daybed // sarah sherman samuelBringing personal touches into a home is always high on my priority list when designing spaces for myself and for others. One of my favorite ways to do this is to incorporate artwork created from memories or photos that mean something to me and Shutterfly makes it super easy. Whether you are looking to get your house ready for the holidays or are wanting to put a personal touch in your space as a fall update, they have so many options.

daybed // sarah sherman samuel As we are getting ready for a baby and all the family that will be visiting over the holidays, I turned to Shutterfly to warm up our home for the fall. A few posts back I talked about how I am converting our family room/playroom into the new nursery but the room is still very much a central part of the home, so we don’t want it to look too different from the style of the rest of the house. Above is the first glimpse at how that is starting to come together. We brought in that vintage daybed and fully utilized one of my favorite rules for fall decorating which is to layer on the pillows! The more the merrier.

I used artwork straight from my sketchbook from Rupe and I’s trip to Amangiri (I will forever be inspired by that place). The colors of the desert are perfect for this time of year and if you look back at my photos, the patterns I created were inspired by the landscape and architecture of and around the one-of-a-kind resort.

I just took photos of my sketchbook pages to create digital artwork from my sketches. Shutterfly makes it super simple to upload your own artwork or photos with a click of a button. They carry 4 different pillow sizes and I was able to upload all my patterns and then came the fun part, picking and choosing which art goes on what size.

The other great thing about creating your own personal artwork and marrying it to product with Shutterfly is that with all the different product options they carry you can sprinkle memories all around the house. You also don’t have to be a designer to create these products, really anyone can do it. Woven blankets are one item on their site I hadn’t seen before so I was really excited to get one made to add extra warmth and texture for the cooler months.

And coasters are also perfect little blank canvases that are useful to have around the house for all the holiday entertaining. They would make a great personalized holiday gift for your favorite hostess too! To create these, I used the same artwork files I uploaded for the pillows and simply scaled them down to fit on the coaster.

Swapping out your bedding and throw pillows is another easy way to give your home a little fall update and when it comes to printing your own patterns I like to keep a few tips in mind.

  1. Create a fairly limited color palette so all the patterns easily work well together.
  2. Play with the background colors. Have some with a dark background and some with a light background for contrast.
  3. Vary the scale of the patterns. As you can see above one pattern has a lot of negative space and small shapes, another has lines that fill the pillow and another has two large graphic shapes. By varying the visual weight of the patterns it adds interest and flow as opposed to all the same scale pattern.

I hope this helps you get excited to personalize and update your own home for the season and stay tuned for the full nursery/family room reveal.

Additional Sources: Daybed is Vintage from Elsie Green // Rug is from Esalerugs.com // Rocking Chair from West Elm // Bedroom Sconces from Cedar and Moss

Thank you to Shutterfly for sponsoring this post. As always all thoughts and ideas are my own.

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