13 Stylish Ways to Decorate Your Home and Office with Plants

Styling your home or work space with plants is a great way to indulge in your love of nature, beautify the place, and they’re therapeutic qualities can even improve your mental health.

If you’re keen to start adding plants to your home but need some #plantspiration, you’re on the right page. Here are 13 ways you can decorate your interior space with plants:

1. Consider colour palette

There are hundreds of plants to choose from and you’ll need to start working out which plants you’ll want and where they’ll go. By considering the colour palette of the room you’re looking to decorate and matching plants based on this colour scheme, you’re likely to be more satisfied with the results, as the consistency will be more aesthetically-pleasing. Are you going for a full-on tropical look and seeking out lots of lush green plants to fill a room? Or are you just looking to add a touch of green to an already well-decorated room? Your answers to these questions will help you find plants that will work in with the room’s colours and furniture.

*Start with the colour palette of the room and choose plants from there. Credit: Followtheflow/Shutterstock.*

2. Hanging plants

For visual effect, hanging plants are the way to go. There are plenty of hanging planters and pots to choose from, from modern ceramic pots that feature leather straps to bohemian macrame hanging pots. Ethical homewares marketplace Made Trade stock a variety of hanging planters and there’s plenty of handmade ceramic ones on Etsy. Combine with plants that love to trail downwards and dangle loosely for maximum effect, such as the Pothos, English Ivy or Burro’s Tail succulent plant.

*Hanging plants make a great feature in any room or work space. Photo: Kevin Lessy.*

3. Go minimalist

Have a small space or just prefer an uncomplicated, streamlined style? Embracing minimalism in your plant styling may be the way to go. It’s as easy as picking a clean or interesting vase and adding a simple plant cutting or leaf. Trimming the decor back will allow the plant to take centre stage and complete the space on its own. Think a striking monstera leaf in a basic vase, or even a cutting from your Pothos plant in a glass jar. Whatever you decide on, the key to minimalism in plant styling is this – less is truly more.

Related Post: Gardening In A (Really) Tiny Apartment

*A home office is decorated sparingly with plants for minimalist effect. Photo: Beazy .*

4. Embrace plant maximalism

Want to create a plant paradise or urban jungle in a room of your home or office? Plant maximalism is the way to go. Choose a variety of plants, with striking leaf shapes and and vine-like habits. Play around with heights, colours, vases and pots until you get a combination of plants that appeal to your sense of style. The aim here is to create an indoor jungle as opposed to jungle jungle since you still have to live with them and care for them.

Ensuring that the plants are accessible and within reach so you can water and observe easily will help in maintaining plant health. Don’t go the plant maximalist route if you do not have the time to nurture your plants because they’ll die and you’ll have wasted your time and money.

*A variety of plants are used to decorate the dining area of a home in Germany. Credit: Brina Blum.*

5. Combine modern pots with interesting containers

If you want to create an engaging space that will attract the eye of visitors and create an interesting centrepiece in a room or space, try combining beautifully-designed modern pots with interesting containers, such as glass jars, old alcohol or perfume bottles, and even vintage vases from the thrift store. If you’re unsure how to group them together, try layering the pots by keeping the larger ones at the back and the smaller ones at the front. Alternatively, you can group complementary hues together. By trying out a variety of configurations, you’ll find the display arrangement to suit your eye.

*Mixing modern pots with old jars and vintage vases creates an interesting focal point in any room. Credit: Unsplash.*

6. Try plant stands

Adding a plant stand or several will enable you to adjust the heights of your house plants, creating depth and visual focal points. Incorporating different plant varieties, leaf shapes and textures will help you make the most of any plant stand.

*Adding plant stands creates height to plant arrangements. Photo: Linh Le.*

7. Think ‘plant shelfie‘

A ‘plant shelfie’ is a popular hashtag on Instagram (with over 200,000 search results at the time of writing) and is short for plants on a shelf. If you have a bookshelf, a wall shelf, a mantle, a ledge or any other flat surface, use that space to house your plants. A shelf of plants is an eye-catching display, particularly if you’ve incorporated other ideas on this list (such as using interesting pots and containers) to build a space that has some serious wow factor.

*‘Plant shelfies’ create focal points and draws a visitor’s attention. Photo: Leonardo Iheme.*

8. Feature plants for floor and corner spaces

Have an empty corner or floor space in your home or office that could use a little enhancement? Get a feature plant to fill it in. It works almost all of the time and adds life to an otherwise bland space. Plants such as the Fiddle Leaf Ficus, Kentia palm, Rubber fig and Monstera deliciosa work a treat as they grow tall and anchor an empty space beautifully.

*A tall feature plant can fill an empty corner of a room or floor space. Credit: Alexandra Lammerink.*

9. Add a terrarium

Decorating a small space such as a home office, balcony or work desk? A terrarium is a beautiful way to display a collection of plants. Terrariums are essentially a closed plant environment that mimics a broader ecosystem. It requires very little attention as the respiration of the soil and plants is captured on the walls of the glass and the water cycles back into the container. When the terrarium is perfectly balanced, this tiny plant ecosystem can last for decades. Make one yourself or buy one ready made from a nursery. Some popular terrarium plants include Starfish Flower Cactus, Golden Clubmoss and Air Plants.

*You can make a terrarium or buy one ready made from a nursery or florist. This shop sells hanging terrariums. Credit: Alana Sousa.*

10. Use colour

While green simplicity and uniform hues are embraced in plant styling as it creates an ambience of calming joy, the natural environment also impresses by offering lots of bright colours. Bringing this outdoor element into your home or work space creates a vibrant and cheerful vibe; so if you’ve woken up on the wrong side of the bed, bold colourful plants may just bring out your sunnier disposition. Some brightly coloured house plants to consider are Pink Polka Dot Plants (Hypoestes Phyllostachya), Tradescantia tricolour, Nerve Plants and orchids.

11. Focus on one plant variety

Rather than choosing from different plant varieties to decorate your home, focussing on just one creates an interesting talking point and theme consistency. Some popular plant groups include succulents, orchids and cactus.

*Cacti come in a range of sizes, shapes and colours making them an interesting plant group to feature in your home or office. Photo: Leah Kelley .*

12. Blend art and plants

Weaving in art objects such as sculptures, photographs, drawings, painting, artefacts and keepsakes in with your plants can create an eclectic scene that will grab the attention of any visitor.

Combine art and plants for a visually interesting style. Photo: Alexandra Lammerink.

13. Throw out the rule book

When it comes to plant styling, sometimes you need to throw out the rule book and tap into your inner creativity. There is no right and wrong when it comes to creative expression and what one person does with a space in the home or office will be different to how another person will use this space. This is the beauty of individualism. Decorating and styling with plants is an evolving process, not set in concrete, and what will satisfy you one month may be different the next month. Keep it fresh and revisit your plant decorations so that it continues to inspire and engage you. If in doubt, throw the rule book out and start from scratch – from your heart.