It's not that the task of sprucing up rooms is too overwhelming, but items found while traveling can enhance a home - and hold more sentiment than that terra cotta bowl you found at the bottom of a clearance bin at Target.
Designer Ava Johnson, owner of ReDesigns Northwest in West Linn, recently traveled to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Myanmar (Burma) to visit temples, dine on exotic foods, soak up sun - and pick up a few special decorations along the way.
But traveling to the Bay of Bengal isn't necessary to find a good bang for your buck. Your next trip to Seattle or the coast could uncover that perfect table centerpiece or mantle trimming. Just decide what you're looking for and choose items to enhance your home, not distract from what you already have.
Johnson suggests a quick shopping system to remain efficient while travelling:
Knowing what would enhance your home makes the process of finding the item much easier, Johnson said. Empty bookshelves? A vacant mantle?
"Before I went on the trip I took an inventory," Johnson said. "I walked around the house and thought, 'what do I need?' (I thought of) things I could actually use as functioning pieces in my house."
For Johnson and her chic traditional ranch-style home, this meant noting the bare windows in the living room, the couch in need of color and empty shelves on bookcases. A non-obtrusive divider between two rooms would also be helpful.
While backpacking through the East, Johnson visited small village shops and local markets with her mental checklist in mind. That way, not much of the vacation was spent shopping; but rather, the small amount of time spent shopping was more effective.
Johnson's shopping mission on the trip was to find accessories for her home, not transform her abode into a colorful quilt of useless clutter. The Asian pieces needed to match with the European and African items. And whatever was found on this vacation.
"Visualize the items at (your) home because some items might look too Siam. It might look great in the country but be overwhelming when you get home," said Johnson. "Think seasonally as opposed to putting everything out right now."
Her home is already eclectic - gifts from Santa Fe, local artists' paintings - but they aren't competing for attention. Each spring and fall, Johnson changes her linens to reflect the weather outside - earth tones for the winter months and brighter colors for the summer. Some linens she bought on this trip - such as a table runner from Laos - can be rotated with the changing of seasons.
Johnson found some belts from hill tribes in northern Thailand and wondered what she would do with them. She decided to try them as window coverings to add color and soften the windows.
"I didn't really need any privacy," said Johnson. "When I got home I realized they fit perfectly. They're woven and quilted. So, I'm using a belt as a curtain."
Johnson's dining room flows into her kitchen, making meal preparation easy but hiding the mess impossible.
"I just don't like looking at my kitchen because I always have dishes in the sink. This is from Laos. It's a really old tapestry. I just think it makes such a good room divider," Johnson said pointing to a colorful fabric hanging from the ceiling.
The material is thin so it doesn't take up much room, but is large enough to hide the view of the counter. The tapestry adds a height and color to the area.
While in Thailand and Cambodia, Johnson purchased silk pillows.
"I bought them at a land mine museum. They were four dollars and they're all handmade silk from the village," she said. "That added some much-needed color on the sofa. Bringing back things like pillowcases and weavings fit well in your suitcase and you can bring back a ton of them and they don't take up any space."
Some pillows are from the Land Mine Museum in Siam Reap, Cambodia - literally a courtyard containing war remnants such as bombs, rockets, land mines. The museum tells the story of the soldier Aki Ra. Orphaned at a young age, Aki Ra was a child soldier in the 1980s and fought with the Vietnamese Army before clearing and collecting mines in the mid 1990s. And he still does today. Cambodia is apparently littered with land mines.
"How many people have bought pillows at a Land Mine Museum?" Johnson said. "It was so interesting. And there were chickens running all around."
Other pillows she found while visiting the Jim Thompson House in Bangkok. Thompson is responsible for re-establishing the silk industry in Thailand, Johnson said.
Oftentimes, when vacationing it's easy to bring back a small trinket - but as the excitement from the vacation wears off, those are just items to add to the junk drawer. When Johnson liked something that could serve a purpose, she bought a few.
"One piece would just get lost. Think of the scale of the space," Johnson said. "I wanted something for the living room so when I found these bronze Buddha heads in Cambodia, instead of just buying one as a souvenir, I bought four with the idea that I would line them up on the mantle."
She used bowls and boxes from Myanmar (Burma) to create an arrangement within a family room shelf.
"(The bowls are) made out of horsehair and then (they) put a lacquer layer over it. It's flexible," Johnson said, squeezing the bowls sides together. "The bigger (boxes) are made out of bamboo and they're absolutely solid."
The boxes allow for storage capabilities and are a nice place to display a Siamese puppet that sticks its tongue in and out with the pull of a string.
Some price tags are flexible in other countries.
"Everything we bought, we bartered. I would say, 'how much is this?' They would say, 'that's $20.' My husband would then say, 'we'll pay $10," very calm and politely," Johnson said. "Then they'd try to talk him up and he'd say, 'I can give you $10 right now, that's it' and begin to walk away. We usually got everything half price."
But Johnson said to be reasonable.
"Be polite and friendly," she said. "After all, these countries are very poor and a dollar or two more won't hurt you, but could mean a great deal to them."
Once shopping is completed, the items need to get home.
"If money is no object, take things to a packaging store and send them by air. If you want to pay about one-third of the cost of air freight, take them to the local post office and have them sent by surface," Johnson said. "It takes about two to three months to arrive, but you get to relive the trip when they arrive after that much time."
Johnson also suggested checking with locals to see whether it is safe to send packages from certain countries.
"We were told by everyone not to send any mail out of Cambodia - that it would never make it home," she said.
Johnson's house is a mini-museum, telling the stories of her travels.
"I don't think you need to abandon aesthetics for functionality. I like to surround myself with things that have meaning for me," said Johnson. "Even practical, useful things can bring a smile to your face when remembering the places from which they came."
To contact designer Ava Johnson with ReDesigns Northwest, call 503-699-5017 or visit www.ReDesignNW.com