Decorating a New Home? Consider These Travel Inspired Wall Decor Ideas
We’re all aching to travel right now; in fact, it can be difficult for many of us to think of anything but travel when it’s something that we’re currently unable to do. Hopefully, travel is in the near future with the advent of several different COVID-19 vaccines. But for now, most of us are unable to travel for pleasure. That means that you’ll need to find a different outlet for your love of travel than what you might have relied upon in the past. You may even want to get a bit creative. If you happen to be one of the millions of Americans taking the opportunity to build a new home while your ability to get out and about is on pause, that in itself could be a great way for you to pay tribute to your past travels and perhaps even your future goals. Everything from travel inspired wall decor to plants that echo places that you’ve been before could harken back to the places you love most in the world. You just need to think outside the box.
Of course, it’s all too easy to put off these more personal touches as you begin building a new house, and for understandable reasons. There are practical matters that you need to consider as you build a new house. You may need to focus on things like a garage door installation first, and tend to your travel inspired wall decor next. But it’s important for you to remember that there is more to building a new home than simply assembling the pieces. That will give you a house; details like decor, paint choices, and general aesthetic choices will help you turn that house into a home. And if you’re a travel enthusiast, why not show off your love of travel in the way that you decorate your home?
With that in mind, we’re going to make life a little bit easier for you by exploring some questions and ideas that surround creating a home inspired by travel. You don’t necessarily need to have a lot of trinkets from your past travels in order to make a home that pays tribute to travel; but if you do have souvenirs, why not bring them into your decor decisions? Even if travel is something that you’re more looking forward in the future, however, there are still a lot of options for you to choose from. So, while you make your list of practical issues that need taking care of as you build your new home, like getting in touch with cooling and heating services, we’ll dive into some of the ways that you can incorporate travel into your house.
Check Out Your Camera
One of the best ways that you can decorate your home with travel inspired wall decor is by having beautiful, high-quality photographs of your favorite locales hanging. A lot of people refer to professional photographers for photographs, although this can sometimes become quite expensive. Websites like Amazon also sell mass-produced photography prints, which may be less unique but are certainly no less beautiful. But you may actually have the perfect photographs for your walls already, sitting in your camera.
Whether you use a digital camera or a traditional camera with film, you should refer back to your old travel photos and think about what you can do with them in terms of creating your own travel inspired wall decor. Typically, this is going to entail having your photos professionally blown up and framed. Now, just because a photo looks beautiful in miniature doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily the right kind of photo for this process. You should have a number of photos that you’d like blown up in mind, and then narrow down your photos to a smaller list before making your final selections. Make sure that the photos you’re choosing are high resolution, with great lighting and clear imagery. Toss out any photos that have blurring, even if it seems minor; this will only be exacerbated when the photo is blown up. You should also be capable of transferring the photos to your computer, as this will be how you transfer them to a professional photo editing company.
Be careful when you’re making a decision about the company that you choose to work with. Some websites allow you to blow up photos on your own and then print them out on the paper or card stock that you wish to use. But generally speaking, if you’d like high-quality photos, you should send them to a professional company that can edit them as need be. These will be hanging on your walls, after all!
Look To Your Fabrics
What’s old is new when it comes to travel inspired wall decor! Look into your own souvenirs and think about what you can do in terms of turning them into wall decor. If you’ve been around the world, there’s no telling what you’ve picked up throughout your travels. One thing that a lot of people pick up as they travel are fabrics. Perhaps while you were in Morocco you bought a pashmina or rug at the famous markets of Marrakech. Both of these could be converted into wall hangings fairly simply. Colorful handmade rugs or small tapestry carpets can be made into beautiful wall hangings with relatively little expense and effort. Of course, as always when decorating your home you’ll want to make sure that you’re following EPA guidelines.
Once you’ve made the determination that the fabrics you’re using are safe to be hanged on the wall and won’t interfere with your heating or air conditioning, you can set forth with your travel inspired wall decor project. Believe it or not, this can be a lot easier than you would think. The Textile Museum, for example, actually prefers to use velcro to affix rugs to its walls. Even more heavy-weight rugs can be hanged on the wall with velcro; and this method won’t cause damage to the rugs themselves. Velcro tape can be stuck to your wall, though you may want to make sure that the tape you’re using won’t damage your paint job before working with it. The other side of the tape will then be sewn or hooked into the rug, with a piece attached to each corner of the rug for maximum efficiency. Theoretically, this method can be used to hang other types of fabric as well, although it may not be necessary for those that are thinner than rugs.
Curtain rods are also popular for thinner fabrics and rugs. Keep in mind that if a particularly valuable piece of fabric is being hanged, you should attach a piece of muslin to the fabric to act as a barrier between the curtain rod and the fabric itself. This will keep the fabric from being unnecessarily damaged. If you don’t care to show the fabric in full, this could be a somewhat simpler method for showing off your favorite fabrics and turning them into wall hangings. Make sure, as you install larger wall hangings like these, that you don’t accidentally obstruct any windows even partially. Wall hangings that are kept too close to windows or doors, as well as French doors, can sometimes fall and then accidentally obstruct these spaces. If wall hangings are placed directly in front of windows they can also become prone to sun damage.
Got Masks?
In a lot of countries, masks can be ceremonial or traditional. In some cases, they are not suitable to be used as travel inspired wall decor; you should always do your research about a particular belonging that you’re thinking of using as decoration to make sure that it is appropriate. But in many cases, masks are freely sold as souvenirs and sometimes even mass-produced, after which you should feel good about using them as decor. If you’ve ever been to Venice, where Carnevale is popular, you’ve probably taken home a mask. When working with a new homes construction company, you may already be envisioning how you’re going to turn your old masks into decorations; so, let’s find out how that will work!
Remember that some masks are heavier than others. If you have a mask that is made from wood, you’ll probably need to put a little bit more effort into making sure that it hangs properly compared to what you would do for a lightweight Venetian mask. A lot of masks come with ribbon or string, but that in itself is usually a little too fragile for hanging on the wall. Try replacing that with wire or cord in order to create a sturdier setup. You can then put a nail or hanger on the wall, and affix the mask there. Larger masks may require an actual metal mask hanger, which you can find at costume shops or online.
Of course, if you’re really concerned about keeping your mask as well-preserved as possible, you may want to go ahead and frame it. Framing your mask will allow you to look at it without worrying about it falling from its hanging or being damaged by curious visitors. A nice frame can also give your mask a bit more flair, and perhaps make it more of a centerpiece. If you don’t own any masks but would like to celebrate a country that you’ve been to that has a particular custom surrounding them, you can probably buy a mask online. Handmade, more traditional masks are often more expensive. But in the long term, they’re also worth it!
Framed Plants
Yes, you read that correctly: framed plants can act as great travel inspired wall decor pieces. Chances are that you didn’t bring plants home from your travels unless you were traveling domestically. But that doesn’t mean you can’t buy plants to commemorate your travels. Some of these you may want to plant in your yard. You can get some great ideas by working with a landscaping company to think of plants that are native to your favorite locales. But once you have enough blooms in place, you may want to pluck a few small samples from your garden and have them pressed. Once the plants are pressed, they can be framed.
This may be more of a long-term goal, and you might not be able to indulge in this kind of travel inspired wall decor until land surveying services have looked over your property, allowing you to plant what you would like. Typically, though, the process of pressing flowers and others plants is fairly simple. You just need to pick the flower that you would like to press, press it tightly between two sheets of absorbent paper, press a heavy weight on top of them, and wait until the flowers have become properly and fully pressed flat. You can then have the flowers placed against a background and framed.
Old Maps
Some of the best ways of commemorating your travels are by using maps as trave inspired wall decor. You may or may not be the type of person that uses old-fashioned maps when you’re traveling. But the fact is that you can still pick up these maps at rest stops or simply by ordering them online. So while you’re between getting in touch with a paving company for your new driveway and making sure your walls are painted on time, you may also want to have a map framed properly. You may even want to have your favorite places in the world circled on the map.
There are a lot of things that you can do to make your home feel more inspired by travel. Yes, it’s easy to get caught up in practicalities, like making sure that a locksmith service is making copies of your keys. But you don’t have to put a lot of effort into creating a beautiful home — just a bit of creativity!