Samantha Varvel for Petite Keep

Introducing my exclusive collaboration with Petite Keep! This collection of personalized Keepsake Trunks celebrates family, memory-making, and cherishing life's precious moments. Whether you use them to store your children's keepsakes, family mementos, or even your own personal or bridal heirlooms, these Trunks are thoughtfully crafted and designed to be cherished for years to come.

                                                 - Samantha Varvel

 

Inspired by her international upbringing and her mother’s timeless style, Sam’s collaboration with Petite Keep brings her personal touch to stunning, sentimental designs! We invite you to learn more about Sam below + this delightful collaboration we've created together. 

 

 

Hi Sam! Tell us a bit about yourself. How did you first discover your passion for art and design? As a mom of two and content creator, I’m always seeking out and cultivating beauty around me - in the everyday moments with my children, in the spaces we live, in the places we visit in our travels, and in the products we bring into our home. The desire to seek out and create beautiful things is something innate that has been with me since I was a child. Whether with a crayon, a paintbrush, or a camera, I’ve always found my passion in a creative setting. As an adult, that has translated into designing the world around me and I love that my job right now lets me do just that.

How did you take some of your passions, family memories, and love for travel and infuse them into this collaboration? Having grown up moving many times internationally, preserving memories from each place I lived and visited, the friendships I treasured and left behind, and the art I created, was always very important to me. This naturally translated into being passionate about preserving special items and memories for my children. As a mom I feel this is one of my most important jobs, “capturing” their childhood through photography and video to keep those memories alive, and taking care of the special physical items that I know will be meaningful to them once they are older.

When I began taking this role seriously as my children started to grow past their baby years, I came across Petite Keep and quickly fell in love with the quality of their beautiful trunks. I love that they allow me to store my family’s most precious memories in a vessel worthy of these special items. 

It was so excited to be able to work with Kate to design two custom patterns and I am so thrilled with how they turned out -- sophisticated yet whimsical all at once.

You've mentioned that Samantha's Songbirds and Kit's Butterflies are reminiscent of your family's French estate. Can you share more about how your family's traditions have shaped your aesthetic? As Kate and I were collaborating on ideas for the patterns, we both loved pears as both a beautiful design element as well as something sentimental to me, as my mother’s home in France “Le Mas des Poiriers,” or “The House of the Pear Trees” as a literal translation, is home to a working pear orchard. I love that my daughter’s precious keepsakes will be stored surrounded by a pattern that nods to a place that is a very special part of her childhood. 

I have always admired my mother’s sense of style and design more than anyone else’s. She has such talent creating beauty in everything she touches, in every home we lived in as children from Singapore to London to Connecticut and most recently France, she creates warmth and beauty in our homes and family culture and traditions. This has inspired my perspective on design more than anything else.

What do you look forward to storing in your Petite Keep Trunks for yourself and your children? I love storing my children’s most precious baby clothes, those worn on special occasions or that I know they will want to pass down to their own children one day. I also keep their hospital tags and hats, memories from birthday parties, and any special mementos from their childhood days.  

I have enjoyed moving my own personal items into a trunk of my own. Old journals, wedding albums, and items from my childhood that hold special meaning and never really had a place of their own are now kept safely in a beautiful Petite Keep trunk in my bedroom. I highly recommend one for anyone and everyone, regardless of whether you have children – your memories are valuable and should be preserved in a worthy place, too.

 

What are you keeping in your coordinating Petite Pouches? I love knowing that with the Petite Pouches special clothing items are protected, so I use them primarily for little baby clothes that I want to save from aging.

 Shop the limited edition collaboration now and be sure to follow Samantha here! xx!