Making Our Airbnbs Catholic

How sacred art, traveling crucifixes, and a few simple traditions help us make each new Airbnb feel like a Catholic home.

One of the first things we do when arriving at a new Airbnb is make it feel like home. Not necessarily by unpacking our suitcases, organizing the kitchen, or figuring out where everyone's belongings will go, although those things certainly need to happen, too! For our family, settling into a new place begins with something much more important: making Christ the center of our temporary home.

We've developed a few simple traditions that help us do just that. They don't require much space, weigh very little, and cost next to nothing. But they've become an important part of how we live our Catholic faith while traveling full-time. And, rather amusingly, one of those traditions involves covering up all the televisions!

Back in 2022, Thomas made a decision as the head of our home that has turned out to be an enormous blessing for our family. We had a large, flat-screen television mounted prominently above the fireplace in our family room. Like so many American homes, the television was the natural focal point. The furniture faced it, and whether it was turned on or off, that enormous black rectangle occupied the most important visual space in the room.

Thomas decided that needed to change. He didn't want a television occupying the place of honor in our family room. He wanted Christ there. And so, down came the television! We sold it and replaced it with beautiful images of the Sacred Heart of Jesus and the Immaculate Heart of Mary. We then had an enthronement of the Sacred Heart in our home, surrounded by family and friends.

I remember that day vividly. It was such a simple thing, really, taking down a television and replacing it with sacred images. But the meaning behind that decision was profound. As the head of our home, Thomas was making a visible declaration that Christ, not entertainment, would occupy the place of honor in our family. I'm so grateful that he had us take that television down, and we've never regretted it.

Now, lest anyone think we abandoned all forms of electronic entertainment, we certainly didn't! We still enjoy watching movies together as a family. We love a good comedy, an adventure film, or an interesting documentary. We just tend to watch together on an iPad or computer rather than gathering around an enormous television. It's not that we believe television itself is inherently bad. We simply don't want screens dominating our surroundings or inviting us to spend hours mindlessly watching whatever happens to be on.

For us, it's about being intentional. We want to choose when and how we use screens rather than allowing them to become the centerpiece of our family life.

When we moved into our home in St. Marys, Kansas, I made a decision of my own about how I wanted to decorate. From that point forward, I wasn't going to have any decorative artwork in our home that wasn't Catholic. Everything had to be Catholic! I wanted the walls of our home to reflect our faith, with sacred images surrounding our family in every room. I didn't want religious artwork to be something reserved for a prayer corner or a single wall. I wanted our Catholic faith to be unmistakably present throughout our home.

And so began my rather enthusiastic collection of vintage Catholic art!

Over the past several years, I had accumulated some wonderful old pieces of pre-Vatican II Catholic artwork. And the older they looked, the better! Cracked and peeling frames? I loved them! Stains, tears, faded colors, and other signs of age? Even better! I wasn't looking for pristine artwork. I loved pieces that looked as though they had spent generations hanging in Catholic homes, quietly witnessing decades of family prayers, joys, sorrows, and ordinary daily life.

I even collected old Stations of the Cross that had been removed from deconsecrated churches. Those beautiful old stations found their place in our home, too. One of my favorites was an old station depicting St. Veronica wiping the face of Our Lord. The paint was chipped, the colors were faded, and the architectural frame showed its age. To me, those imperfections only made it more beautiful.

I also had a wonderful old framed print that read, "Christ is the Head of this house, the unseen Guest at every meal, the silent Listener to every conversation." What a beautiful sentiment! And one that has taken on even greater meaning for our family as we travel.

Our Catholic artwork wasn't confined to one room or a single gallery wall. It was everywhere! Above the sofas, tucked onto bookshelves, arranged around crucifixes, and nestled among our everyday furnishings. I loved creating little galleries of sacred art throughout our home. Nothing needed to match. In fact, I preferred that it didn't! There was something so beautiful about the old frames, the varied images, and the unmistakably Catholic character of it all. I often wondered about the families who had prayed before those images or the churches whose walls they had once adorned.

When we made the decision to sell nearly everything we owned and begin traveling full-time, one of the things I was saddest to part with was that collection. But when you're reducing an entire household to what can fit inside a Jeep, large framed artwork simply isn't practical. So, one by one, I parted with my beloved pieces. Thankfully, every single one found a wonderful new home, and that made letting them go much easier. I love knowing that those beautiful old images are still being treasured and, hopefully, inspiring devotion in other Catholic homes. But I certainly miss them!

As we were preparing to begin our travels, Thomas brought up something that hadn't really occurred to me. We would be living in Airbnbs, and nearly every Airbnb seems to have televisions everywhere. Living rooms, bedrooms, sometimes even the kitchens! He suggested that we find a way to cover the television screens while we were staying in these temporary homes.

I thought that was a wonderful idea. After all, we'd made the decision years earlier that we didn't want a television to dominate our living space, and now we were about to spend months, perhaps years, living in homes where we had no control over where televisions were placed.

Of course, we couldn't remove them, but we could certainly cover them!

That's when I began thinking about how we could accomplish this without damaging anything, taking up much luggage space, or making the process unnecessarily complicated. And then it occurred to me: Why not cover them with Catholic art?

I had just parted with my beloved collection of vintage religious artwork, and here was an opportunity to bring sacred images back into our surroundings, even if we couldn't bring the original pieces themselves.

It was the perfect combination of Thomas's practical idea and my desire to make our home decidedly Catholic, no matter where that home happened to be.

I started looking around online and eventually stumbled across Fine Art America, where I discovered that I could order some of my favorite Catholic images printed on lightweight fabric. The website offers reproductions of all sorts of artwork, including many beautiful religious images, and allows you to have them printed on tapestries.

Now, I should explain that these aren't what I would traditionally think of as tapestries. They're not heavy woven wall hangings. Honestly, they feel more like lightweight bedsheets! And for our purposes, that's absolutely perfect. They're easy to fold, lightweight enough to pack without taking up much of our precious cargo space, and large enough to cover the televisions we encounter in our temporary homes.

I chose three beautiful Catholic images:

Our Lady of Perpetual Help: This beloved image of Our Blessed Mother holding the Christ Child is one of my favorites. I love the traditional iconography and the tenderness of Our Lady's expression.

The Sacred Heart of Jesus and Immaculate Heart of Mary: These images are especially meaningful to our family because of our enthronement in 2022. Having the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts prominently displayed in our temporary homes is a continuation of that devotion.

The Disputation of the Most Holy Sacrament: Raphael's magnificent fresco depicts the Church in Heaven and on earth, united around the mystery of the Holy Eucharist. We once had a large framed canvas reproduction of this artwork hanging in our dining room. I loved that piece, and while the framed canvas couldn't come with us, the image itself now travels right along with our family.

I can't tell you how happy that makes me! Of course, these lightweight fabric reproductions don't have the history or character of my beloved old prints in their wonderfully cracked and peeling frames. But they allow us to bring beautiful Catholic art into our temporary homes, wherever in the world we happen to be. And that is such a joy for me.

One thing I've learned since purchasing our tapestries is that you can have a border added around the artwork. I didn't realize that when I placed my order! As a result, our images are absolutely enormous. Our Lady of Perpetual Help is practically life-sized!

If I were ordering them again, I would choose to have a border printed around each image so the artwork itself wouldn't be quite so massive. But for now, our oversized sacred images work just fine. And frankly, I'd much rather look at an enormous image of Our Blessed Mother than an enormous black television screen!

Now that we're living in Airbnbs, we've discovered that televisions seem to be everywhere. The living room has one. The master bedroom has one. Sometimes the children's bedrooms have them, too! And there they sit, enormous black rectangles, often occupying the most prominent wall in the room.

Of course, these aren't our houses, and we're certainly not going to start removing televisions from the walls of other people's homes! But we can do something about what we see when we walk into a room.

When we arrive at a new Airbnb, one of the first things we do is collect all the television remotes and put them together in one designated location. That way, no one is tempted to casually pick up a remote, turn on the television, and zone out. It's such an easy habit to fall into, especially after a long day of traveling. We would much rather have the children reading, playing games, talking, exploring outdoors, or spending time together. And when we do decide to watch a movie, it's something we choose to do as a family. We're not trying to eliminate entertainment. We're simply trying to keep it in its proper place.

Once the remotes have been collected, we cover the television screens with our Catholic tapestries. And just like that, the room begins to look a little more like our home. Instead of a giant black screen dominating the room, we have a beautiful image of Our Blessed Mother, the Sacred and Immaculate Hearts, or the Blessed Sacrament.

It's such a simple transformation, but it makes an enormous difference in the atmosphere of the space.

Of course, draping a lightweight sheet over a television presents a small practical problem. How do you keep it in place?

I found a wonderfully simple solution on Amazon: picnic tablecloth weights! Yes, the little weighted clips designed to keep outdoor tablecloths from blowing away in the wind. They're small, inexpensive, and easy to pack. I use them to help hold the tapestries in place when draped over televisions or furniture.

No nails, no hooks, no holes in the walls, and no permanent modifications to someone else's property. Just a lightweight piece of fabric and a few little weights.

We make sure the television is turned off and cool before covering it, and we don't operate it while covered. We also take care that the clips don't damage the television or furniture. It's a wonderfully practical little solution for our traveling lifestyle.

Along with our tapestries, we travel with several small, blessed crucifixes. I specifically chose standing crucifixes rather than wall-mounted ones. This allows us to place them on dressers, nightstands, shelves, or tables without needing to hang anything or put holes in the walls.

They're small, portable, and easy to unpack. When we arrive at a new place, we find suitable spots for our crucifixes in the bedrooms and common living areas. These little reminders of Our Lord's sacrifice are among the first things we unpack.

And there's something very comforting about waking up in an unfamiliar bedroom, perhaps hundreds or thousands of miles from where we were the previous month, and seeing a familiar crucifix on the nightstand. It reminds us that while our surroundings may change, our faith does not.

One of the things this nomadic lifestyle is teaching me is that home isn't necessarily a particular building, a familiar street, or even a collection of furniture. We've let go of so many material possessions. Our furniture, decorations, framed religious artwork, and nearly everything that once made our house recognizable as ours have been sold, donated, or left behind. But our faith came with us. Our family devotions came with us. And the desire to make Christ the center of our home came with us.

Whether we're spending a week in a little cabin in Oklahoma, a month beside a lake, or eventually settling into an apartment somewhere overseas, I want our children to understand that a Catholic home isn't defined by its square footage, its furnishings, or even its permanence. It's defined by the life of faith cultivated within its walls.

Of course, a tapestry and a crucifix alone don't make a family holy. Prayer, the sacraments, charity, and the daily effort to live our faith matter infinitely more. But the things we surround ourselves with can help direct our hearts and minds toward Heaven. Sacred images remind us of what is eternal. A crucifix on a nightstand reminds us to pray. An image of Our Blessed Mother reminds us that we have a heavenly Mother watching over us, wherever we happen to be.

And covering a television with sacred art reminds us, in a very tangible way, that Christ deserves the place of honor in our home, even when that home belongs to someone else for the month.

I am so grateful for Thomas's leadership in this, beginning with his decision to remove the television from above our fireplace in 2022 and continuing with his idea to cover the televisions in our temporary homes. What began as a simple change in our family room has become a tradition we carry with us wherever we go. It may not be everyone's cup of tea, and that's perfectly fine. But it works beautifully for our family.

Between our traveling crucifixes, our lightweight Catholic tapestries, and our little ritual of gathering up the television remotes, making our temporary accommodations feel like a Catholic home has become one of the very first things we do when we arrive. It takes only a few minutes, costs very little, and means a great deal to us.

We may have left behind the antique frames, the furniture, and the walls that once held our beloved collection of Catholic art. But we haven't left behind the faith, the beauty, or the devotion those things represented. Wherever our pilgrimage takes us, we want Christ to remain at the center of our family life.

After all, that beloved old print from my collection said it so beautifully: Christ is the Head of this house.

Even when the house is an Airbnb.

Sacred Heart of Jesus, have mercy on us.

Immaculate Heart of Mary, pray for us.