Showcase Travel-Inspired Decor to Tell the Story of Your Summer Adventures

Los Angeles Times

11 hours ago

Soon, summer will start to wind down...but your travels and all of the wonderful memories you've made this summer should exist both in your camera roll and your own home. Right now, the 'Peak Travel' movement showcases just that. It encourages people to put physical decorations from their vacations into their home so the memories can stick around.
This mindset is one that overlaps with resort-core, a design trend described as 'a slower, intentional, and expressive way of life.' It's where desire meets design…vacation finds and tactile comforts and artisanal keepsakes layered into everyday living.
You can have and relive your own adventures by bringing home and intentionally layering decor from previous trips in your own home. That part, layering with intention, matters. The difference between a space that tells a story and one that just feels overly messy comes down to editing.
'Edit thoughtfully. Bring home pieces that move you, then give them space to stand out,' say the founders of Olive Ateliers, a Los Angeles studio that hunts for antiques and artifacts from all over the world. 'A found statue from France on its own pedestal or a Confit Jar from Puglia centered on a table lets the story become the hero.'
The real flex is curating what's already in your home rather than filling it. After all, your home is supposed to also be inviting, right? In fact, the best travel-inspired spaces both include the rich history and culture of the places they're inspired by while also feeling comfortable and lived-in. Fill that woven basket that reminds you of Tulum with cozy throw blankets to grab while snuggling on the couch for movie night on a Tuesday.
Create small, intentionally focused vignettes, and let each piece speak for itself. 'We love creating small moments around a single special find, perhaps pairing a French antique sourced from the markets with your favorite books or art. It's not about recreating another place, but about evoking a memory or feeling tied to your travels,' Olive Ateliers explains.
Your decorating doesn't need to be super on-the-nose for this in order to evoke a memory or story. You don't need a giant Eiffel Tower print to remember your Paris trip...you might instead bring home a small ceramic dish from a flea market and place it by your front door to hold keys. Or maybe you fell in love with the deep indigo textiles in Kyoto and came back with a hand-dyed pillow cover.
Using handcrafted details, another popular home design trend making a comeback right now, can go hand in hand with your travel decor. These pieces both look good and feel good, and are special because you can almost feel the story of how the piece came to be. That ceramic bowl you haggled for at a Moroccan market? It's already right on trend.
When you travel, you notice the way spaces feel, not just how they look. A tiled courtyard in Mexico has a different kind of coolness underfoot than a sisal rug in Portugal. Back home, you can mix those tactile cues to create a space that reminds you of both. What if you layer a vintage rug under a woven bench? Or…add linen curtains next to a smooth plaster wall, or place a stone tray on a wooden table? All of those bring that sensory depth into your daily life.
You can also material drench by covering your space in the same texture or tone; it can be a subtle way to pay homage to a place you've visited. Think an all-linen bedding setup inspired by a Greek island stay, or a bathroom done entirely in warm terracotta to make it seem like you're in the desert hotels of Morocco.
And try to look past the rooms themselves. The dining table can tell a story of your travels. It's those little touches from trips that can slip into everyday meals, not just saved for special occasions like a personalized tablescape. Try pairing personalized napkins with handmade plates or vintage glassware and all of a sudden... eating at home on a Tuesday suddenly becomes something a little more special, a little more transportive.
When everything feels coordinated but not matching well, guests will know there is a story there, even if you never share the details. That mismatched set of Portuguese wine glasses? The linen runner from Oaxaca? They don't have to 'go together' in a traditional sense. They just have to feel like you.
What makes this trend work isn't the price tag but the meaning. A $12 flea market bowl can share space with a custom-framed painting and feel just as important. Adding these travel touches pretty much anywhere in your house can feel inspired. Living rooms, dining areas, guest bathrooms, nothing's off limits. Maybe you line a hallway with framed matchbooks from restaurants you loved. Or your office could get a tiny shelf for souvenirs and old photo albums. That big wall in the hallway? Hang a row of black-and-white prints from your favorite city walks, and suddenly it feels… alive.
One of the biggest parts of keeping travel-inspired decor working over time is giving each thing a real home. Move things around with the seasons. That woven basket from Bali? Use it for blankets in the living room in winter, then shift it out to the patio in summer for towels. Local finds that fit with what you already have slide in easily, too.
It also makes it easier to tweak your space as you go. Pick one or two things to tie it all together, like a color palette, a texture, maybe even a motif like calming plants or geometric patterns. Then all your pieces start to feel like they belong in the same space, even if they're from completely different countries or eras.