Map Fad

Is the decorating with maps fad over?  Once Ballard and Pottery Barn and Home Decorators start framing maps and hanging them like art, you know its a mainstream idea.  But does that mean we have to start moving onto the next fad? 

via Elle Decor

via Martha Stewart

via Apartment Therapy

I think that the appeal of cartography-as-art is the personalization that can be achieved. You're from Oklahoma? Go find and old map depicting the state boundaries during the Land Run of 1889. Love to sail? Find nautical maps by the bookload and frame them for your powder room. Have a young astronomer in your house? Have galaxy diagrams wallpapered onto the kid's ceiling.

via Elle Decor

via Elle Decor

via House Beautiful

via Elle Decor

Martha's Maine House via Martha Stewart

To avoid that overtly-contrived, generic store-bought feel, it's generally best to work with maps that matter to you.

And for this reason -- the seemingly endless options available -- the 'decorating with maps' practice may not be so easy to pigeonhole as "a fad."

via DecorPad

via Martha Stewart

via BlackEiffel blog

by Steven Gambrel

by Pootery Barn (typo, and it stays!)

via Simplified Bee blog

via Forever...Whenever blog

via Houzz

And don't just limit the cartography to your walls.  Bring cartography to your doors...

via Apartment Therapy

via Apartment Therapy

 Get down with your DIY self and Mod Podge some things! 

via PS I Made This

via Urban Sardine

Have your favorite globe turned into a hanging light fixture!

via Addicted 2 Decorating

 A rolling map can be easily converted into a window shade!

via Martha Stewart

via O at Home magazine

 Cartography products can be chic and happy in many forms...  A pillow, a plate, a lampshade!

via Rockett St George

via homelife

via Ralph Lauren

All in all, I think it's fair to say that the map fad is indeed a fad.  But, it's a long-lasting fad because it can be so widely interpreted.  Lots of editorializing from the consumer can keep this fad from looking tired.  

The easiest way for you to incorporate a map into your decorating is to choose a map that has personal meaning to you.  Whether you frame it, decoupage it, wallpaper with it, cover a window with it or make a lampshade with it is up to you.  Keep it personal and it becomes authentic!

Have a wonderful day, world travelers!!
Cheers,
Whitney