Turn Your Home Into a Personal Getaway With Travel-Inspired Décor / October 19, 2021 by Margaret Chambers

A soothing color palette helps to soften the rough, organic textures we used in this Cape Cod style bedroom in Dallas.

With travel restrictions in place due to COVID-19, many Dallas homeowners are wanting to surround themselves with memories of their time abroad. This may be why travel-inspired interior design is one of 2021’s trending looks.

Interior designers like myself often have our own favorite travel destinations and multicultural design influences. Over the course of my design career, I’ve been to Europe twelve times. I’ve also found inspiration in my travels to China, Mexico, and Canada. My business partner, Lea Barfield, and I own an antique buying trip business called Tour Décor, which helps our clients source European pieces for their residences.

When I take on a new design job, I enjoy finding ways to incorporate any antiques or multicultural art that my clients have collected over the years. Below, you’ll find some design tips and tricks for highlighting travel mementos in a sophisticated way.

Getting Started

Pictured is a collection of African milk bowls that we selected for our clients, displayed together on a kitchen wall.

One way to begin is by picking out a single piece you acquired abroad and using it as a touchpoint for the rest of the room. Putting together a collection of art from a place you’ve visited, or a gallery wall of travel photos, is another great way to memorialize.

If you’re an experienced traveler with many favorite destinations, you may have trouble narrowing down which styles to incorporate into your home. When in doubt, stick with what will complement your home’s architecture. In a midcentury modern home, you can easily blend in African, Indian, or East Asian accessories. However, if you own a home with Italian, French, or English architectural elements, you should probably stick with European furnishings and art.

If your room is coastal-themed, you can include touches of nautical whimsy, like this mirror with a rope frame.

Sourcing New Pieces

A travel-inspired home will naturally evolve over time as you bring home more treasures over the years. Make sure to leave some open space on your wall or floor for new pieces you acquire in the future.

If your favorite places in the world have lots of historic buildings, your travel-inspired room should have a sense of history, too. You can browse local antique shops in Dallas for fine, old antiques. The internet (especially social media like Instagram) can also be a great way to discover and commission artisans around the world.

Using world maps (whether printed and framed or used as a pattern in an unexpected place) is another way to communicate a feeling of wanderlust to guests. On the same note, globes are a great accessory for masculine studies and libraries.

Layering Your Space

Although a gallery wall makes a great focal point, don’t stop there. It’s important to make sure your room looks like a living space and not a museum. The solution is to spread your pieces throughout the space instead of isolating them to one part of the room.

This formal living room is Asian and Indian influenced, with its foo dog statue, incense burner, and Indian patterns.

For some clients, it’s not about a specific object they acquired, but a feeling they want to recreate. Reference your travel photos to help you get closer to the ambiance you want and identify the colors you associate with that place.

If you’re not sure what will be complementary with your travel-inspired elements, go with safe bets. Place your colorful textiles against a neutral backdrop of tan, cream, or grey. It’s also helpful to remember that natural materials like wood furniture can fit into almost any design setting. For a truly immersive feeling, try using scented candles, incense, or houseplants associated with the region you’re inspired by in the room.

Don’t forget to do some research too, especially if it’s been a while since you visited the country in question. Doing research on the history and significance of certain design traditions is not only interesting and educational, but will also help you learn how to incorporate these inspirations in a tasteful and respectful way.

Earth tones and African art make for a perfect combination in this Kessler Park guest bedroom.

There’s no better time than now to learn how to capitalize on the photos and art you’ve collected from your travels and weave a design narrative around them. That said, some people, especially those who are moving into a new home, may find the prospect overwhelming. If this sounds like you, you can reach out to us by sending an email to info@chambersinteriors.com or calling our Dallas office at 214-232-9501. When it comes to editing down your collections, having a professional second opinion is invaluable.

The Top Six Interior Design Trends for 2021 / January 13, 2021 by Margaret Chambers

Over the course of my interior design career, I have watched many trends come and go. Some looks are timeless and never seem to go out of style. Others fall in and out of favor in decades-long cycles. In this article, I’ll touch upon the six trends I am seeing come back for 2021: colorful interiors, antiques, globally-inspired rooms, home offices, brass hardware, and wallpaper.

Color:

Starting around the 2010s, designers and homeowners alike gravitated towards neutral interiors with cool grays, dark hardwood floors, and all-white walls. Recently, I’ve started to see things swinging back in the other direction. Colors, especially rich colors (like ocean blues), are finally back. I think this is due in part to Instagram, where colorful interior photos seem to attract more attention than neutral ones. While I have designed many white-and-gray homes at my clients’ request, I’ve always preferred color and am excited to see homeowners favoring it once again.

For this Preston Hollow dining room, we decorated the wall with antique Rose Medallion plates.

Antiques:

Contemporary design has enjoyed precedence for quite a while now; meanwhile, Old-World styles went out of fashion. Nowadays, however, people are wanting to mix old and new pieces again. Since people are spending a lot more time at home, buyers are more attracted to comfortable furniture with rounded curves and traditional detailing instead of sharp lines and sleek metals. Antiques add history, warmth, soul, and character to a house.

This older project from our portfolio still looks current today due to the use of bold colors and multicultural art.

Although antiques are not as valuable as they once were, I predict that buyers will begin to seek them out again this year. Antiques and vintage items also appeal to young homeowners because they are a more sustainable option than newly-produced furniture.

Globally-Inspired Rooms

Another trend that design experts are predicting for 2021 is globally-inspired and travel-inspired rooms. This makes a lot of sense, since many of us have spent the year yearning for travel. With the right décor, it’s possible to make any room feel like a tropical getaway, coastal oasis, or luxury hotel room. Some interior designers are also seeking to include influences from Africa and India in their work.

Home Offices

The patterned wallpaper we placed on this dining room ceiling helps to create the illusion that the ceiling is taller.

Global Workplace Analytics, a research and consulting firm, predicts that twenty-five to thirty percent of the workforce will continue to work from home for multiple days of the week by the end of 2021. Although most people will be working outside of the home this coming year, the trend of renovating home offices is here to stay. This year will also see many people turning their rooms into multi-purpose spaces, such as combining a living room with a home office.

Brass Hardware:

For many people, brass hardware screams ‘the 80s.’ Interestingly, it’s been making a comeback for the last few years. This may be related to last decade’s trend of tonal gray rooms: brass added some much-needed contrast and warmth to those otherwise cool spaces. One newly popular brass finish is “living finish,” which starts out bright and patinas naturally over time.

Wallpaper:

Wallpaper has been back for four or five years now and is still going strong. Lately, I see a lot of wallpapered ceilings and bathrooms. The one area of the house where it’s still considered “too dated” for wallpaper is the kitchen.

The trendiest patterns include botanicals, geometrics with metallic colors, textured wallpapers, and trompe-l'œil wallpaper (such as faux bois or faux tiled patterns). Some people also frame wallpaper panels and display them as pieces of artwork.

If you’ve been wanting to redecorate but have worried that your love for color, brass, antiques, or wallpaper dates you, fear not. Now is the perfect time to capitalize on those looks, so reintroduce them into your home to your heart’s content.

Is one of your new year resolutions to update your home for 2021? You can make the process easier and smoother by enlisting the help of a professional interior designer. To schedule a free consultation with us, call our Dallas office at 214-232-9501 or send an email to info@chambersinteriors.com.