When you take a vacation to somewhere unknown, exotic or simply different from where you live your daily life, there are a ton of adventures waiting to transpire. Maybe you enjoy seeing the architecture, tasting new foods, or hearing a different language. Maybe you just like the feel of a different culture or the experience of music and entertainment that is completely different from your own.
No matter what your reasons for loving to travel, it's a safe bet that you have some special way of remembering your adventures. Journaling, pictures, mementos, and purchases all have a way of bringing you back to a special vacation.
Once you've decided to use the inspiration of your travels in decorating your home, you'll have a plethora of fun decisions to make. In fact, just knowing that your travel purchases will be on display is bound to impact what you do buy on your vacations. Here are a few pointers on creating a travel inspired home.
1. Find inspiration. You may choose a theme for your entire home, or you may choose to have each room represent its own. You can also just go eclectic and have a color related theme or something less concrete. The reason for taking this on one room at a time is that you can choose a focal point and go from there. Maybe you brought home an amazing Oriental rug that will set the theme for your dining room. Or maybe you'll purchase an Adirondack chair to create a beach house room that reminds you of Nantucket. Whatever your focus, it will help you make the rest of your decisions without getting overwhelmed.
2. Cluster. If you have a fondness for buying a lot of small items, find a way to display them as a set, or rotate them on a display case. You may have more wooden carvings than you have room to display them. However, you can get away with displaying more of them if you arrange them as a special set on a shelf.
3. A use for everything. Try using some of your purchases for practical, but unexpected purposes. Maybe the wine bottles from your Paris trip can be filled with sand and used as bookends. Rugs can be hung as wall design, and that gorgeous Indian fabric can double as a table cloth. The limit is your imagination.
Some of your design choices may be purchases you made on vacation. Others like the Adirondack chair, some beach-like blinds or Asian inspired dividers might be inspired by your trip and the practicality of transporting goods overseas. The real fun of taking this approach to designing your space is that you're never really done with it.
Travelers see the world differently way from those content to stay on their front porches all their lives. Their front porches tend to reflect that. Let your space reflect your sense of adventure and be a reminder of the adventures you've had so far, and the ones yet to come.
By:Don Jacobson
