If any couple needed a vacation, it was Lee and Linda Bonneau.

The Methuen natives met when they were teenagers, dated for six years and married in 1968. Their first three years of marriage brought the couple four sons: twins Keith and Scott, followed by Sean and then Craig.

"When all four boys were done with high school, we decided to take our first vacation out of the country," Lee said.

They head toward warmth: Santo Domingo in the Dominican Republic. They went to Acapulco a year later. And then they hit another 10 spots in the Caribbean and Mexico.

"We brought souvenirs from our vacation back home with us, and we wanted to display them. We wanted to be on vacation while at home," Linda said of their sunny trips in the late 1980s and early 1990s.

So that's exactly what they did. The couple turned their pirate-themed basement lounge into one with a Caribbean theme. Lee built a wooden tiki bar and a replica of an ancient Mayan pyramid. In the winter, the couple enjoy curling up next to their pellet stove while feeding Cheerios to their 14 koi fish. An indoor tropical pool that the fishies call home in the colder months is lined with faux flowers and greens, letting the Bonneaus travel south in their minds when there's snow outside.

As their list of international travel destinations grew, so did their international home decor. Want to go back to China? Head into the dining room. Egypt? Make a pit stop in the living room. Other rooms are thematically inspired by places still on their must-go list. Their bedroom is a passage to India; their three-season sunroom an African safari, and their kitchen a resembles an Italian street cafe.

"We couldn't add any more countries, we're out of room. And with just the two of us here, we're not building an addition," Linda said.

With each project, the couple incorporate the room's core furniture into the color scheme and ambiance. They develop a working plan of how to set up the room. Then they mix smaller pieces they purchase abroad with larger pieces they have found here - JCPenney, HomeGoods and Marshalls all offer good buys, Linda said.

For example, they recently redecorated their once-beige bedroom into an Indian-inspired retreat. They kept the cherry wood bed frame and bureaus, picking a burgundy and beige bedspread to match the burgundy carpet. They sketched out the overall concept to help the well-appointed room stay free of clutter. Next, Lee painted half the room a curry orange, followed by painting the walls with two "windows" with views of the Indian landscape. A few decorative pieces from India, purchased by co-workers of the Bonneaus' daughter-in-law, accent larger pieces bought locally.

"Over-cluttering is a real no-no," Linda said. "If I can't put something in a specific place, I don't buy it. That's what happened in our living room; we had too much Egyptian stuff, so I moved some of it to the hallway. There really can be too much."

The Bonneaus visited Egypt last November in celebration of Linda's 60th birthday. They booked the 15-day trip just 39 days in advance, a great way to get a great deal, Linda noted.

Upon their return, Lee decided to paint their family tree in hieroglyphics on their living room wall. Using six traditional colors - black, blue, gold, green, red and white - he painted the names of his and Linda's parents, their own names, and their four boys and their wives all together. Separately, he painted the names of their seven grandchildren: Justin, Victoria, Mariah, Nickolas, Scott, Brandi and Meghan. The whole process took roughly three months from research to final touch-ups.

"Going to Egypt was a lifelong dream," Linda said. "Now, we can go to Egypt whenever we want."