When we come back from holiday, we instantly want to share it with anyone and everyone. Our family and close friends will likely have a genuine interest. Other friends and acquaintances will be politely tolerable, but unless it was some amazing adventure, this welcome will likely wear out fast. Some even can’t contain themselves in the arrivals lounge, swarming person after person with “So where have you just come back from? We’ve just come back from _____”.
But hey, it’s your holiday! You’re allowed to be excited! On top of these stories that will become family lore for a very long time, you likely accumulated several other pieces of memorabilia. Be it little ornaments you picked up, or just a mass of photos, you now need to figure out where to put them all.
This brings up an interesting question from an interior decorating POV - what is the best way to include this tricky items into your home? Most decorating schemes don’t lend themselves naturally to tropical oases or arctic vistas, so the trick to all of it will be finding the best medium between the room in question, and the holiday item you intend to display. So here are our best tips, going room to room.
Living Room
Living room pictures tend to be quite big. This could mean big portraits, or canvas prints. So big pictures are likely the best way to go with vacation decoration. If you have been somewhere particularly photogenic, with lots of big outdoor photo potential, they are ideal for canvas prints. African Savannah, vast jungles, coastlines seen from a boat - all of these make for great, eye grabbing pieces. The canvas print will also pull it away from the old, stereotypical “holiday photo” cliches (more on those later).
Something you may want to do if you intend on travelling a lot is buying a cabinet devoted entirely to storing holiday trinkets. Best served as a corner display stand (making it purely aesthetic), it can actually help curtail your ornament buying. If you limit yourself to only one item per holiday, not only will you then have a nice theme within the cabinet, but you’ll be saving money by not buying up the entire gift shop!
Kitchen
Kitchens are a great place for bigger holiday ornaments. You may already hang pots and pans on the wall, so why not some of the big ticket items you brought? For example, if you dabble in the age old uniquely British obsession of buying ceramic plates, there is no more perfect place to store/display them than in your kitchen. You could even devote an entire shelf to them!
Of course, there is the matter of the other unique British obsession - fridge magnets. If you feel they may be perceived as a little tacky, try utilising a similar set up to the ceramic plates, my turning them into a “collection”. One or two fridge magnets look odd, but 10 from all across the world brings a certain “globe trekking” appeal.
Bathroom
So far, we haven’t mentioned pictures that feature yourself or your family in them. These are perhaps the hardest obstacle to clear, outside of maybe the giant wicker donkey (there is no design scheme in the world that can make that look dignified). Just as people eventually tire of holiday stories, they will eventually tire of generic holiday pictures.
So the way to beat this is to put them in a room that no visitor will spend a lot of time in. The bathroom is ideal for this. Here, pictures you your family on a beach or jet-skiing are perfectly acceptable. In fact, if you are already using beach colours in your bathroom, these pictures only accentuated this theme further still. Be picky though - pick pictures which are appropriate (the “dressed up nice for a meal” family photo isn’t a great choice, for example), tasteful, and in frame befitting the decor style.
Bedroom
Finally, we’ll deal with a room removed, for the most part, from visitors to your home. In your bedroom, you can afford to have the more sentimental pictures. The family all watching the sunset. Everyone enjoying that great day out to the theme park. Everyone posing in front of the Statue of Liberty. The only tip we really have here is to pick the photos that mean the most to you, or the ones that make you smile every time you see them. You want your bedroom to be personable, and this is a great way to add to that.
If you do fancy yourself as a world traveller, consider investing in a globe. Not just any globe though - go for one that allows you to mark off where you have been. There are some that allow you to colour in countries, and others that are covered in scratchable foil. Now you have a novel ornament to help you keep track of your holiday exploits!
