Southern Oregon Magazine
How to Display Souvenirs Tastefully
By Janet Eastman
You’re in some exotic locale and you’re seduced by an object so unique, so aesthetically pleasing that you want to take it home.
Stop. Before you bubble pack it, consider this: Where are you going to put it?
Every home has finite space. Some of us max out that space with furnishings, photos and mementos, while others of us show more restraint. Decorating is a personal choice, of course, but studies show that fewer items in an environment create a feeling of comfort, serenity.
With that in mind, we found world travelers who appreciate visually captivating objects, but who have squelched the desire to own every one. They don’t use souvenirs as status trophies or steppingstones to bragathons about their luxury journeys. Instead, they concentrate on craft or art forms they admire and sparingly display only the best examples. Visitors see tasteful homes, not reproductions of tchotchke shops.
From them, we learn that there are ways to remember a place other than taking a piece of it home with us. These less-is-more devotees also evoke memories of a cherished sojourn through carefully chosen fabrics, paint colors or plants.
Paul and Nancy Rerucha are reminded of Old World Europe when they see the rich textural plaster on the walls of their Ashland home. Rick and Joanne Soued shopped on their vacations with an eye for the practical. They bought extraordinary materials that could replace otherwise mundane architectural elements in their Ashland home. And Russy and Anita Sumariwalla of Medford believe in supporting artists by buying original art when they globetrot. “I’m always tempted by so much of what I see, but I have to control myself or I would end up on the street, broke,” Russy says, half joking.
All of these judicious collectors act like in-house museum curators. This approach has its benefits. Spotlighting one object brings more attention to it than clustering it with many others. If you find you possess more beloved items than it’s attractive to display, consider creating a theme exhibit using a few of them, then change exhibits during the year.
For more ideas, come with us as we enter three homes in which the décor is enhanced by souvenirs that offer a touchstone to past adventures.
Meaning Matters
Nancy and Paul Rerucha see traveling as a way to deepen and widen one’s own self. They explore unguided by an itinerary. They sailed the Caribbean for 3 ½ years, going where the wind blew them. But when they settled into their Ashland home bordered by vineyards, they wanted it to be relaxing. And, says Nancy, “clutter isn’t restful.”
They were never big on accumulating mementos, so the few they display have tremendous meaning to them. Moving about the house are two of their favorite keepsakes: Tita and Misha, cats they rescued at boat docks in Venezuela.
Artfully assembled on a kitchen wall are 10 wooden blocks made to stamp wax in distinct patterns on fabric to be dyed. Nancy, an artist, has always appreciated high-quality Indonesian and Indian batiks and was attracted to the hand-carved blocks that contribute to the intricate process. She found these blocks, a few at a time, at the famous Paris Flea Market and in other places, including Seattle.
“Ethnic homes around the world are often very simple and close to nature,” says Nancy. “I wanted that feeling here. I love objects of beauty, whether they are a shell or fabric, but I also have a sure sense of enoughness.”
Another example of understanding “enoughness” is in the master bedroom. The top of a long red table is 85% empty. Grouped to one side are a heart-shaped metal box and a brass elephant that Nancy brought back from the Dalai Lama’s first Tibetan Refugee camp, which is in India. Next to them is a brass candlestick her family has passed on to her. Covering an adjacent wall is a large hand-painted green-and-brown sari with a glistening gold border that Nancy found in New Delhi and has worn on special occasions.
Another sari from Fiji drapes from the railing on the interior Juliet balcony that overlooks the living room. And a winking puppet from Prague – “he made me smile,” says Nancy – hangs whimsically in the music room.
“I spent a lot of time inside this shop in Prague, appreciating the work that goes into making these puppets,” says Nancy. “My brother is a skilled woodworker and I could see these were not children’s toys but one-of-a-kind pieces with personality. You can’t put anything this wonderful away.”
Making Souvenirs Work
Joanne and Rick Soued fly to Europe for business, so when they go on vacation, it’s to places most Americans have only read about in newspapers. Along the way, they are not daunted by bringing home large souvenirs – doors, tables, light fixtures, heavy fabric – that serve a function in their well-appointed Ashland home.
“We love being world travelers,” says Joanne. “It is a passion that we've shared since we met. Some form of art piece from major trips becomes a part of our home that reminds us daily of other cultures. Fortunately, we almost always agree on what piece will be. It is not planned but happens organically at some point during a trip.”
These unusual pieces have found new life in a new world, but proudly exhibit their origins and age.
An inlaid door that leads into the kitchen pantry came from Morocco. Durable camel bags from Turkey were made into seat cushions in the family room. The bags have withstood decades of heat, dust and rain, so nothing can harm these charming, sensible cushions. Under the Soueds’ vision, a fossilized stone from the Sahara Desert has literally been placed on a pedestal and transformed into a graceful backyard fountain.
“Our home is eclectic but we love it and it tends to make folks comfortable when they enter the house,” says Joanne. “Friends say it is warm and inviting, and it provides many talking points for first time guests.”
Giving Back
Russy and Anita Sumariwalla intentionally simplify their souvenir collection. “Cost is the number one factor when we’re deciding. Then I ask myself, ‘where will it go in our home?’” Russy says, adding, “It wouldn’t be right to store these beautiful things.”
The couple mostly concentrates on one art form – sculptures – and contains these keepsakes in the living room of their Rogue Valley Manor apartment.
The birthplaces of these sculptures help them to mentally circumnavigate the globe. On pedestals and shelves are sculptures of a female nude chiseled from stone by Shona tribesman in Zimbabwe that they bought in Canada, a gold-plated reproduction of a goddess guarding King Tut’s tomb they saw in Egypt and a replica of Marathon Boy found at the National Archaeological Museum of Athens in Greece. Inside a vitrine is a small marble female torso that came from Switzerland, where Anita was born, and several gods, goddess and a Buddha are from India, where Russy was born.
He stops in front of a plaster of Paris nude he bought in a Moscow gallery in the early 90s. “It was right after the fall of the Soviet Union and I wanted to help a Russian artist,” says Russy, a former president and CEO of United Way International.
Anita is a painter and Russy an appreciator of art. There home, like the Reruchas and Soueds, represent not only their philosophy about the importance of travel, but also their approach to honoring what they have been privileged to see.