Jennifer Berger
The Washington Post
Traveling to new places allows us to experience what life in another culture feels and is like, whether we're strolling the adobe-lined streets of Santa Fe or the lantern-lit alleys of Morocco's ancient cities. Enchanted by the carpet sellers of Istanbul or the pottery studios of Oaxaca, many travelers return home with household items and art from around the world to decorate their own homes.
“Fabrics, pottery, or objects from a flea market connect you to memories of a time and place you enjoyed,” says Hilary Robertson, a Brooklyn prop stylist and author of Nomad at Home: Designing the Home More Traveled. “Even if you can't move to Marrakech or Kyoto, you can at least recreate that feeling.”
But getting the best pieces for your home takes a little strategy and planning ahead. Here, we'll show you how to shop smart, how to get your treasures back intact, and what to do with them once you get home.
Do your homework
You won't typically find indigenous crafts or interesting local art in airport stores or hotel gift shops, “so do your research before you go and check out artisan networks, find out which days flea markets are on, and find out what's available in certain locations,” says Ratina Sachasin, owner of Tikkiwallah, an online shop selling fair-trade Thai and Laotian pillowcases, blankets and other fabrics.
Get tips on what to buy and where to shop from your hotel concierge (or short-term rental owner) and official tourist board websites and social media accounts. You can also flip through old-fashioned guidebooks (Lonely Planet, Rick Steves), which tend to focus on local retailers rather than every West Elm location in Mexico City. TikTok and Instagram can also provide shopping tips, but be wary of paid brand placements.
While you can find cool art and vintage home decor in almost any destination, “if you travel to places with a thriving craft culture, like Morocco, India or Mexico, you're likely to find more handmade items like textiles, rugs and baskets,” says Sachasin.
Consider hiring a shopping pro
If you want to get into a quick treasure hunt, consider hiring a tour guide who specializes in shopping for a few hours. Look for experiences focused on markets and retail stores in your destination on travel booking sites like Tripadvisor and Tours by Locals. Using the names of specific places (such as “Istanbul Grand Bazaar” or “Oaxaca Pottery Studio”) can help narrow your search even further.
You can also try a quick online search to find personal market guides, such as Buenos Aires Shop Hop (guided tours of Argentina's leather workshops and vintage markets) or Mariam Montagu, owner of Marrakech's Peacock Pavilions hotel, who takes travelers on day-long tours of the city's markets in search of fluffy ethnic rugs, vibrant ceramics and leather poufs.
Or go on a trip focused on crafts and shopping: Tour companies like Ace Camps and Thread Caravan host week-long trips to meet and create with artisans in destinations like Peru (try weaving in the Sacred Valley near Machu Picchu) and Japan (learn tie-dyeing and pottery).
Luxury travel-planning company Indagare frequently offers style-forward small-group tours to Mallorca, Rajasthan, and Paris that incorporate dinners in designer homes, market visits, and artist encounters. Interior designer Grant K. Gibson takes small groups to destinations like Jaipur, India, and Oaxaca, Mexico, to tour showrooms, learn about block printing and woodworking techniques, and usually return with a suitcase full of purchases.
“Design touches on so many passions – art, history, culture, food and wine – so trips like these are a great anchor to learn, explore and meet fellow design lovers,” says Melissa Bradley, founder and CEO of Indagale.
Know What to Look for
To support local artisans, look for fair-trade craft stores, which pay artisans fairly and tend to stock products that are representative of their region. Other good spots include flea markets, museum shops, and government-sponsored artisan boutiques and networks that specialize in handmade goods and antiques. For example, Artesanías de Colombia shops in Bogotá and Cartagena sell rope hammocks and palm-fibre baskets made by indigenous weavers.
“Visiting an artisan's workshop may give you the deepest connection to something handmade, because you can talk to the artisans and make something alongside them,” says Sachasin. She recommends Ock Pop Tok's weaving workshop in Luang Prabang, Laos, and its store full of blankets and table runners. At Seattle Glass Blowing Studio, artists create the delicate bowls and glasses this Pacific Northwest city is famous for, and teach beginners how to make them themselves.
Figure out how to get it home
Serendipity or impulse is often the catalyst for souvenir buying, but whether you want a Turkish rug for your living room or a vintage Parisian painting to match your bathroom tiles, be sure to bring along photos and measurements of the space you have in mind. “I always bring along a tape measure and samples of the fabrics I want to match,” says Montague.
Planning on bringing a lot of stuff home on the plane? Pack a foldable duffel bag (Paravel sells handy zip-up duffel bags) in your luggage, or bring an empty hard case if you're making large purchases. “It's usually cheaper to pay for extra checked baggage than to send a lot of stuff home,” says Montague. Oil paintings can be rolled up off their stretchers, and you can buy cushion covers that take up very little luggage space and then buy the bulkier inserts once you get home.
“But I'm not comfortable checking a bag with fragile items in it,” said Bradley, who brought back glass and ceramics in a hard case from Cambodia and South Africa.
Whether you're a two-hour drive away or a five time zone flight away, retailers that sell bulky goods can often connect you with a shipper, but it usually isn't cheap. “They sent me this gorgeous farmhouse dining table from a flea market in Paris, and they sent me an inlaid dresser from a trip to India,” Gibson says.
Get creative
Many of the household items you buy while traveling can be reused, and even ordinary items you find in other countries can seem special and upscale compared to what you'd buy back home. “I love going to hardware stores in Mexico because even basic items like door hooks and storage boxes are so colorful and fun,” Robertson says.
A Navajo rug can be used as a tablecloth, a beaded Masai collar becomes a sculpture on a wire stand, and even the simplest souvenirs, like a vintage postcard or piece of fabric from Yellowstone National Park, look great in a frame.
A gallery wall brings together disparate travel finds to create cohesion. “The staircase wall in my house is decorated with Indian paintings, a brass bowl I bought in Turkey, and other items,” says San Francisco interior designer Chelsea Sachs. “It's like a journal of my life, and when I come home, I can look at these things and remember special moments.” At Indagare, Bradley arranges Iranian tiles, Burmese boxes, and Peruvian ceramics among her shelves of novels and art books.
Fabric, buttons and other portable materials you can easily find while traveling can accent your home, even if you're not particularly skilled in crafts. Bring home a few sheets of washi paper, a historic, UNESCO-recognized Japanese mulberry paper, and hot-glue them to lampshades or wooden trays. Transform objects like baskets into light fixtures. “I once brought a giant antique wicker birdcage on the ferry from Provincetown, and now it's a chandelier,” Robertson says.
And almost any fabric, whether it's a striped Peruvian blanket or a vintage quilt from a flea market, can be turned into cushions, a shower curtain, or a chair seat with a dry cleaner. “Sometimes you just need to let it sit for a while until you know what you're going to use it for,” Sacks says.
You may not want to collect a cabinet full of souvenir teacups, spoons, and snow globes like your great-grandparents. But there's still some validity to the idea of picking up small objects from your travels, one by one. It can help prevent overbuying, and even kitschy trinkets can evoke memories. Think about picking up a Christmas tree ornament or a small vase every time you travel, or saving up a few coins from your visits to a foreign country and piling them into a bowl on your coffee table. “Items from different places can become essential parts of your home and bring you back to the destination and its aesthetic,” says Bradley.
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