A few months ago, I shared Five Ways to Display Your Travel Finds at Home. Since many of us have been staying in more than usual right now, I’m back this month with five more!
I work from home as it is, so that specific part of the last ten weeks hasn’t felt very different for me. That said, I’ve been trying more than ever to keep myself busy with projects in my down time in a small effort to keep myself sane and have a positive place to focus anxious energy.
Usually trip planning is my go-to soothing activity. But since thinking about and planning for travel just doesn’t feel the same right now (even hypothetically), crafting and apartment updates have turned into my main outlet.
Some of this has been inspired by the A Beautiful Mess podcast, which I’ve been listening to recently and have found a lot of comfort in. If you’re interested in interior design, creative processes, career blogging, short term rentals, DIYs, working with family, app development, and/or women owned businesses (this list could go on), you should definitely check it out!
The first post in this series focused on displaying paper finds – maps, prints, paintings, ticket stubs, postcards, handwritten notes, etc. – and you’ll find that theme continued here. Paper goods are a favorite for me for many reasons: they’re unique, they’re easy to bring home, they speak to specific aspects of a place and culture, and they’re often budget-friendly.
Let’s get started!
Five More Ways to Display Your Travel Finds at Home
1 | Washi Tape Gallery Wall
Gallery walls have become a big favorite for me, but it can be daunting choosing how you’d like your items arranged and making a lot of holes in your wall, only to potentially decide afterward that a totally different layout would look better.
That’s why washi tape gallery walls are so great – they’re low risk and it’s easy to experiment to your heart’s desire until you’ve found a look you really like. And there’s a lot of inspo out there!
For this space in our hallway, I enlisted the help of my mom (who can figure out how to do anything and has been helping me tackle random projects for as long as I can remember) to carefully take apart my copy of Paris versus New York: A Tally of Two Cities by Vahram Muratyan. (It definitely felt a little sacrilegious taking a book apart – that said, I love having so many of the pages on full time display now. It was for a good cause!)
I used this tape to hang them, initially creating a full frame around each piece but then deciding several weeks later I preferred one small piece at the top of each one instead. (Yes, it was pretty tedious making that change. But again, that’s the fun of something as forgiving and flexible as washi tape! Plus, I’ve had plenty of time.)
Another great part of a washi tape gallery wall: affordability. Framing can be really pricy, especially when you’re decorating multiple rooms, so using washi tape is a great way to save here and there.
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2 | Picture Ledges
Picture ledges are another great way to display artwork at home without having to commit to placement. Once you have the ledge hanging, you can easily switch out the prints and get a totally different look every time. (You’ll find flexibility is a running theme in this post.)
Our picture ledge is from Ikea.
3 | Pants Hanger Gallery Wall
I saw this idea on Pinterest a long time ago and I love the clean, somewhat industrial look. This is another option where you can easily change out the artwork whenever you’d like. You could also customize your hangers with paint or stain.
These bread prints are not a travel find, but illustrations from a 1970s UK book called Use Your Loaf by Ursel and Derek Norman. I just love the illustrations and thought they would be perfect hanging above our tea cart.
For this gallery wall, I used these wooden hangers from Target. They were a little trickier to work with than I expected – some of them had too large of a gap to properly grip the pages, so I used strips of scrap paper to add enough thickness to get them to stay put.
I had a few hangers left over after this project and I couldn’t even get them to hold clothing due to the same grip issue – so I wouldn’t necessarily recommend this model, but there are a lot of others out there!
This option from Ikea is budget-friendly and has more metal than wood if you prefer that look.
4 | Pegboard
I absolutely love pegboards as a design and organizational element. We hung this one by our front door to have a dedicated space for items like keys, sunglasses, outgoing mail, and headphones. The board’s add-on accessories are perfect for displaying postcards or small prints, adding form to function.
Ours is from Ikea. I also love these – the color options are amazing!
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5 | Glitter Photo Frames
This is one of the next DIYs on my list. It’s from A Beautiful Mess (mentioned above). I’ll update this post with photos once I’ve given it a try.
Bonus | Temporary Wallpaper and Wall Decals
This last one isn’t as much a way to display travel finds, but more so to incorporate elements of a favorite destination into your home.
I rent, so there’s only so much I can do with my physical space (although Cyn at Hot Pink Pineapples, another recent inspiration source, has found some really innovative and beautiful ways to temporarily customize her rental).
I’ve been so tempted to try removable wallpaper, and I know there are a lot of advocates for it out there. In the end I felt too nervous that it wouldn’t go well or that we’d have a hard time removing it when we leave. As a baby step, I found these wall decals from Kenna Sato Designs on Etsy and grouped them together in the hope that it would still have somewhat of a wallpaper effect.
I love Scandinavian design and these were a fun way to bring more of that aesthetic into our space. I don’t think the finished look is as impressive as actual wallpaper would be (lower risk, lower reward!) but I like it for now.
If you are interested in wall decals, there are so many choices in the shop I used and they are really high quality.
How do you display your travel finds at home? What design trends or DIYs have you been loving lately? Let me know in the Comments!
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