazing, truly inspiring, people.

Despite not being there anymore, and moving on to an amazing opportunity in Boston, I still miss my work and the relationships I built. Creating a travel coffee table book felt like the perfect way to savor all of those beautiful places I visited. If you’re thinking about coffee table book ideas for your own life, Mixbook Photo Co. offers a lot of different book templates including, Travel, Wedding, Baby, Family, Seasonal, and more.

Plus, the process of creating a coffee table book on the Mixbook site couldn’t be simpler. You can follow these 6 steps to create your own.

6 Steps to Create the Perfect Coffee Table Book

1. Select a Theme

First, you need to decide what kind of book you want to create. As I mentioned, Mixbook offers a lot of different templates to create whatever kind of book you’d like. You’d probably want to think about how many photos you have and what would fit nicely in a book. My book is about 30 pages. Mixbook does offer options with many more pages, if you have a lot of photos. I’m actually considering creating books for each of my kids since so many of my pictures are on my phone, various computers, and on social media sites. The idea of having their first several years of life in one book sounds like something I’d love and I know they’d love it too.

2. Choose a Template

Mixbook has a lot of really gorgeous templates. I chose the Travel book I chose because I just liked the front cover and how modern it felt. Once I started creating the book, I also fell in love with all the little touches on the inside. As I mentioned, they have a lot of different book options. You can create a book to keep your wedding photos in one place, or a yearly baby book for your children. There are so many fun options and the process is so simple.

3. Include Quality Photos

Probably the most important part of the process is to use quality photos. According to Mixbook’s website, photos need to be in .jpg format. For best print quality, photos should be at least 4MB at 300 dpi. The maximum file size at this time is 15MB. Files are recommended to be in sRGB profile, but CYMK files are accepted as well. They also recommend for you to make any edits or color corrections prior to uploading your photos. If you have any other questions in the process, you can check out their help page.

4. Personalize It

For me, the best part of the process of creating my own coffee table book was getting to personalize and edit the book. I added pages, changed some of the colors and texts, etc. I really tried to personalize it while keeping it really modern-feeling. I didn’t include very much text because I really think the pictures speak for themselves, but you do have the option to add text. You can basically do whatever you want to personalize it. If you don’t want to put much effort into creating the book, the site can do most of it for you, if you prefer. Also, if you run into any issues, you can chat with someone who will walk you through the process. I had trouble with one of the pages so I used the instant chat function and got my answer very quickly.

5. Choose the Right Options For You

When you’re done personalizing your book, it’s time to order it. There are a lot of different choices you can make at this stage, such as the size of the book, the paper quality, and glossy vs. matte pages, etc. I opted for 10×10 size, but they also offer as small as 6×6 and as large as 12×12. You can also choose a hard cover or soft cover, with various other options.

Once you’re ready to order, make sure you use my discount code to save 50%!

6. Share It

Now that you’ve created a beautiful coffee table book, you should share it. Keep it out so your friends and family can flip through it, or order one for them too! These coffee table book ideas also make really great gifts, especially for people in your life that mean the most. One time, I created a photo book for my parents for the holidays, and they absolutely loved it – all the pictures with their grandkids, it doesn’t get much better.

Creating my own coffee table book was a lot of fun. If you also feel like you don’t know what to do with all your pictures or you feel like you’re missing the chance to really enjoy them, then I’d highly encourage you to consider some of these coffee table book ideas for yourself too. Life is too short not to enjoy and relive our experiences while we make new ones.