If you’ve always had a penchant for traveling, you can channel your globetrotting energies with wanderlust-inspired themes, finds and color palettes. You can dress your entire home in one travel theme or confine it to a bedroom or a corner of your living room. Taking inspiration from places on your bucket list will liven up your home with surprising flavors from different cultures.
French Revival
- Top your bedside table with a beautiful, Eiffel Tower print.
- Stick removable vinyl decals with Paris-inspired doodles above your bed.
- Deck the walls of your kid’s bedroom with illustrations of popular French characters Madeline or Babar the Elephant.
- Upholster a neo-Baroque chair with contemporary fabrics in fun colors and patterns.
- Decorate your dresser with French-brand perfume bottles, strands of pearls (faux or not!) and vintage accessories for your own little version of Coco Chanel’s atelier.
India Explosion
- Set the mood with tea lights and candles by the dozen.
- Use shocks of pink and oranges, with touches of cooler blue-greens and bright yellows for your curtains, upholstery and linens.
- Decorate your sofa with pillows in jewel tones and gold-colored highlights.
- Add a Buddha to welcome guests in your foyer.
- Cover your floors with carpets in rustic patterns.
Scandinavian Simplicity
- Paint your walls in eggshell-white to get the modern, minimal and clean design aesthetic.
- Use fine, wood planks in light, natural finishes.
- Add cool blue or gray accessories—a blanket casually thrown over a sofa or sheer window curtains provide softness to stark backdrops.
- Scour thrift stores for basic wooden furniture with minimal ornamentation.
Asian Tropical Retreat
- Bring in potted tropical plants.
- Choose furniture in linear, modern shapes done up in natural weaves and fibers.
- Minimize clutter in your bedroom by stashing items or magazines in wicker baskets that you can slide into an open shelf or hide underneath a wooden bed frame.
- Add louvers and shutters onto your windows to let light and air flow easily.
- Use sliding glass panels or flowy fabrics to make subtle separations between the different parts of your home.
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Have any home and organizing questions for the author? Email her at chinggaylabrador@yahoo.com
Chinggay Labrador is a freelance writer and stylist, contributing articles on beauty, lifestyle and design to local magazines. Her background in architecture has her profiling trends and homes throughout the region. A travel junkie who likes to frequent Japan and Korea, Chinggay is the former editor-in-chief of Sparkling, a quarterly K-Pop publication and is also the author of “Popped and Popped, Too,” books based on the fun, frivolity and friendship centered on Korean Pop music.
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