08 Aug House Plants: Bringing more Green into your home’s interior design.

Summer is in full swing and the outdoors are exploding with color, especially green. So why not capture that color burst and bring it indoors? There are many benefits to bringing plants into your home: they help clean the air, improve overall well being, and also play a beautiful role in decorating. Although Amy’s thumb is anything but green, by special request Amy has created a greenery design plan for a client in the past. In this case, Amy went room by room, seeking opportunities to introduce plants to the space. The final deliverable is a keyed floor plan that indicates where the plants should go. The recommendations are numbered so that the owner can easily review the recommendations (including maintenance instructions) on a corresponding greenery report.

Image 1. Greenery Room Plan

Image 2. Greenery Report corresponds with Image 1.

Loving the idea of adding more green but feeling overwhelmed with the idea of actually tending to plants? There are many plants that are easy to care for and there are many fabulous ways to display them. Lauren Conrad created a lovely cheat sheet to help figure out which plants are easiest to keep alive.  Click here to view.

What’s interesting about this beautiful illustration is that I have many of these plants in my home. And since I am not a green thumb, I can attest to how easy they are to keep. Here are some pictures of these plants in my (Maria, our Operations Manager) own home:

Helpful Hint: After lots of learning (as in dead plants) in my home, the trick I’ve discovered is to actually water the plants regularly to their needs. I’ve been eying some hand blown glass watering globes to help with this seemingly simple, yet in (my) real life very tricky issue. The pretty birds over on Amazon are my current pick, click here.

Once you know about the plants in your home and what care requirements are, the next step is to think about how it will add to the décor of your space. You can pick out some beautiful pots or have fun and paint one you already own to give it new life. Then, move the plant around your space, taking into account the proper lighting. Find an area where the plant will both be happy and provide a visual impact for your interior design. Here are some inspiration images of how to add greenery and visual impact.

Where the sun shines. Here our interior decorating consultant, Jillian layers in plants in a beautifully sunny spot and the plants shine bright.

And here is another instance where big windows and happy plants really add color to the space.

A wall of plants. Talk about the visual impact. By creating a wall of plants it’s like bringing a trellis into your home.

Images via Pinterest

Grass centerpiece. Enjoy the grass all year long with grass centerpieces.

Amy still remembers her friend Marcy’s wedding, where the centerpieces were grass with origami birds in them.   Leave it to an interior design friend to use plants in an innovative way!

We aren’t the only ones going gaga over bringing the green indoors. While we were writing this very blog post, we were contacted by Philly Magazine for an article they were doing called “7 Funky Ways to Incorporate the Outdoors Into Your Home.” Check it out for even more plant inspiration and tips. Click here to read more.

Are you inspired? Leave a message in the comments below and let us know which room in your house needs some greenery.

Cheers,
Maria