Tropical Decorating – Creating a Tropical Canvas Paradise

Generating ideas for tropical decorating a casita, or small cabin, nestled within Finca Laurel, a tropical farm in the mountains of Santa Barbara, Costa Rica requires no more than a walk around the grounds. Beautiful flowering trees and sweet perfumed tropical plants provide plenty of inspiration.

An affordable option when considering home interior decoration is that of cotton canvas material. Painting designs onto canvas with acrylic paints offers up brilliant hues of color. With three different variations of plumeria in bloom, the decision as to what to create for the tropical design was made quite easily.

But first things first; what color to paint the interior? Although there are various tropical themes such as Hawaiian and Caribbean, the sub tropics of Costa Rica’s mountains are a little more subtle. The goal is to create a calming and peaceful tropical interior ambiance within the casita reflecting the abundant flora.

Drawing from the fruits of the farm a pale banana yellow color was selected for the walls, providing light and warmth. Trim of blond wood around the doors and windows and kitchen are consistent with a natural look allowing color to be incorporated without be overwhelming for a tropical home decor theme.

So here comes the fun part: creating the tropical design and colors for a canvas wall hanging, thereafter the design will be used for several pillow covers, cushions and a canvas rug or two. Using pencil the design is free-hand sketched onto the canvas; a palette of acrylic paints is mixed and tested on a strip of the canvas material to match the different colors and hues of plumeria. For the background color of the wall hanging, more mixing and testing until the perfect shade of green works well with both the blooms and the wall color.

After the paint has dried, a thin coat of varnish is applied to help protect and give the canvas wall hanging a sturdy “hand.”  The finished edges have been mitered and sewn, and the tropical wall hanging art is now ready for a simple wood frame. The wall hanging becomes the focal point of the main room of the casita. To expand on the tropical design, the obvious next step is to use these colors with different designs on other home interior decoration items.

Tropical decorating can be created easily with simple touches such as canvas wall hangings, hand painted pillow and cushion covers and a canvas rug or two. It works well to consider the natural surroundings; use those colors and design to create your own special tropical interior.