15 Travel-Inspired Home Decoration Ideas for Travelers

If you’re an avid traveler like me, it’s inevitable that your home will showcase your love of travel. Being surrounded by framed photographs of your favorite travels—not to mention special souvenirs collected during your most meaningful journeys—can inspire happiness and a longing to book that next bucket list adventure. Amplify this wanderlust-infused lifestyle with home decoration accents that feature a travel twist. Here are some ideas.

1. Pushpin wall map

This is one of my personal favorites. Holy Cow Canvas produces customized canvas wall maps in variety of sizes and designs to blend beautifully into your home. Pushpins allow you to recount where you’ve been—and where you’re headed next. My family owns 2 of these: 1 featuring just the United States and 1 featuring the world. It’s always exciting for our family to add pins to these maps as we complete adventures and plan new ones.

2. Vacation countdown

A vacation countdown, like this from the Etsy shop Meep Rustic Home Décor & Gifts, will certainly get you revved up for your upcoming trip. Plus, it can be a bright spot on those days when nothing seems to be going your way—a reminder that you have a much-needed respite coming (hopefully) soon.

3. Freestanding globe

This is a must-have for a traveler’s living space. Replogle Globes has been making globes since 1930 and produces some of the best-quality globes on the market. It made our family’s globe, which is featured prominently in our living room. Ever since my daughter was a baby, she’s loved to spin it. Fast-forward just 4 years later: She is a bona fide toddler traveler, and I hope that our globe continues to inspire this emerging wanderlust.

4. Unique furniture: Vintage suitcases and travel trunks

If you’ve got vintage suitcases gathering dust in your attic or basement, repurpose them into a retro-chic coffee table or end table. If you’d rather purchase something professionally made, however, consider investing in the Ludlow line of furniture from Pottery Barn. Each piece is “inspired by the steamer trunks used in the golden age of steamboat travel.”

5. Travel inspired wallpaper and murals

Let your wallpaper tell a travel story. The Tours & Travels wallpaper from Rebel Walls has an adventure-meets-vintage vibe that screams, “Where are we going next?” Wallpaper can also help transport you back to your favorite destination. Some simple sleuthing on Google can turn up intriguing options, such as a Paris Wallpaper Mural from Hovia, a company that can customize a design to your wall space and even work with images that you’ve personally snapped.

6. Glass map knobs

Even the hardware on your cabinets and drawers can tell a travel story. Replace your old knobs with these customized map knobs from B*jeweled Vintage, a shop found on Etsy. Each pull-knob features a map image of a location of your choice under a crystal-clear glass dome. It’s a clever way to personalize a piece of furniture, a coat rack, or an entire kitchen.

7. Travel guidebooks as art

I’ve amassed a lot of travel guidebooks over the years. Instead of throwing them away once trips are completed, I’ve saved them so that they can be part of an ever-growing collection displayed in our home. In short: These well-loved books have found a second life as pieces of art. (They also inspire fond memories and are sometimes still used as reference guides.)

If you’re not into collecting travel guidebooks, keep it simple by placing one giant travel-themed book on your coffee table. My favorite: Lonely Planet’s The Travel Book: A Journey Through Every Country in the World. Guests will enjoy picking it up to browse, as will you.

8. Giant compass

The simplicity of a giant compass on an otherwise bare wall can subtly allude to travel and adventure. I personally love this motif within a minimalist setting of wood and steel.

9. Travel directional signs

If color and pop are more your style, however, a customized travel directional sign can highlight the places you’ve been—as well as the places you long to go. An Etsy shop such as SableSol—and several others—can specialize in making these fun decorative signs that can live inside or outside of your home.

10. World map shower curtain

Dream up your next adventure while in the bathroom. A world map shower curtain could be your travel muse.

11. Map-themed storage boxes

Stow away the clutter in these map themed storage boxes available on Amazon. They can provide an eye-catching focal point to a home office, living room, crafting room, or powder room.

12. Globe wine stoppers

Don’t neglect telling your travel story through kitchen items. Souvenir oven mitts and destination-shaped cutting boards are fun items to display in the kitchen, whether they were picked up as trinkets abroad or found on Amazon. My husband and I love our globe wine stoppers from the Etsy shop GroupTherapyWine.

When we open a bottle of wine together after a long day, this little item often inspires us to recall past travel adventures or muse on where we’re going next. It’s also a great conversation starter when we have guests over.

13. Travel-themed blanket

Curl up in the world. A vintage map blanket , such as this one made by the Etsy shop RektUniversal, is a beautiful way to add character to a living or bedroom space. You could also tap a company such as Shutterfly to customize a blanket to feature your favorite travel photo.

14. TV screensavers

Your television probably dominates at least 1 room in your home. Turn the screen into a slideshow of travel. YouTube TV, a popular streaming service, features numerous destination videos and slideshows set to music (which you can always mute). A simple keyword search within the app will pull up options for you to play on your television.

My family loves to find videos for destinations we’re about to explore and play it as background in our living room. Right now, we have slideshows of Scotland and Morocco on heavy rotation, as they are 2 upcoming trips we have booked.

15. Travel fund jar

Every single penny counts. Toss your spare change into this beautifully designed travel fund jar available from the Etsy shop All Sales Are Vinyl, and watch the savings (literally) add up. It’s a fun jar to place in prominent view. It will become a reminder to yourself and guests that coinage needn’t remain at the bottom of your purse or buried in the couch cushions—it can be applied toward future travel.

Now, with these travel-inspired home decoration ideas, you’re ready to add a splash of wanderlust to any room in your home.