Why settle for casual hospitality when you can treat your visitors to tropical hospitality? Below are a few very easy and innovative ways to make your guests — not to mention yourself — feel like they’re staying at a bed-and-breakfast amid swaying palms and with a turquoise sea.

1. Put your memories on display. Switch up your screens and bring out a few of your favorite things for a complex game of show and tell. An artful arrangement of tropical memorabilia, postcards or publications is guaranteed to find some fantastic conversations started, particularly if they tell an interesting story.

To keep your shelves from looking too cluttered, stick to a limited color scheme, or pick a color to tie it all together visually. Here I’ve used a printer tray that has been given to us as a present by a friend, who happens to be an authority on tropical drift seeds; a few of those seeds are suitably scattered through the display. The wood tones are repeated with all the shelves and also the shadow box, drawing attention to the shells, vase and art.

2. Display and serve tropical fruit. Unearthly-looking pleasures are exciting for visitors to admire and devour. Head to a local specialty market, farmer’s market or ethnic market and keep a watch for exotic fruits, such as the rambutan and guinep shown here. You will have a great deal of fun tasting some thing fresh, and it’s guaranteed to be an unforgettable experience for your visitors.

Research the fruit so you can make it a safe and enjoyable experience for all. In the minimum, it is going to make you sound smarter. If dragonfruit and snotfruit sound too frightening for you, exhibit a pineapple instead. It is the global symbol of hospitality.

Martha O’Hara Interiors

3. Use bold leaves as striking arrangements. Just a single leaf could be all it takes to make a room say”tropical.” Clip a leaf or two off a houseplant such as the parlor palm (Chamaedorea elegans) or kentia palm (Howea fosteriana) to make your room feel as though it’s shaded by swaying coconut trees. They are sometimes placed in a vase such as the one displayed here, made to a organic table runner or exhibited on a wall, mantel or windowsill. In the absence of palm fronds, the leaves of additional leafy tropical plants will do well.

4. Incorporate tropical art. This painting by my mother, Nancy Asbell, is more than simply art; it’s a window into a cheerful and bright Florida scene painted by somebody who lived life via the strokes of her paintbrush. But perhaps I am biased, since she had been my mother, after all. Regardless, the appearance is made complete with a rattan box plus a glowing wire candleholder.

You do not have to get an original painting to find this appearance, however, and economical alternatives vary from a framed and enlarged picture to a popular tropical print that has been wrapped around a framework such as a painted canvas. You might even roll ink over a palm frond and make a print by putting it onto a big sheet of superior paper, letting it dry and putting it in a mat and frame. You likely have some other neat ideas of your own.

Amoroso Design

5. Bring the houseplants centre stage. Houseplants are often overlooked and awarded the part of supporting actors in the unfolding drama of decoration, but a well-situated specimen becomes a sculptural work of art and ties rooms into the world outside the windows. If you do not possess a houseplant already, you can get massive palms and other architectural specimen plants for roughly the exact same price for a bouquet of flowers.

This chamber uses a muted color scheme, tropical wood textures and a fun zebra print for an exotic appearance that draws attention to the glowing green white bird of heaven (Strelitzia nicolai) in the corner. If you are new to houseplants, follow the directions on the tag or search on the internet for tips. Generally speaking, just make sure you give it plenty of bright (but not direct) light so it is easily admired and healthier to boot.

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6. Create texture with unusual collections. Sleek and minimalist furnishings could be awarded interest and warmth with a little bit of natural feel, particularly if the pieces tell a story, such as the sea beans displayed here. (But since they were meant to begin a conversation, you’ll have to ask about them in the Comments to discover more.)

The most mundane items can dress up a dull table without adding clutter. A flat-woven tray of coffee beans not only appears rich and exotic; it smells fantastic and encourages guests to conduct their hands through the tablescape while they await dinner. While the pinecones or seedpods on your backyard might not technically be tropical in origin, they will still look that way in the right setting.

7. Create the necessary arrangements. If you own a houseplant or possess some tropical bulbs in the backyard, think about combining them with cut flowers to create your own artistic flower structures. Just about any flower would fit right in with the help of large and bold tropical foliage, but nearly all of the flowers (with the exception of the green cymbidium) inside this wedding arrangement were clipped from potted tropical plants on my balcony.

When tropical flowers and foliage are hard to find at your regional florist, head to the houseplant part of the garden centre and begin looking for a plant that could take care of a light pruning. Peace lilies (Spathiphyllum wallisii), split-leaf philodedron (Monstera deliciosa) and anthuriums (Anthurium andraeanum) are all houseplants that may be clipped and additional to flower structures.

8. Collect vacation memories. A postcard can be made to a work of art with the help of a photograph frame, which spiny lobster appears to blend right into the natural habitat of dark wood and interesting beachcombing finds here.

Shadow shelves and boxes create perfect display spots for found treasures like seashells and memorabilia that could otherwise languish away into a darkened cupboard, but the possibilities are infinite. Make your own British colonial curiosity cabinet with whatever treasures you’ve stowed away. Even decidedly’untropical’ subjects are able to appear exotic and intriguing when handled like a museum’s most precious collection. What fun screens can you come up with?

Design Studio -Teri Koss

9. Put flower vases in unexpected places. A flower arrangement on the dining room table is nice, but a display livening up a hallway, foyer or toilet speaks volumes regarding your thoughtfulness and hospitality. At a pinch you can even purchase (or reduce your own) flowers and split them up for two structures to spread cheery tropical taste around the house.

When you have a plant in the backyard with fragrant flowers such as the gardenia (Gardenia jasminoides) or moonflower (Ipomoea alba), consider floating them into a bowl on your toilet sink so they can give their odor into a most unaromatic place.

10. Choose some flowers. You definitely don’t need an whole flower arrangement to bring the tropics to your tabletops; an iconic hibiscus flower in a coral-patterned vase is everything it takes to make you feel as though you’re vacationing in Polynesia. This flower was plucked from my garden in Florida, but hibiscus plants and other trademark tropical favorites such as heliconias and gingers are usually available at the garden centre as seasonal container plants. Purchase one for yourself and use the flowers and foliage all season long.

You do not have to go overboard with tiki kitsch to make guests feel as though they’re staying at a hotel. An artistically organized display of well-chosen items is all it takes to bring a little exotic excitement to your home, and it does not have to cost a dime.

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