5 ideas for a travel-inspired interior

Love travel? Stockholmer Nor is a big traveller – for work, for fun, in groups and often on her own. When we spent a day at her place, we were struck by all the travel finds she’s brought into her one-room apartment and how good it all makes her feel. Try her tips and start bringing the world home.

Make a display of pictures and memories

Use Washi tape to create a collage on the wall, make a pinboard, or do like Nor and fix your pictures, cool bar coasters and mementoes to the fridge with magnets.

Give a home to found objects

Holiday souvenirs don’t have to be bought. Keep your eyes open to special finds, then craft them into something personal for your space – driftwood into a hanging mobile, feathers into dreamcatchers… One of Nor’s favourite travel finds is a rusty black pepper tin she found in the desert at Joshua Tree: ‘I look at it and wonder who had it before, how it ended up out there and I remember who I was with when I found it.’ 

Make a patchwork of patterns

Just like scent, colour and pattern are effective ways to evoke travel memories. Bring home a textile that catches your eye and weave it into your scheme at home – turn throws into wall hangings, layer up rugs or even frame fragments of material and display as art. 

Buy an everyday essential

If, as they say, ‘you use what you see,’ you could argue that you’re happy to see what you use. When you’re travelling, don’t just pick up ‘special’ things – think about picking up ordinary items like hats, coats and bags, things you use day to day – you’ll be less likely to stash them away in a cupboard.  

Collect local curiosities

Flea market-bought apothecary bottles, crystals, Mexican incense sticks called palo santos and curios like Nor’s birds (‘The princess parrot from Cambodia is my favourite, it looks so wise. I don’t buy new taxidermy – all of these are rescued old pieces from the 70s and earlier’)… If, like Nor, the mix of travel mementoes you bring home seems mismatched, turn them into a collection of their own by displaying them together.