Ideas for Decorating a Breezeway in a Wild Bird Theme – 3
 

When you have a breezeway, connecting your garage and house, you have the perfect opportunity to bring some of the outdoors into your home. Instead of there being a sharp line between nature and your home, you can enjoy a bit of the outdoors in your home, but in a way that you control.

When you bring live or faux birds and plants into your breezeway, you can’t help but feel cheerful, especially if you live in the South where tropical birds dazzle you with an array of color not seen in the North. There are many places in the warmer climates to gather inspiration, but for vibrant color, nothing beats the deep greens of tropical foliage, the rich colors of tropical flowers and the beauty of the birds.

Incorporating Tropical Birds into Your Breezeway:

Inspiration from the Rain Forest

The rain forest is a place of lush growth and colorful birds—toucans, parrots, parakeets—to name just a few. To pull off the theme effectively you will want to incorporate a combination of vining plants, colorful bushes, tall palms or dracaenas with birds to match.

Begin with the floor

If you have a concrete floor, stain the floor a slightly reddish brown or other natural earthy color. If you install tile, select a natural color. Instead of sticking with square tiles, break the tiles into large pieces and lay out the tile with expanded spacing allowing the grout to fill the gaps. Or if you would like the color of grass, install green indoor-outdoor carpet. It will catch all the dirt before it enters the house and hides dirt quite well.

Add the tropical sky to your walls.

You can capture the feel of a tropical sunset, by painting the upper half of the wall a light blue. Paint the lower part of the wall a midnight blue. Soften the line between the two colors by sponging the darker color over the lighter color, gradually fading the dark blue out by applying it less frequently.

Using the same sponge technique add a deep red-orange from about 1/3 of the way up the wall, fading the red-orange so it stops just above where the dark blue fades out. Working with a lighter hue of the same orange, sponge this color from halfway up the wall to just past where you stopped with the deeper orange color. Lightly sponge a pale yellow over the top of the two oranges, fading the color slightly past where the oranges stop. The key is to let colors from the bottom layer peek through.

Add live or silk plants

While silk plants can give you the look you want, live plants can be very rewarding. They are the most fun if you consider their needs for light. For example, areca palms need a good amount of light and humidity, or they gradually die out. They don’t need full sun, but they do need bright light. Raphis, fishtail, and Chamaedorea palms tolerate far lower light conditions. All of these palms are great for providing height.

Other palm-like plants do well in bright light—the great white bird of paradise and traveler’s palm really look tropical. These are also drought tolerant in nature, so they don’t need a lot of water—great for forgetful gardeners.

For height, you will also want to consider Ficus “Benjamina”, Ficus Alii, Ficus Robusta (Rubber Tree), Ficus Lyrata (Fiddle Leaf Fig), Dracaena “Marginata”, Dracaena “Reflexa”, and giant and dwarf Schefflera. All of these tree/bushes do very well in lower light conditions. You determine whether these plants serve as tall trees or bushes by the size you purchase.

Note: If you don’t want your plants to drop their leaves in the fall, resist the urge to put them outside during warm weather.

Create a sense of the rain forest by staggering heights and textures. Incorporating some of the flowering plants of the forest around the bases of your taller plants adds color at different times of the year. Bromeliads, which are recognizable by their pineapple-like appearance can be incorporated along with orchids, heliconias and begonias.

Hide the bases of the pots by covering them with bamboo fencing and then adding plants that are typically used as hanging plants—spider plant, pothos, wandering Jew. These will drape over the bamboo and soften the edges.

Now add your wild birds.

If one of your trees is large enough, put a parrot in the branches. If not, hang a parrot (perched in a large bamboo ring) from the ceiling. Tuck brightly colored finches or parakeets into bushes.

Add the furniture.

If there is room for furniture in your breezeway, keep it tropical in style. Stick with white or light natural colors. Rattan is perfect, but so are delicate wrought iron chairs and tables. Look for an armoire trimmed out with bamboo-like trim to hold coats and shoes. Add cushions that are covered with a tropical bird fabric and your look will be complete.



Veronica Smith is a contributing writer and designer for AmericanArtisanArt.com. She offers tips on displaying contemporary wall art and copper wall art.

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