Atlas interiors - 4 ways travel inspires us and how it translates into the home
While the presence of COVID is still being felt in our communities, for the first time in years the world has re-opened to travel and with it, a craving for new experiences. Having been denied us so long, our renewed freedom is filled with something that plays deep into what it is to be human as we reclaim our ability to discover and explore; to adventure and create. While the relationship has always been there, the physical territory we traverse feels mirrored in our psyche - an open world begets an open mind - and as we seek relief from the monotony of the years spent in lockdown, we look for ways to once again fill our hearts and interiors with the fresh inspiration we’ve all felt missing.
And so, from hotels and galleries to back city streets, we look at 4 ways travel inspires us and how this can be translated into our homes…
Beyond composition, it is about the allure of detail: the small elements of design we come across and then begin to covet - loved for the experience they create in the moment as well as the memory they will conjure in years to come.
Images via @ilcaprihotel.
New things to collect and new ways to curate
Falling in love with pieces of art, lighting or furniture while we travel has a lot to do with seeing how others collect and curate their possessions. It often draws one piece into focus or another, allowing us to see it, as if, for the first time. Beyond composition, it is about the allure of detail: the small elements of design we come across and then begin to covet - loved for the experience they create in the moment as well as the memory they will conjure in years to come. Be it a concertina wall light placed amongst framed artwork in a hotel bar in Paris, a shell-like wall sconce on a bare brick wall, the sumptuous tassel skirt of a golden ochre lounge or leather bed head in a room in Amsterdam… a single experience can inspire hours of market trawling and google searching to recreate, without needing to exactly emulate, an element of the beauty we’ve witnessed as a moment of awe.
Above: The Jacques bar and foyer of the Hoxton Hotel in Paris and below right, and one of the rooms in the Hoxton Hotel in Amsterdam are both rich with interior inspiration.
Left: Salmon coloured velvet inspires in the curved seating of the Corner Bar NYC via @eyeswoon
Form, texture and palette
From the chalky wash of colour on South American streets to the decorative detail that is so much a part of the rich history of Europe, inspiration lives beyond the interiors we visit to inhabit the footpaths, alleys and markets, the awnings, table settings and streetscapes. In the details overlooked by locals, the ordinary (for an outsider) takes on a new dimension, with form, texture and palette woven with the possibility of new expression and the charm of the unexpected. How we interpret this is up to us. The scalloped edge and contrasting trim of an awning or umbrella, for example, is not unusual but repeated elsewhere - along a cushion’s edge or table underside - infuses something of the story and magnetism of the source of its inspiration to become a translation of experience, adopted (albeit accented) into our own design language.
The scalloped edge and contrasting trim of an awning or umbrella, for example, is not unusual but repeated elsewhere - along a cushion’s edge or table underside - infuses something of the story and magnetism of the source of its inspiration to become a translation of experience, adopted (albeit accented) into our own design language. Image right via @yoli_and_otis
For the love of green: Inspiration lives beyond the interiors we visit to inhabit the footpaths, alleys and markets, the awnings, table settings and streetscapes.
Treasure on the streets of Menorca via @lucindajacq and right, the chalky wash of colour on South America Streets via @brittany.ferns
Natural highlights
Perhaps our greatest inspiration will always be nature. With differences in climate and geography, the places we travel offer an enormous variety of natural wonder. From the icy gradient of colour amongst the peaks of an alpine winter, to the golden wash of midday sun across a pebbled footpath that meanders down to the ocean’s edge, nature delivers a magic that inspires us to try to capture some part of it or try to recreate it. Our latest love, of course, is coloured stone and if you’ve witnessed the late afternoon blush of the cliffs along a Sicillian or Portuguese coastline, you’ll know why.
The Rachel Donath Phoenix Console: Our latest love, of course, is coloured stone and if you’ve witnessed the late afternoon blush of the cliffs along a Sicillian or Portuguese coastline, you’ll know why.
Momentos
What would travel be without keepsakes? From painterly plates and textured fabrics to the decorative objects we discover along the way, momentos capture the culture and local artistic identity of the places we visit, if not something of the quizzical and quirky we simply can’t go past in a local gallery or market. Here, inspiration is open-ended, offering us the unrivaled opportunity to express our particular taste and sense of style through ornaments that hold story - our objects become portals of experience: the landmarks of our adventures, mapped as an atlas across our interiors.
Inspiration is open-ended, offering us the unrivaled opportunity to express our particular taste and sense of style through ornaments that hold story - our objects become portals of experience: the landmarks of our adventures, mapped as an atlas across our interiors.
From the Inventory:
The Rachel Donath Safari Chair, SHOP NOW
A pair of Antique French Bouillotte Floor lamps, SHOP NOW
The Rachel Donath Grace Dining Chair, SHOP NOW
The Rachel Donath Wave Chair, SHOP NOW
Rachel Donath is a purveyor of designer and antique furniture, Australia.
Discover The Inventory here.