Globe Trotters

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. “A lot of people buy these pieces and aren’t exactly sure how to use them,” says Lisa La Nasa, interior designer and owner of Lisa La Nasa Design in Minneapolis. “Most designers would suggest locations for these significant pieces, and preservation if needed.”

Not only will your purchases look and feel good, but they might be pleasing to the wallet as well. “It’s much less expensive to buy in countries they’re produced in than they are to buy here from an importer,” La Nasa, says. For example, “textiles in many countries are a lot less expensive than they are here. Silk from Asia can be purchased for pennies.”

Upon returning from your travels, designers, builders, and architects can help you incorporate your acquisitions into your home.

Make It Yours

Wall niches are common for showcasing prized collections. Ramsey Engler has created installations to display masks and ethnic dolls, along with stands for puppets and sculptures. In one new home, La Nasa is designing sheetrock niches for a client who is an art dealer and importer. “He definitely has some favorite pieces that we’re trying to incorporate into his house,” she says. “A lot of people incorporate into the construction of the house or plan remodeling projects around arts and artifacts pieces.”

Homeowners often repurpose items from their original location. For instance, Ramsey Engler has used shawls as table runners, wool sorting bins to hold magazines, and grain measurers as waste bins. Holly Bayer Seel, an interior designer and owner of Hauthaus in Minnetonka, installed a carved prayer window from India as a vanity mirror in a St. Cloud powder room.

Sometimes, the elements you collect on your trips don’t need to have any other purpose than to be an interesting accessory in the home. “Just to admire the form of it is enough,” Ramsey Engler says. But before repurposing an object, she cautions, “determine its preciousness. You want to be sure it’s not sacrilege to hack something up into pieces.”

Artwork is one of the most common acquisitions that homeowners make on their travels. However, your own photography of your experiences abroad can make for impressive décor. One of Seel’s clients returned home to Plymouth after living in New Zealand for five years, and the family wanted to incorporate memories from their time there into their home. “I encouraged them to pick their favorite places, landscape, and people pictures—photos that show detail.” The result was a “vision wall” in the family room that displayed enlarged images of the family’s New Zealand experiences.