Travel Plans

I love to travel, even if it’s only in my mind. Sometimes I just daydream about being somewhere else. Sandy beaches, warm breeze, the smell of the ocean… or somewhere romantic like Paris (where I’ve never been). I love to picture the Eiffel tower at night with the twinkling lights of the city all around us as we dine on something fabulous like crepes suzette!

This is the reason for the latest project my husband and I just completed in our office at home. I purchased a map of the United States and a world map with the idea of hanging them on the wall for us to track our travels and our planned travels. I won’t bore you with the details on how long it took me to actually figure out how to do it and get it done! Instead, I will just tell you how we did it!

• I found the maps at OfficeMax ($9.99 each!). They are beautiful!
• Knowing what size the maps were, we painted a beige border on the wall to ‘frame’ the maps (my husband used a level to mark the lines).
• I discovered that you can buy large foam board from Michael’s in their framing department. I first purchased the foam board ($16.99 each), mounted the map with double stick tape, (we carry a large 3M tape gun at the store with ¼” to ½” tape), and then carted the whole thing back to Michael’s to be cut. We decided to leave a 1” border of foam board around the map to make it stand out from the beige background.
• To insure the maps laid flat against the wall, we used 3M picture hanging strips on the back of the foam board.

I absolutely love the results! Now we can put push pins into the foam board to denote our travels, exactly as we had wanted! And best of all, I can stare at my maps and dream of all of the wonderful places I have yet to explore!

A couple of things to note:

• One of my friends since informed me that there is a great spray adhesive on the market that would have also worked to tack the map to the board. (Super 77 by 3M. What would we do without this company?)

• No matter what they tell you at the craft store, DO NOT USE DECOUPAGE! Trust me!

• The craft store suggested mounting the maps first before cutting the border as it is hard to mount them exactly where you want them to go. I wholeheartedly agree!

If you have any great ideas on how to improve on this project, please share! I would love to hear it!

I haven’t finished decorating the room yet, and I plan to paint a travel quote above the maps. Here are a few of my favorite quotes in case you get inspired:

"The most important trip you may take in life is meeting people halfway." ~Henry Boye

“The world is a book and those who do not travel read only one page.” - St. Augustine

“Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines, sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.” - Mark Twain

“A journey of a thousand miles must begin with a single step.” - Lao Tzu

“Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

“Two roads diverged in a wood and I - I took the one less traveled by.” - Robert Frost

-M.