While some homeowners are happiest when they’re cozily wrapped up at home, others find joy by traveling around the world. But after the latest trip is finished, even the most travel-obsessed of us needs a place to call home. For a home that shows off your wanderlust, here are a few creative ways to incorporate geography into your home aesthetic.
If you love to travel, you most likely already incorporate photographs of the far-flung people and places you know around your home. Photos are a fantastic way of showcasing your passion for the world, so continue to display the latest and greatest of your vacation snaps anywhere you like. We especially love the idea of gallery walls and oversized prints to draw attention in living and dining spaces. You can take this decorative homage one step further by framing maps of your favorite places or hanging a personalized carving of the coordinates closest to your heart. Because if home is where the heart is, you just may have more than one.
Display souvenirs
When most people return from a trip to an exotic location, they usually bring back two types of things: photographs and souvenirs. If you’ve followed our advice above, your photos should already be hanging on your walls as visual reminders of your travels, so you can now turn your attention to the treasures you collected abroad. Trinkets, heirloom pieces, handcrafted artwork, and other pieces from your favorite places around the world make exquisite decorative accessories and talking points for your home. If you haven’t already, consider starting a collection of one specific item taken from each place you visit so you can display them from your travels. A rock or sand collection from around the world sorted into a glass display box or mason jars will be a stunning addition near any of your home windows.
Get crafty with maps
Whether or not you have a favorite destination or locale to display, you can easily bring your love of geography into your home by incorporating maps into your home decor. Paper maps or globes can easily be repurposed into any number of things, including blinds, wall hangings, and pendant lamps. You can also easily print maps of any location onto textiles such as cushions, bedding, or even wallpaper to decorate your home. If you decide to make your own map decor, you can select original, vintage, illustrated, or hand-painted styles to mirror your own decorative preferences at home.
Embrace worldly design
One of the best ways to tackle home decoration is by choosing a theme and sticking to it. If you love to travel—or if you have a particular affinity for one or two places in the world—you can easily incorporate design elements common to those particular areas in subtle and tasteful ways throughout your home. Patterns and color schemes are particularly evocative, so be bold and choose a theme that really showcases the places you love. Worldly style is on-trend right now (with bright color palettes and Brazilian-inspired prints topping the lists of many design professionals), so don’t hesitate to fill your home with bold greens and yellows or tribal and geometric patterns.
Decorate your kids’ rooms
In some ways, incorporating geography into your kids’ rooms is easier than the rest of the house. Geography-themed rooms are particularly useful for children, since they are all about learning something new and experiencing the world around them. Kids’ bedrooms and playrooms alike can be decorated with large wall maps (dotted with pins showing the places they’ve been), globes, toys from around the world, wall decals, and even magnetic maps to invoke a passion for geography and the outside world. If you want to further develop this love in your kids, there are tons of geography and global studies-focused toys, art supplies, and other learning tools available that will leave your kids’ room fully stocked for years to come.
Kaitlin Krull writes for Modernize, a website with the goal of empowering homeowners with the expert guidance and educational tools they need to take on big home projects with confidence.