My Coffee Table Book Obsession

Do you ever wonder how long interior design magazines have been around?

I do.

I haven’t yet found the answer to that question, but I do know with nearly 100% certainty that for as long as interior design magazines have been around, they’ve shown off beautiful coffee table books.

I’m obsessed with coffee table books.

I love them.

I’m convinced that it is impossible for coffee table books to ever go out of style.

I love the glossy paper, the beautiful photos, the oversized pages, the short snippets of writing. All of it. I love that coffee table books are basically constantly changing art galleries, bringing beauty, color, and interest to my home.

The thing is, coffee table books can get expensive. A few years ago, I decided I needed to come up with a way to fuel my addiction that didn’t involve taking out a second mortgage to pay for them and a storage container to house them.

Eventually, I found my solution. Whenever I traveled, I would buy a coffee table book to memorialize my trip, and we would always sign the inside.

On a trip to Hilton Head in 2018, I ran into Barnes and Noble and grabbed a book of Annie Leibovitz portraits I’d been wanting. We wrote “Hilton Head, May 2017,” inside the front cover. Along with the rest of us, the boys, who were just a few years old at the time and could barely hold a pencil, added their own sweet scribbled names.

In 2019, on a trip to San Diego, we bought another book signed it, and I loved seeing the boys’ signatures get a little better.

When I went to the Bahamas with my best friend Lindsey, I bought a big, beautiful book about plants. Inside, we wrote Baha Mar, May 2019,“ and signed Jessica and Lindsey. Every time I see the book, I remember our tropical trip. It was the best week!

I love having something sentimental that reminds me of my travels, the people I love best, and the memories we all made together.

Coffee table books are the perfect way to create beautiful spaces in your home while also making sure you don’t have an over-cluttered collection of trinkets from your travels.

And that’s why I love them!

Make sure you check out next week’s blog, where I’m sharing my favorite coffee table books of all time, complete with links!