Decorating with maps

My earliest memories of maps has to be my parents pouring over huge roadside maps on their many travels around Africa.

They were also an integral part of my schooling because all the classrooms I can remember had massive maps on the walls - the type that are now highly collectable: maps hung on a mounting stick & in a prominent position.

I was always drawn to their features - physical features like rivers criss-crossing their surface,   mountains & vegetation in various colours; interesting names & shapes ....

We have some of our old maps of Botswana, Zimbabwe,  Namibia & South Africa, Ethiopia - some worn along their crease lines, evident of their usage. This was most definitely pre satnav time ...

We have been using some rather generic IKEA storage boxes in the study but they don't really fit in well so one evening, I had an inspired idea to map them. I found some old Pears encyclopaedia books at a charity shop with loads of A5 size maps in the back which were perfect.

It was a very easy job: I used a craft knife to get the maps out of the books, unscrewed the IKEA boxes then glued them on with pva glue & left it to dry.

 The sides were too white against the aged maps so I used some of the other pages to glue onto the sides too  & it looked just right.

 They are stored on top of a book case in our small, personal study where they look perfectly at home amongst the books ...

This is a close up of the boxes - mapped & interesting now ...

 LONDON on a lid ....

Do you like the boxes? Are you a fan of old maps as decor items? Do you even own maps?

Thanks for stopping by, please leave you link & I will return the visit.

Dee ~♥~