As some of you know, I’ve been in renovation mode for the better part of a year now (er, possibly more). Honestly, it is pretty much all I think about. Well, we’re finally in the home stretch, and so now, more than ever, my brain is brimming with ideas for inside of the house. You know what’s really captured my heart lately? MAPS. It’s a great way to add a little personality to your living space. You can use maps in a big way for major impact, or a small way, just to dress things up a little.

And the best thing is that you can find old maps almost everywhere and they’re relatively inexpensive. (My local secondhand shop has boxes of old maps. Just ask!)

For example:

• You can make a really cool light fixture out of pages from an old atlas.
• You can use a heart-shaped punch to highlight special places you’ve travelled and glue them into a simple frame, or use old maps to decorate wooden blocks
• Personally, I love the idea of using vintage maps as wall-hangings. Here’s an example of an old classroom map that was used in an entry way. Love it!
• For awhile I had a vintage map of Rome laid flat on the top of my nightstand. It’d be easy enough to modge-podge it in place like this. (Isn’t that neat?) Or if you were really crafty you can do a whole chest of drawers.

I haven’t even touched on globes. I’ve always wanted to start a collection of vintage globes and display them in an interesting way – like this – ack! I just want to die of the pretty.

What about you? If you could get your hands on a gorgeous vintage map, where would it be from? (I’d love an ancient wall-sized map of Prague myself! Or maybe a young Ottawa. Hmm.)