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Wild Bird Breezeway In A Tropical Theme

A breezeway generally connects the garage to the rest of your home. It is a fun space to decorate, because you can incorporate elements from the garden as well as from your interior to build a beautiful transitional space that connects the outside of your house with the inside.

Using organic elements like birds, tree branches and plants to decorate your breezeway can add a nice contrast against the architectural elements of your room. If you love the idea of having a little tropical hideaway in your very own home, then you will enjoy transforming your breezeway into a tropical sanctuary.

Tropical Rainforest Design

If you think of the rainforest, it brings to mind abundant and lush plants, colorful bird life like parrots, parakeets and toucans. The colors all around are rich and vibrant. To effectively bring this feeling to your breezeway, you are going to want to add lush plants to your space that have tendrils or vines, some tall palms and colorful bushes. Perched in the middle of all of this overgrown forest you will want to let the colorful beak of a toucan poke out.

The Floor First

Consider any color that you add to this space needs to be rich and saturated. So as you consider your floors, think of robust reddish brown or deep mossy green. If you are installing tile, then choose a color that reflects the floor of a rainforest. Instead of installing square tile consider breaking it into big chunks to give a more natural feel to the floor. You may even want to mix deep, mossy greens with some reddish brown tile pieces to add a touch of authenticity to the floor. If you are using carpet in this space instead, choose from this same color palette to keep the rich, saturated color across the floor. For a more durable option, you may choose to install indoor/outdoor carpeting.

Create a Sunset
If you want to have your space exude the peace and tranquility of a tropical sunset, then have fun as you paint the walls. Begin at the bottom with a deep blue green, and as you work your way up the wall end in the faded orange of a sunset. Your base color will graduate from deep blue green to pure mid-tone blue to pale blue.

Then to add the effect of a tropical sunset, choose where you want the sun to be, and that is where your color will be the most intense. On the bottom of your wall, sponge your blue green color over the mid-tone blue to add depth to the scene, and as you move into the lighter blue portion of the top half of the wall sponge yellow, orange and red throughout the area of the sunset. You can make the scene more or less colorful, depending on how vibrant you want the scene to be.

Incorporate Plants

Now it is time to add the foliage to your space. If you are adding live plants, make sure that the space is hospitable. Ensure that the temperature is warm enough, and make sure that the breezeway has adequate light to support your plants. If you do not want to have to take care of a room full of live plants you do always have the option of incorporating silk plants into your design as well. While you could use all silk plants, a better idea may be to use silk plants to fill in between your real plants to create the abundant, overgrown feel of a tropical forest.

If your environment does not support true tropical plants, consider using spider plants and ferns instead; although you can still incorporate some palm-like plants, such as traveler’s palm and bird of paradise as hardy plant solutions. Fig trees and rubber trees, along with dracaena varieties, also make a lush tropical feeling when grouped together. You can also add a philodendron to the mix for the areas of your breezeway that do not get much natural light.

If you want your plants to retain their leaves year round, then keep them inside during the summer. If you put them out for the summer months, then they will likely drop their leaves in the winter. As you are placing your plants, stagger the heights and leaf textures. Tuck some flowering plants into areas of green leaves. Bromeliads, which look like giant pineapples, can be tucked between orchids and begonias. Mask the pots by adding a little bamboo fencing in front of them, and then allow ivy or spider plants to spill over to soften the edge of the bamboo.

Bring in the Birds

After the sunset is in place and the plants are installed, you can bring in the birds. You can tuck a parrot in the branches of one of your palms, and tuck tiny finches and parakeets throughout.

Some Seating

If you are adding a chair or bench in the space you could choose rattan or a delicate wrought iron table and chairs. Bamboo inspired furniture would work as well. A storage bench to hold hats and scarves would add a nice touch as well as a little functionality.

About the Author

Article by Jeanelle Deppner from WallDecorandHomeAccents – the place to go for iron scroll wall art and home decor accents.