The pandemic saw many of locked down in our homes, and while we used to be able to travel during our down time, these past two years, most people have put their travel budgets instead towards interior design.

The home renovation market has boomed since the pandemic, and for travel lovers this is a chance to fuse your passion for exploration with redesiging your home.

Taking the top home decor and interior design trends in 2022, here are a few ideas for fusing your passion for travel with a living room redesign.

Interior Design Ideas for Fusing Your Travel Passion With Your Living Room

Choose Your Colors

When you’re planning out your living room design, choose your colors based on the type of travel vibe.

If you’re after a safari style, aim for a palette of gold, oranges, browns, khaki and greens to evoke the feeling of a lodge in the middle of the savannah. If you’re after something a little more Miami, aim for aqua, bright pink, and pastels.

Color can do a lot to evoke a sense of place, the Very Peri color is popular for life in the mountains, or deep purples and blacks if you’re channeling space tourism (soon we’ll all be vacationing on the moon!).

Some of the popular colors include blue for Santorini (Greece), purple for the lavender of Provence (France), green for a sense of Ireland, orange for the Sahara Desert (Morocco), and white for an Antarctic theme.

3D Art

Travel can be brought to life with 3D art, and this can truly transform a room, taking flat walls and turning them into an immersive experience. 

3d art is art which uses the dimensions of height, width, and depth. It occupies physical space and be perceived from all sides and angles.

Examples are sculptures, carvings, glass art, more recently too it can include art which is painted or drawn in a specific way that creates an optical illusion that tricks the mind into believing that the 2d artwork they reviewing is actually three dimensional (called a forced perspective). 

This can be a great way to travel without having to leave your living room, essentially transforming your own space into a museum you’d normally visit abroad.

Sustainability and Organic Materials

Sustainability has become a key concern for all of us, and the responsibile travel movement has encouraged us all to reflect and reconsider our impact upon local communities and ecosystems as we travel.

If you’re an evironmentally friendly traveler, keep this going as you decorate your home, bringing the same values into the design of your living space as you uphold when you’re exploring.

There are plenty of furniture brands now embracing eco friendly designs, using reclaimed or recyclable materials like wood, glass and iron to create sustainable pieces.

When sourcing your big pieces, remember that responsbile travel is not only about the environment, it’s also about the communities and the people; make sure you buy from a brand who focus on fair trade and responsible production practices.

Multifunctional Spaces

Just as a hotel room is a multifunctional space (your bed for the night, your office, your yoga studio!), get creative and think how your living room might be multi purpose.

When designing a multifunctional space, think about how hotels do it, after-all, they are the experts! Consider a coffee table with inbuilt storage, a pull out couch where you can host travelers visiting your city, or side tables that double as seating. 

A room divider can be a great option if you’re looking to separate your eating and playing sections, and you can get something truly beautiful, which perhaps evokes a sense of Bali – bamboo room dividers are so much more than those ‘tacky bulletin board-esque dividers you might find in your office’.

Scandinavian culture shines here, where products are designed to be both attractive and functional. We can learn a lot from these traditions and be inspired by them.

Timeless Designs

There are some destinations we love returning to, which will never get old. That’s London for me. 

Where-as there are other destinations which are a one and done type of deal; you’ve visited, you’re glad you did, but you probably won’t ever take a second trip.

Keep in mind that desigining a living room can be both expensive and take up a lot of time, so it’s a good idea to stick with a timeless design, basing it around a destination you’re truly passionate about, and not a passing fascination. 

Wallpapers and Wall Murals

The impact of a striking mural can never be overstated. It’s easy to make a statement in any environment thanks to their bold use of pattern, print, and color, and you can find wallpapers and murals now of your favorite cities and landscapes for an amazing feature.

Check all the wallpapers and wall murals from Ever Wallpaper where you can get inspiration. Wallpaper instantly adds more depth, color, and texture to a room, and it can make your space appear either larger or smaller depending on the approach you take.

Minimalism

The whole point of fusing your passion for travel with the design of your living room is so you can re-live those memories, and be transported back to some of your favorite moments.

Clutter gets in the way of that.

Embrace minialism when you’re designing your living room so that when you’re using the space you can take full advantage of the emotions and feelings it creates, free of other distractions.

Many cultures have long-established traditions of minimizing and simplifying belongings, and Japan is the undisputed leader when it comes to that. The philosophy is rooted in Zen Buddhism, which encourages not becoming overly attached to material possessions and to focus on happiness and mindfulness.