Summertime Tropic Retreats at Home

Vacation at Home

If this summer finds you retreating at home, rather than lazing around a tropical island paradise, no worries. Create your own tropical retreat at home, using any of these sultry, easy-to-make examples.

Stay well within your budget, with these do-it-yourself room redecoration projects. When finished, relax in your hideaway at home to tropical sensations and nautical inspirations filling your mind.

Nautical Inspirations

Striped fabrics or throw pillows can create just the right touch for oceanic accents, as provided by a large striped rug shown in "Coastal Entertaining Porch". Or create a cozy sailboat-cabin look for your home-office "Nautical Retreat" by using a solid blue mattress cover, and convert a small built-in space to double as a guest bedroom, both from My Home Ideas online.

Bold sea-striped slip covers or upholstered furniture items can be impressive alone as in "Reach for the Sky", or paired with natural striping tones around artwork or mirrors as a focal-point of interest, as in "Adrift in Neutrals", both from Ladies Home Journal online. A watery color palette of ocean tones can soothe the mind while inviting distant sounds of crashing surf.

Watercolor Inspirations

Try decorating with soft aqua against bright white as shown in this dreamy poolside room from Ladies Home Journal online "Pool Together". Or add several citrus-striped toss pillows, beneath a row of ceiling fans, to turn an enclosed porch into a comfy tropical-breeze inspired retreat as in "Install a Ceiling Fan" from Better Homes and Gardens online.

Festive Inspirations

Bright and colorful yellows, pinks, and greens of a tropical fruit salad are the inspiration for this bold "Fruit Fresh" look by Ladies Home Journal. Or if your idea of retreating is a hideaway craft room, liven it up with a bright and bold tropical fiesta look, as in "A Pretty Bonus Room Makeover" (slide show) from Better Homes and Gardens online.

Showing step-by-step decorating tips for room makeovers, these Better Homes and Gardens examples turn a boring room into an airy tropical retreat by "Decorating in Stages", find the "Sunroom" (video) from clips along the bottom. Or paint a single bright wall to display nautical artifacts and other artwork, creating an underwater calming focal point for your hideaway, as shown in "Quick Room Refreshes".

Beach Inspirations

Neutral shades of sand and driftwood come together (with or without a splash of color) in the Ladies Home Journal beach-casual living room retreat, "Play in the Sand". Try transforming an interesting piece of weathered driftwood into a decorator's showcasing piece, as in this "Driftwood Drama" glass coffee table base from My Home Ideas online.

A mix of bamboo blinds with dark-wicker furniture pieces could be just the tropical touch you need, to beach-up the look of your "Small-Space Bungalow on a Budget". Throw down a sea-grass floor-mat rug to match a stone fireplace, decorate with weathered-wood patterns of neutral beach tones, and then throw around splashes of tropical-citrus accents as in "Make Your Fireplace More Efficient", both from Better Homes and Gardens.

You will save money while improving your home's desirability (whatever theme you capture) when you redecorate your current spaces into tropical-paradise retreats. You will probably find that you didn't really need an exotic vacation after all.