Bringing home a souvenir is a great way to preserve memories from a special travel experience. Passionate travelers understand souvenirs can have great sentimental value and can often spark conversations and story sharing with friends and family. Plus, stylishly decorating your home with treasures you found while traveling can bring a sense of wanderlust to your space.

Since it is so easy to go overboard when shopping for things to bring back home, keep a look out for these mementos that have a decorative function and that won’t add clutter to your shelves and walls.

Here are our favorite travel inspired décor tips that will have you decorating your house like a travel loving, interior designer pro.

Maps

In this day and age, digital maps are being used more often than hard copies, which makes physical maps the perfect travel souvenir. They are super budget friendly, are brightly colored and you can find them pretty much anywhere you travel. There are countless was to decorate using maps, from sophisticated vintage maps to fun and personal designs.

Cut out your favorite cities and make them in to small magnets to remind you of your adventures every time you look at the fridge or white board. Or bring home a unique frame from your destination and hang a map on your wall or set it up for display in your bookcase. You can even take your map art one step further and go over your travel route with pins and string. It’s a nice way of keeping track of the places you have visited and it helps you visualize when making plans for your next trip.

Shadow Box

A classic way to display all your small trinkets you pick up during your travels. Collecting novelties for your shadow box can be easy, just be on the lookout for ‘freebies’ you run across in each city. Your shadow box can consist of everything from museum entrance tickets, to hotel key cards, to luggage labels and coasters from your favorite trattoria. Get creative and use photos or postcards as a backdrop to your shadow box. Did you hang on to small amounts of leftover currency from your overseas trip? Display those little pieces of foreign art as well. Pick either a city, country or area of the world and dedicate one shadow box to each destination. This is the perfect way to incorporate all of the beautiful elements and accessories.

Kick up your shadow box and display your knickknacks in a mason jar or a clear vase that you found during your travels. Make plain, clear glass Christmas ornaments more interesting by filling them with your tiny souvenirs.

Photos

Don’t leave all your travel photos stuck on your phone or camera. Print out your favorites and decorate your home with photos from your trips. A gallery wall is a great statement design and is a great way to express your creativity. The best way to start is to pick a theme and select pictures based around that genre. Similar bright colors, intriguing architecture, or unforgettable landscapes are all great places to start. Stick with a one type of frame or use your imagination and pick up frames from your travel destinations. Asymmetric gallery walls have a way of catching your visitor’s eyes but a geometric design can look very classy. Whatever you choose, it should fit your home perfectly!

Frequent travelers might want to change out your photos around your home to keep up with your most recent travels. A great way to easily swap pictures is to display them on a piece of yarn or thick string and some binder clips or clothes pins. Pick a wall to thumb tack your string and pin your photos so they hang beautifully. Now, every time your friends and family visit, you will be able to enjoy photos from your recent adventures.

No room to hang anything on your walls? Try loading your photos into a coffee table photobook or buy some table frames and display your photos on a shelf or end table.

Plates, Tiles & Bowls

Vibrant and colorful ceramic plates and titles are pieces of art themselves. Luckily, you can usually find them in abundance, but more likely than not, there are mismatched pieces. Don’t be worried if you can’t find a full set of glassware or bowls or enough titles to cover your bathroom, there is so much more you can do with unique finds.

Instead of using your plates to eat off of, find an empty wall in your house and hang your bowls and plates. The infusion of colors and the unique patterns is a bold, natural touch to any entryway, sitting room, or hallway.

Display vintage cups, mugs and other baking accessories on a kitchen shelf of window sill. Glass cups are great additions to guest bathrooms and can be used to hold toothbrushes or put it to use as a rinse glass. Bowls can be used as ring and jewelry holders or a place to always leave your keys, so every time you leave the house, you’re reminded of you vacation.

Mismatched titles are perfect to use as coasters, or as a trivet for your hot plates, or as a cooking spoon rest that you can leave on display on your stove top or counter.

Scout out flea markets in the places you travel. Street markets are a great place to get authentic items that are handmade and local.

Souvenirs you find along your vacations can serve as more than just as precious reminders of your perfect trip. Decorating your space with the things you’ve been collecting across the state, the country, or around the world is the perfect way to surround yourself with tangible tokens of your travels.

The best part about decorating your home with souvenirs is having a constant reminder of all your exciting experiences right where you live.