Decorating with plants is a wonderful way to bring life, beauty, and vitality to your interiors. There’s nothing like lush greenery to brighten up a space, not to mention its positive impact on our overall health and well-being. Houseplants are now all the rage because of these facts.
With a huge variety of indoor plants available, the ideas for decorating with plants are endless. But here are some tried-and-tested ways to liven up your living space with plants:
Start with decorating with standalone plants.
Once you start going to a local garden to find plants to buy, you might be tempted to get every plant that looks pretty to you. But when interior decorating with plants, it’s best to start small. To make a big impact with your first plant, get a standalone plant (a statement plant) that can be placed on the floor or table and are big enough to be a statement itself.
Choose from a few easy-to-grow plants and take your time learning how to care for them. Buying too many plants at once without knowing how to maintain them can lead to a houseful of dead plants later.
Plants that are beautiful, statement-making, and easy to grow include big cacti and succulents, ZZ plants, snake plants, pothos, spider plants, and bamboo.
Match your plants to your design style.
There’s nothing wrong with buying plants because you like how they look. But if you want to take your interior decorating to the next level, you may want to choose plants that fit the look of your home. Consider oversized plants like a rubber tree or a fiddle leaf fig if you have a mid-century modern interior. Look for functional plants like aloe or herbs in repurposed pots or vintage metal planters if you are into the farmhouse look. The key is to treat your plants just like any other piece of home décor. Check out these tips to help select the best indoor plants for you.
Group them together for more impact.
Assemble a group of plants in a single location, like, for instance, a group of succulents in windowsill pots or a variety of plants on an entryway table. Clustering plants together is an excellent way to create a decorative focal point. To make it more visually appealing, choose a variety of different leaf forms and shapes, and stagger the heights. Place the tallest ones at the back and put the small pots at the front.
Create contrast with plants of all sizes.
When it comes to decorating your interiors with plants, choose a few plants with different sizes or shades of green to create visual interest and contrast. Layering plants can be lovely to bring some life to an otherwise plain and boring room. You can layer them by displaying them at different heights, either by raising some on stands while others are on the pot on the floor or hanging them as part of a gallery wall.
Keep the display simple by using matching pots or adding color using various planters to suit your style. You can also experiment with plant stands to add height and turn a small potted plant into a major focal point for your room.
Hang plants on a wall.
Decorating plants with wall hangers can look really interesting. It adds another dimension to your décor, plus it frees up space on the floor and tables for other decorations and functional items. There are many plant hangers that are good-looking, inexpensive, and easy to install.
You can also opt for macramé plant hangers, as they can be pieces of art themselves for some modern and bohemian-style interiors. You can also opt for a glass-sealed terrarium supported by a wall bracing to create a unique display.
Place them on shelves.
For most interior designers and stylists, plants are a must-have when it comes to decorating shelves. Plants bring an element of freshness and softness to any shelf, especially trailing plants. Succulents can be helpful in filling gaps where objects feel too rigid. A shelf with plants, picture frames, and other decorative items has more dimension and openness than a solid wall of books.
Use them to soften a partition.
A selection of different indoor plants can make the perfect finishing touch to a room divider in an open floor-plan space. A contemporary, architectural partition shelf can complement plants with organic and sculptural forms. Style a partition shelf with a mix of plant species placed at different heights to keep the partition feeling light and airy.
Add color by using flowering plants and colorful leaves.
When we think of houseplants, we often think of green-leafed plants. But there are many colorful and flowering options that can add color to your interior decorating. Plants like African violets, kalanchoe, bromeliads, and begonias come with bold and unique flowers and lush greenery that adds beauty to your space.
If you want more traditional houseplants with colorful leaves, you can pick some Chinese evergreen, nerve plants, calathea, or croton for a subtle pop of color.
Use plants to liven up your bathroom.
The bathroom may not be your first idea when it comes to decorating your interiors with plants, but it’s a great place for indoor plants that enjoy high humidity. Indoor plants can bring a magical, spa-like feel to an otherwise utilitarian space in your home. Ferns, orchids, and peace lilies will like the added moisture in the air from the shower.
When choosing plants to add to the bathroom, consider the lighting in their space to make sure they will thrive. If your bathroom has windowsills, place plants near it so they can receive sunlight. For bathrooms with low lighting, choose plants like Boston fern, which likes humidity.
Brighten up dark corners with plants.
Houseplants can brighten up an empty living room corner. Most people won’t consider corners as a place to put plants because they don’t receive enough sunlight, but luckily, many houseplants don’t need or want a bright and sunny window to thrive. Incorporating low-light-loving plants in shadier corners helps it feel layered and welcoming. It can also soften up the space and enrich the room, making it an interior you want to spend time in.
Low-light plants that grow well even in the shade include pothos, calathea, ZZ plant, dieffenbachia, and nerve plant.