“The world is a book and those who do not travel, read only some pages of it”
Designing rooms is all about bringing out your inner child. Our home reflects us. It reflects our personalities and our thoughts.
A few years ago I was living alone in an apartment and I had invited some childhood friends of mine to my home. We had a special bond. We were travel partners. We used to hang out together in school and we never stopped it even years later. We have visited almost every city together, and have fond memories of those places saved securely in our subconscious. So to get high on our nostalgic memories, with emotions of a traveler, I decided to redecorate my room as a traveler’s room. I wanted this room to reflect the emotions we share so that we can cherish the day for all that we have done and been through together under a roof of our hearts.
Have you ever heard of the term, Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam? It’s actually a Sanskrit phrase which means that, the world is one family. This is a Gandhian philosophy which believes that the entire world is one family and we respect each and everyone, irrespective of our differences. This is the prime philosophy me and my friend believe in. we believe that the world is one global village and everybody is just like us. Every place is my home. Religion or culture is something that is very pretentious and fake and it projects upon us an illusion that we are all different for their personal ego satisfaction. It is just my personal opinion, that we are all same, if not in anything but at least for the very fact that we are all humans and humanity is our only religion.
Hence to keep this philosophy alive in my room, this is how I started with it:
- I changed the wallpaper of my room. There are so many varieties available today that it indeed is a tough job to choose one out of all, though I chose this amazing wallpaper which has boarding passes of different countries on it. Putting this up just revolutions the décor. It was an exciting wallpaper that truly was a reflection of my mind and I was so glad to find it at the right time at the right store and within my budget
- Next on the list was changing the pillow cases and cushion covers. So for this I had an idea in my mind which I had thought about long back while I was travelling in New York with this friend of mine. I collected all the photos of different gardens and grasslands we had visited and got them printed on my pillow cases and cushions. Today technology has advanced to this extent that I had no idea about this. I got this information from one of my friends who texted me a link where you can print your choice of photos on cushions and pillow cases.
- I choose green grasses and lawns because when we were out of our homes, travelling around the globe, it’s these things like the blue skies and green grass which takes the role of my mom’s lap for a peaceful sleep. Its simple thing like these which makes us feel connected to our homes and believe that the world is same be it wherever we are.
- After this the simple accessories of the room were left to alter. Like keeping a wall of memorable photographs. For this I printed all of our Instagram travel photographs. I had previously photoshopped them to a small size and printed them all. Then after getting them printed I simply pasted them up on my walls one after other, without any space and it looked miraculous after it got completed.
- I even changed the lamp shades and placed a new one and pasted on it some photographs we had clicked together during our hiking days; I could change the lighting of my room with proper help from my friend and used glass globes as lamps. We did it ourselves. We made holes in the globe from the top and bottom and just passed through it a bulb with a holder and wires and hanged them in the ceilings.
- Then finally to put in the final touch of a master chef, I placed all the clocks I had collected on one wall and each wall, was from a different country and said the time of that country. This wall was my prime centre of attraction which my friend absolutely loved and appreciated.
So this was how I created a magical space for us with some clever room décor ideas for a wonderful day of fun, frolic and laughter, redolent with nostalgic memories of our journey days.
It is said that one should never underestimate the capacity of one’s soul and sole. Be it you love travelling or not or you want to but couldn’t, you can always make your room reflect your desires and dreams. And maybe someday you’ll get to go and actually visit places, as by doing this you are expressing yourself fully and telling the universe that this is who you are and that is exactly what you’ll get back in return in abundance from your angels of the universe. God bless!