Tradewinds is where the Mossbacher family, including parents played by Connie Britton and Steve Zahn, stays. In real life, it’s the Four Seasons’ presidential suite. “It’s huge,” Fox says. “We edited it down to the living room and one bedroom and kind of changed out the doors.” For the color palette, Fox took her cues from the ocean views off the balcony—and the ’70s-style paintings by Hawaiian artist Herb Kawainui Kāne that hang on the walls. “His artwork defined it,” she says. “That was the first step. The search for fabric went from that palette of blue. The use of turtles and everything evolved from those paintings.”
Fox used vintage fabric for the curtains, pillow covers, and headboard in the Palm Suite. Most of the fabric on the show comes from a Hawaiian company called Trendtex.
Courtesy of HBOThe green velvet Natuzzi sectional in the Palm Suite living room is from the Hawaiian store HomeWorld.
Courtesy of HBOThe Palm Suite becomes a plot point as disgruntled honeymooner Shane Patton (Jake Lacy) has an ongoing argument with hotel manager Armond (Murray Bartlett) about a reservation mix-up with the Pineapple Suite. Fox and her team, including set decorator Jennifer Lukehart and draper Andrea Hambuchen, chose vibrant greens for this one. “It’s all kind of vintage-looking fabric and it’s quite thick,” Fox says. “I really like using velvet because it’s so over the top. I have a green velvet couch in the Palm Suite. In the Tradewinds, they have blue velvet chairs. To me, it’s so anti-beach.”
The Pineapple Suite employs earth tones of yellow, green, and brown and incorporates the pineapple motif on pillow covers and curtains.
Courtesy of HBOThe earthy theme is continued in The Pineapple Suite, where the curtains and pillow covers are yellow and green, all decorated with pineapple motifs, and the furniture is brown. One thing Fox did veto, however, was orange accents. “We have to live in these colors,” she says. “For me, it was creating tacky yet elegant backgrounds that helped feed the story in an over-the-top room.”
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Framed pink hibiscus botanicals enhance the neutral palette of the Hibiscus Suite’s wallpaper.
Courtesy of HBOThe Hibiscus Suite is one of Fox’s personal favorites, perhaps because this room best reflects the personality of its guest—Tanya McQuoid (Jennifer Coolidge), a flamboyant boozer who’s come to Hawaii to scatter her mother’s ashes. Color her room red. Tanya wears her heart on her sleeve, and the florid headboard and curtains are a perfect match for her ardent nature.
“There were several fabrics with hibiscus,” Fox says, “and I spoke to Alex [Bovaird], the costume designer, who said, ‘Jennifer’s in a lot of prints.’ They clash and they go [together] perfectly. And we went for it. Although Tanya’s very earthy, she’s also bright and bold. It’s funny how the room develops with the story and everybody’s in the right place.”