Decorating with Houseplants: 10 Tips You Need-to-Know

When you’re looking for simple ways to make your home cozy and relaxing, houseplants are a fool-proof option.  Since lockdown, houseplants have become one of the most popular interior styling trends with over 66% of Americans owning at least one houseplant and sales increasing by 15% in the last 3 years alone. But how do you make indoor plant décor work for your home? How do you decorate with plants to create a stylish scheme? 

We cultivated 10 tips that you need to know to decorate with plants, keep them healthy, and look effortlessly stylish. 

1. Using Living Plants as Décor

There are lots of benefits to adding real plants as home décor, but if you’re feeling overwhelmed about the responsibility of keeping plants alive, this post will highlight faux options as well, that look just as beautiful! 

If you’re wanting to try your hand at keeping a plant alive, know that it comes with all sorts of added health benefits! Live plants increase oxygen levels and purify the air in your room. Living plants also have stress relieving properties. Tending to and being around your plants for just 15 minutes a day will help to alleviate stress and enhance your wellbeing. Not only that, but it is scientifically proven that being surrounded by plants increases your productivity. 

2. Utilize Artificial Indoor Plant Décor

Worried your plant parenting credentials aren’t up to scratch? Don’t panic, while 70% of millennials profess to be plant parents, 67% of those people also admit to being plant murderers! Solve this problem by embracing faux plants. Artificial plants are also a wonderful way to liven up a room that doesn’t have much natural light such as a bathroom or basement.

Artificial plants are now very realistic and are a great way to add foliage to your rooms without having to keep up a maintenance schedule…although a dust every now and again wouldn’t hurt. 

There are so many benefits to having plants in your home, you can’t afford not to have them! 

Handmade Swiss Cross Planter

3. Consider the Sun vs Shade 

Live house plants come in all shapes and sizes, and this means that they also have different sun and water requirements. Some prefer shady corners while others like to be moist at all times. The requirements of your new houseplants will also dictate where you place them in the room and whether you can pop them on a shelf or hang them from the ceiling. Ferns and tropical plants thrive best in damp, warm conditions so they are well suited to bathrooms that have a window. Succulents on the other hand prefer indirect sunlight with minimal watering. If you are looking to add a live plant to a particular spot, first check the plant’s requirements. 

4. Mix Large and Small Houseplants

Depending on how much space you have available, a cohesive interior design scheme will have a mix of large and small houseplants. From small pops of green on a bookshelf to a huge floor standing fiddle leaf fig, a balance of different sized plants will add interest and help draw the eye across the space. Keep in mind that plants can easily be re-arranged throughout your space if you tire of their current location! Plants are also much easier to move than wall art or fixtures. 

5. Play With Height

Playing with height can add dimension to a room, and accentuate otherwise simple spaces . Hanging plants from the ceiling, allowing trailing plants to cascade over bookcases and lifting plants in planters can add more drama. Hanging plants in corners and using raised planters in confined spaces are useful ways to fill boring spaces. 

Mini Terracotta Wall Planters

6. Highlight Dead Space

Plants are a great way to boost interest and color into corners of a room that would otherwise be left empty. Even the simplest raised planter can be installed into a corner or awkward crevice, giving the space a complete lift. Hangers are a brilliant use of space but remember to check your plants growing requirements before you hang a plant in a dark corner with no direct sunlight. 

7. Use Plants to Decorate Bedrooms

Using plants to decorate your bedroom is both attractive and sensible, given that plants can help purify the air in a room. Since many people spend lots of time in the bedroom, plant decor is a versatile way to keep the room feeling fresh and relaxing. Trailing plants along a headboard (real or artificial) or trailing plants on floating shelves on either side of your bed will create a gorgeous natural theme. 

8. Add Mirrors and Decorative Items

Combining mirrors and decorative items with plants are a great way to accentuate the foliage and add interest. Wrapping trailing plants around mirrors and draping them alongside decorative items such as candlesticks or ornaments add a nice pop of color. Funky vases and pots can also elevate a plant’s appearance. Succulents are a great addition to ornamental pieces or table displays, particularly when made into a focal piece. 

Yellow Rainbow Planter

9. Bring Plants into Your Bathroom

As we have previously mentioned, certain plants such as ferns and bamboo LOVE the humidity of a bathroom. Begonias, peace lilies and philodendrons all love the damp air and thrive off the humidity found after someone has had a bath or shower. The reason for this is because these species of plants originated in tropical areas and therefore are well suited to rainforest style conditions. Don’t forget that these plants might not want direct sunlight so keep them hung on the ceiling or on a shelf, away from the windows. 

10. Experiment With Adventurous Plants

If you are adding houseplants to your interior because you want to add a focal point or discussion piece, then experimenting with adventurous plants is the way to go. Creating a tabletop display of succulents, making a hanging display of air plants (they literally live off air and an occasional spritz of water) or even venturing into carnivorous plants such as hanging monkey jars, can draw attention and add a unique feature to your home. If you are wary of adventurous plants, why not try jazzing up the way you display your plants with bold raised planters or elaborate display trays? 

Hopefully now you are able to confidently decorate with plants and understand how to accentuate your space with foliage. Remember that real or fake, small or large, plants not only create a visual feast but also have many benefits for us plant parents too. 

Ready to expand your plant collection? Check out City Home’s collection of faux plants, plant stands, pots, and more!