This disclosure describes an artificial reality system that presents artificial reality content or artificial reality effects based on, or in response to, interactions with one or more physical objects within a physical environment. In one example, this disclosure describes a method that includes determining that a user has performed a trigger action on a trigger object; responsive to determining that the user has performed the trigger action, generating artificial reality content; presenting the artificial reality content on a display associated with a head-mounted display; determining that the user has performed a de-trigger action; and responsive to determining that the user has performed the de-trigger action, discontinuing presentation of the artificial reality content.