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