8 Fabulous Ways to Arrange Indoor Plants
Bring some leafy style indoors and decorate your home with these wonderful ways to display houseplants
Victoria Harrison
14 February 2019
Editor, Houzz UK and Ireland
Want to bring your home to life with indoor plants? Browse these eight ideas and see how to style up your living space, bedroom and bathroom.
1. Multiply your favourite
As with all collections or displays, there’s a lot of power in the repetition of a single shape. If you love order and symmetry, try displaying several of the same plant in neat rows to multiply the impact.
As with all collections or displays, there’s a lot of power in the repetition of a single shape. If you love order and symmetry, try displaying several of the same plant in neat rows to multiply the impact.
2. Double the impact with wallpaper
To magnify the impact of indoor plants, you can reflect the pattern in textiles and wallpaper, as beautifully demonstrated here. There are only a handful of plants in this room, but it feels like a green oasis thanks to the green fern-print wallpaper and leafy cushions.
To magnify the impact of indoor plants, you can reflect the pattern in textiles and wallpaper, as beautifully demonstrated here. There are only a handful of plants in this room, but it feels like a green oasis thanks to the green fern-print wallpaper and leafy cushions.
3. Design a terrarium
Cacti and succulents are the ideal choice for those who like a low-maintenance indoor plant. Easy to care for, slow-growing and fun to arrange, you can create endless miniature worlds inside a glass jar or terrarium to add colour and life to a shelf or table.
To display plants in a terrarium, add sand or small pebbles to your container, then arrange the plants in between like precious jewels to display and enjoy.
Cacti and succulents are the ideal choice for those who like a low-maintenance indoor plant. Easy to care for, slow-growing and fun to arrange, you can create endless miniature worlds inside a glass jar or terrarium to add colour and life to a shelf or table.
To display plants in a terrarium, add sand or small pebbles to your container, then arrange the plants in between like precious jewels to display and enjoy.
4. Dot them along shelves
Plants bring any room alive, so they work really well as a living element within a static display on a bookshelf.
For an elegant library feel, choose a trailing plant, such as English ivy, and tuck a few pots between stacks of classic paperbacks. Place them high up and let them twist and tumble down from shelf to shelf.
Alternatively, potted plants, such as cyclamen or geranium, add a more formal air to a display of greenery.
Plants bring any room alive, so they work really well as a living element within a static display on a bookshelf.
For an elegant library feel, choose a trailing plant, such as English ivy, and tuck a few pots between stacks of classic paperbacks. Place them high up and let them twist and tumble down from shelf to shelf.
Alternatively, potted plants, such as cyclamen or geranium, add a more formal air to a display of greenery.
5. Cultivate a jungle
Rather than dotting a few plants here and there around your home, grouping them all together in one room or corner can be much more effective.
As shown here, a mix of heights, styles and leaf types can create a mini-jungle effect that has real impact and feels fresh and inviting. Tuck a reading chair into the corner and make space for a drink and a couple of books to carve out a little haven in your own home.
Rather than dotting a few plants here and there around your home, grouping them all together in one room or corner can be much more effective.
As shown here, a mix of heights, styles and leaf types can create a mini-jungle effect that has real impact and feels fresh and inviting. Tuck a reading chair into the corner and make space for a drink and a couple of books to carve out a little haven in your own home.
6. Choose sleep-friendly plants
If you’re keen to have houseplants in the bedroom, you’ll probably want to choose one of the night-time oxygenators. As the name implies, this is a little group of power plants that release oxygen at night, and are reported to help keep the air healthy while you sleep.
A shining star in this group is the orchid, which scored highly in NASA’s Clean Air Study of 1989 – still regarded by many as the leading piece of research in this field. Perfect for a bedroom, orchids look as beautiful as they are useful.
If you’re keen to have houseplants in the bedroom, you’ll probably want to choose one of the night-time oxygenators. As the name implies, this is a little group of power plants that release oxygen at night, and are reported to help keep the air healthy while you sleep.
A shining star in this group is the orchid, which scored highly in NASA’s Clean Air Study of 1989 – still regarded by many as the leading piece of research in this field. Perfect for a bedroom, orchids look as beautiful as they are useful.
7. Suspend from a shower rail
For plants that like humidity, a bathroom is the ideal spot, as they should thrive in the steamy atmosphere. If your vanity or windowsill space is limited, you can utilise a shower rail to suspend a hanging pot and let the plant cascade down like a leafy, living shower screen.
You could also hang planters from the top of a window reveal, as shown here, or from the ceiling, to create a green canopy overhead.
How Do I… Choose Plants for My Bathroom?
For plants that like humidity, a bathroom is the ideal spot, as they should thrive in the steamy atmosphere. If your vanity or windowsill space is limited, you can utilise a shower rail to suspend a hanging pot and let the plant cascade down like a leafy, living shower screen.
You could also hang planters from the top of a window reveal, as shown here, or from the ceiling, to create a green canopy overhead.
How Do I… Choose Plants for My Bathroom?
8. Update the hanging planter
If hanging planters bring to mind 1970s-style macramé pots, it might be time to update your thinking, because they’ve moved on since then and can work in many types of interiors.
Glass and metal terrarium-style planters like this feel fresh and contemporary, and would work equally well in a modern apartment or industrial-style room.
Tell us
How have you arranged your houseplants? Let us know in the Comments below, like and share this story, save the images and join the conversation.
More
Need advice on which indoor plants will thrive in your home? Find a local gardener for expert advice on what grows well in your home’s climate and light levels
If hanging planters bring to mind 1970s-style macramé pots, it might be time to update your thinking, because they’ve moved on since then and can work in many types of interiors.
Glass and metal terrarium-style planters like this feel fresh and contemporary, and would work equally well in a modern apartment or industrial-style room.
Tell us
How have you arranged your houseplants? Let us know in the Comments below, like and share this story, save the images and join the conversation.
More
Need advice on which indoor plants will thrive in your home? Find a local gardener for expert advice on what grows well in your home’s climate and light levels
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Very interesting and encouraging. Identifying the plants shown would have been handy.
Loving our indoor plants, creates such a sense of peace.
I love indoor and outdoor plants. Two things to be careful of if you are new to indoor plants. Water drips wreck furniture. I've wrecked lots! Someone above mentioned spraying plants. Be careful as the spray damages the wallpaper. I've done that too! Probably obvious to old-hands but maybe not to newbies. Enjoy your plants.