One of the best things about traveling is the memories you create along the way. Whether it’s visiting world famous cultural sites and attractions, eating great food, or the wonderful people you meet, taking your memories home with you so that you can always remember and relive your trips whenever you want makes traveling even more special.
Incorporating your travel memories into your home decor is a creative way to keep your trips alive and bring a little of the outside world into your everyday life. Here are some tips and decorating hacks you can use to decorate your home with your travel memories.
Print your pictures
This may seem like an obvious suggestion and something of a no-brainer, but in the age of Instagram and digital photography, chances are high that the glorious sunset shot or beautiful family picture where everyone was looking at the camera at the same time and actually smiling will probably stay in your phone for the rest of eternity.
There are many services available that will not only print and fram your digital images for you, but you can also have them scanned onto mugs, pillows, towels, fabric, or just about any surface you can think of! Pro tip: set yourself a calendar reminder for a few weeks after your trip and block out some time to go through your images and select the ones you’d like to send off for printing.
Play with aromas and scents from your travels
Decorating with pictures and visual images like posters and art are the simplest and most common ways to capture and immortalize your travels, but they only tell part of the story. The sense of smell is a powerful trigger in evoking memories, and every place you go has its own unique aromas and odors that can take you back with a simple whiff!
Maybe your hotel or Airbnb carried products that smelled like lavender or citrus, you took a ski trip and miss the fresh mountain air, or you can still smell the flavors of the local food and the spices that went into the cuisine. Replicating the (pleasant) smells from your travels can be the next best thing to actually being in a specific place!
Some of the many ways that you can incorporate specific scents into your home decor include:
- Candles
- Essential oils
- Detergent and room sprays
- Flowers
- Spice jars
- Perfume
Playing with scent and infusing your home with aromas that conjure happy memories can bring your travels back home with you and improve your mood and emotional wellbeing.
Play with color and texture
Maybe you woke up to the sun rising over the ocean in a bright, airy room at a resort in the Caribbean, or enjoyed the gothic architecture and decor of a castle in Eastern Europe, complete with heavy velvet drapes and dark, luxurious rugs. While you don’t have to redecorate and repaint your home every time you get back from a trip, replicating the colors and textures that you loved about where you stayed is a great way to bring a little local color back home with you.
Keep in mind that frames and walls aren’t just for pictures. Besides using colors by painting a wall, a room, or even an alcove or frame in a shade that reminds you of your favorite place in the world, you create the same effect with curtains, or by framing fabrics and textures that evoke your hotel room or favorite museum.
Even a simple shower curtain or set of towels can be enough to recreate that glorious feeling of waking up and remembering your vacation every morning!
Decorate with books
A bookcase can actually double as shelf and display space for souvenirs like sculptures, picture frames, framed textiles, or just about anything that you pick up on your travels. Books, maps, magazines, and even a framed newspaper article can evoke your travel memories while also livening up your living space. Books can also be used to decorate other areas of your home, so you don’t have to limit yourself to the bookcase in your living room, check out Home of Cozy for more furniture and design ideas. You can spread them around throughout your living space to evoke different moods, color schemes, and trips.
Pro tip: if you don’t have the extra luggage space or don’t want to add the extra book weight to your suitcases for the trip home, make a list of the volumes that catch your eye while on vacation and order them online when you get back home.
