Guest Blogger: Improving Any Room this Spring with Plants

Guest Blogger #935, Entry #2313, April 19, 2013

Your decor is just as unique as you are, and sometimes it’s hard to find house-ready houseplants that fit with your scheme. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. You can incorporate houseplants into your home and take advantage of the benefits they bring—extra oxygen and improved mood—no matter how you’ve chosen to decorate your home.

Brighten your home with interiors plants

Image via: Eric Figge Photography

Here’s how:

Analyze Your Decor

Every room is unique, but all styles share common and identifiable design elements. What elements does your room have? Is there a little English cottage and midcentury modern? Colonial and Moroccan? Oriental and Art Deco? There are so many combinations you could have in your home, so start with identifying the elements you have.

Now do your research and find plants that fit with those elements, and your color scheme. If your room has three or more elements, pick one element you want to emphasize; either the one that’s least emphasized or your favorite one—maybe you want to emphasize it more! If there are just two easily identifiable décor elements in your room, it’s best to pick two plants that fit with those elements; you could put daffodils and Persian Buttercups in a room that evokes both Wordsworth’s country cottage and a Moroccan bazaar.

Stage the Plants

Go into the room you’ve chosen the plants for. Where do you envision yourself putting these plants?

Is the room warm? Good, that’s as it should be. Is there a lot of direct sunlight? If not, that’s okay; you’ll just have to buy some grow lights to give your plants the light they need.

Decide how you want to stage your plants in one pot? A series of three? One long box? Think about it, picture it in your mind, and buy your pots according to the picture you like the most.

Brighten your home with plants

Image via: Joshua McHugh

Pick a Pot (or Three?)

Potting is an important step—a poorly chosen pot will stick out like a rat in any room. Don’t just go with the (likely green) plastic pot it came in—make the effort to find a pot that works as well with your décor as the plant you have chosen.

You must begin with the end in mind when choosing pots. Look at the room and decide

You can look at craft and other home goods stores, you can look at thrift shops, you can look online—there are so many cool places to find unique containers for your houseplants! Depending on what you have in mind, your planters and pots may be easier or more difficult to find; midcentury modern is much easier to find than, say, Victorian.

Then simply repot your plant, either completely or by putting the first pot into your new pot. And now you have lovely houseplants that fit with your décor!

For more home decor ideas on Stagetecture, click here.