Who doesn’t want to travel and see the world out there? Even if you could never imagine yourself leaving your town for a long time, deep down you would dream of being wanderlust sometimes. Just admit it, there’s nothing to worry about, it’s a safe place between us!
Whether or not you have traveled to other places and countries other than yours, you would want the euphoria to linger, the excitement of finding new things, meeting new people. What if we told you that you can actually make this come true?
Yep, YOU can bring a little bit of wanderlust into your own home. This way, you can relive the memories anytime even without the extra stamp on your passport. Newbies, this can get you closer to your wanderlust dream a little more.
Without further ado, let’s get to it! Here are 11 ways to bring wanderlust into your home!
1. Put up posters and photos on your walls
This is probably the simplest thing you can do to first. It’s time to scroll through your photo collection and print out some of the best that bring back great memories or encourage you the most to finally go out there. You can assign one wall to hang all the posters and photos, or you can also scatter them around the house: on the fridge, on nightstands, or even perhaps bring them into one collection and make a photo album for your coffee table. Besides channeling your inner wanderlust, this also works as house decoration. Two for one!
2. Decorate rooms with countries theme
While we’re at it, why not make the decoration even more by adding more details? For example, you can design your dining room with Japanese style. How about a tatami set of chairs and tables? Make it even more authentic with sliding paper doors!
Have you been dreaming of a beach getaway in the Maldives? Can we tease you with the idea of designing your bathroom with beach-like decoration? Instead of tiles and metals, how about using soft gravels and bamboo?
3. If detailed decoration is too much, use colors and prints instead
We get that besides money, detailed decorations, like the two points we mentioned before, can take a lot of time and effort to pull off. Especially if you’re not into details, it may not be worth it.
So, instead of going all out with details, how about just playing with colors and prints? So, instead of buying tatami chairs and mats, just paint your dining room with colors that represent Japan. Go for white with a touch of pink for Sakura and light brown and black for the Japanese traditional house.
4. Country themed dinner set
In addition to colors and prints, you can also turn your conventional dining room into a Japanese-style one with a Japanese-inspired dinner set. This works if you prefer plain wall paints but don’t mind with vibrant colors and prints on your household items such as a dinner set.
This white-with-strikes-of-pink set can be your choice to represent Sakura blossoms in Japan. Or perhaps some other patterns that take you back to places you have been? Better yet, you can buy the set from its origin country. Even though you cannot travel just yet, those pretty dinner sets can travel to you anytime. They are just one click away from your online shopping cart!
What do you think? Here are some more samples of dinner set to inspire you.
5. Fancy mugs and cups to show the guests
While your dinner set is for more intimate guests or bigger occasions, mugs and cups can be used anytime you’re receiving a guest at your house. These fancy mugs are way better than those “I Heart New York” cups! With these, you get to tell your traveling stories or plans subtly and with style.
Don’t entertain guests that much? Well, these mugs can serve you too! How about a relaxing evening sipping through your hot chocolate in one of these mugs? You can choose patterns and colors that represent Switzerland or Belgium to complement the chocolaty memories.
6. Cook or dine in for local dishes
Now that you have all the tools you need in the dining room, such as those dinner sets and mugs, let’s take it up a notch by involving your palate’s memories. A cup of Swiss hot chocolate is nice, but a set of Indian curry complete with Naan bread would be even nicer!
If you’ve been to India, this will bring back those memories as soon as the first Naan piece with curry dip touches your tongue. Hell, even the smell itself will do! If you haven’t been there, this can be a good practice to get acquainted with the unique dish.
You can do this with other countries too. Try out some spanakopita from Greece, risotto from Italy, nasi goreng from Indonesia, and many more! You can do these on special occasions once in a while, or even schedule it weekly like Sheldon from Big Bang Theory does!
7. Store some traditional goods
Not into big meals? How about some snacks or drinks? Yep, you can bring a touch of wanderlust even on simple things like these.
Dreaming of that cool-weathered southern Chile? Relive the memory through a glass of Chilean wine every now and then. You don’t have to import these from Chile yourself. Even stores in countries like Vietnam sell those.
So, put more thoughts on your next grocery list and store some international wanderlust-ish goods in your own home.
8. Bring back memories through incense
Besides taste, the odor can also bring back memories. In fact, for some people, the smelling sense is their strongest memory keeper.
If you’ve been to Bali, you know that distinctive aroma that welcomes you every time you step into a spa parlor or even your hotel. Those are actually from burning incense. This means you can bring Bali into your home by burning similar incense in your place.
9. Play themed ambiance music
Speaking of Bali, besides the distinctive burning incense aroma, its traditional music also lingers as it can be heard almost in every public place in this Island of Gods.
Other places and other countries have their own music as well. Update your music playlist with a little wanderlust touch. Instead of “pop” and “rock”, add folders like “Asian gamelan” or “to tango” to your music player.
Tips: to avoid playing the same songs over and over again and eventually getting bored of them, enrich your playlists, or only play them occasionally as background music.
10. Shop for trademark clothing
It’s time to update your wardrobe! One of the best things to buy while you’re traveling is clothing. It doesn’t have to be so formal and traditional like South Korean hanbok, but perhaps something similar to it. Don’t know where to find them? Trust us, everything is available online. You just need to find the right keywords and, voila! It’s right there on your screen.
Besides traditional clothes, you can go simpler like T-shirts with distinctive prints. Just don’t go for the usual “I heart” T-shirt. Be more creative. Did you know that many stores offer custom print T-shirts both offline and online?
11. Build a small library of travel books
Nothing inspires you to travel more, or to bring back all the good (and even bad) memories than reading about those new places you have been to or you are planning to go to. Besides, reading more about them helps you be prepared and acquainted with what to expect once you get there.
It doesn’t have to be a big library with hundreds of books. Even one simple shelve with a dozen books in a quiet corner is perfect. You can go for the basic travel guides, go further with the countries’ histories, or spice things up a bit with dark stories and myths about them.
Traveling to new places can be challenging. Scratch that. It IS challenging. But don’t let it stop you to go out and see the world, because trust us, traveling will bring more good things than bad into your life.
Are you inspired yet? Well, perhaps not to pack your bag and passport right away, but at least to bring some wanderlust touch into your home. Which one of these 11 things you would try first? Share your thoughts on the comment section.