10 Ideas for Decorating with Maps

Want a stylish way to pay homage to your favorite travel destinations or the places you've lived? Apply maps to home accents, such as side tables or shadow boxes. Any atlas pages or city or state maps will do—and their pastel hues inspire a coordinating color scheme. Don't have a map stash? Find fun vintage options online or at antiques shops. Think of it as decorating in the right direction.

Patchwork paper: For bargain wallpaper, cover an accent wall with pages pulled from atlases. Starting in the middle of the wall, apply one page using decoupage adhesive. Repeat, overlapping edges, until the wall is covered. Note: This application is permanent. For a similar yet temporary effect, decoupage pages to large plywood or foam-core boards, and hang or lean them against a wall.

Mapped-out furniture: An old painted cabinet quickly becomes a conversation piece when you decoupage a single state map to the front. To continue the travel theme, display books, mementos, postcards and photos from favorite trips.