Maybe you purchased a print years ago on a trip to Argentina
that’s been collecting dust in your basement ever since. Maybe you picked up
some beautiful fabrics at a bazaar in Morocco. Or perhaps you spent a year in
France and have always wanted to capture the essence of the countryside
architecture in your own home.
Incorporating worldly themes and elements in your
home décor is a natural extension of trekking the globe; with a well-traveled
lifestyle comes a home that reflects unforgettable experiences in exotic
locations and its owners’ adventurous personalities.
“People’s travel experiences make an impression on them,” says Dave Amundson, owner of TreHus Builders, a residential construction firm in Minneapolis. “They want their living space to reflect who they are. It’s more than just a roof over their heads. It’s part of their identity; it’s part of their memories.”
Perhaps the best advice a designer can offer about purchasing items overseas is this: If it feels right, buy it—even if you don't have your home specifications with you.
On their travels, many homeowners specifically look for items with their homes in mind, while others stumble onto items that look great but have no specific purpose. For those who do use their trips for home-décor purposes, interior designers often send them off with everything from general advice to room measurements.
“For pretty much all of our clients, we give them duplicate fabric samples, information about furnishings, floor plans, and dimensions and parameters of what to shop for,” says Laura Ramsey Engler, design principal for Ramsey Engler, Ltd., an interior design firm in Minneapolis. “Our clientele is very well traveled and mindful of bringing things home and working them in.”
In one instance, one of Ramsey Engler’s clients e-mailed her photos of Venetian chandeliers from Murano—an Italian island near Venice—to see if they would fit in the dining room. “We’ve had many situations where someone has asked the shop owner to take a photo and e-mail it, or hold the object until [the homeowner] talks to the designer,” Ramsey Engler says. “Sometimes it takes a real-time review of an object, advising the client, and then asking or suggesting if a different color would be better. It’s so easy to do these days.”
Ramsey Engler also suggests buying more than you need of certain objects, such as dishes. “If you want 12, buy 13, 14, or 15, because you’ll never see them again.”
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