If you are a serious traveller, the one who really likes to get knee-deep into the places you visit, then you might want your home to reflect your love of travelling. There are tons of travel-inspired accessories that you can incorporate into your decor.
Your furnishing, wall decor, and other details can all add up to giving you the feel of living in a “global” home. Here are a few suggestions for how you can go about doing just that.
Repurposing suitcases
Ever thought that the humble suitcase can be a decorative item? You will be amazed at the number of ways it can be used to add a quirky yet very artistic touch to your home.
Stacking up vintage suitcases in a corner is the done and dusted way. How about using them as a table? Don’t throw out that well-worn and beloved suitcase that has seen a lot of travel with you. Modify it a little, fix some legs, and voila! You have a perfectly usable table top! Or open the top of the suitcase, fit some nice cushions, and add legs and casters and you have your customised little chair. You could also convert them to pouffes and ottomans.
You can also use your suitcases as mini bookshelves, newspaper and magazine racks or a display stand. And so much more. See, we did tell you it’s versatile!
Maps
Maps are the lifeline of any traveller. But with the arrival of GPS-aided devices, good old paper maps have all but faded. Don’t be in a hurry to discard those old maps that you carried around with you everywhere, though, before you got your smartphone.
Let them serve as memories by being part of your home decor. Framing them is the simplest way. But there are so many other creative options.
Take a few candle glasses, and glue the maps around them. Get some small pots or wide-mouthed jars and do the same.
Use maps as letter or pen holders.
Glue some maps on to paper lampshades or convert them to fancy-looking paper fans. Put some maps up on the wall, and walk down memory lane by pinning a photo to each of the places you have visited.
Travel art wall
In the habit of picking up postcards from everywhere? You don’t have to keep them hidden away in your closet. String them together to form a big interconnected gallery and dedicate a wall to them.
You could even write a few words behind each one to relive a memory or two so that every time someone peeps behind, they have a smile on their faces. You could either go casual and hang them with clothes pegs or make it an elegant affair by threading string lights through. Or pick a few favourites, frame them, and put them up on the wall. You could do the same with travel photos too.
Souvenir corner
We all buy something or the other from our travels and, most often, it’s small knick-knacks. Create a corner in your home dedicated to keeping these items. Organise them on floating shelves. Perhaps a floor-to-ceiling case might work. Construct some wraparound shelving to create a more ergonomic effect.
You could also add a thumbnail-sized photo from the trip associated with each of the souvenirs and place it behind as a backdrop, if possible.
A piece of the world
While a lot of us bring back miniature collectables from our travels, many of us buy bigger accessories that can be integrated into home decor.
Coloured lamps from Turkey, masks from Africa or bamboo artefacts from Japan, are all beautiful parts of the world that you can bring into your home, and they also serve as great memories of your trip.
Memory jars
Have no souvenirs in particular that you bought from a trip? Well, you still have the shells you collected at the beach, that weird-shaped rock, ticket stubs to a special play you went to or the wrappers of a local toffee.
Anything counts as a souvenir. You don’t have to go to a touristy shop and hunt for them. Collect these small but precious items, group them into a mason jar with a photo of the place as the backdrop. That’s your little memory jar of the entire trip!
Liked our ideas? Do you have any of yours to share? Let us know in the comments below!
Great and an informative article!