Decorating with Living Plants

A friend came to my house for the first time several years ago, looked around, and said, "Your home is so. . . simple." I really am not much into "things," so my furnishings and accessories do tend to be pretty simple. But one of my decorating "go tos" is live plants. Both of my parents had amazingly green thumbs, so I grew up with beautiful plants--indoors and out. They are lovely to look at, bring nature inside, provide natural air filtering, and inexpensively fill spots in my house that were a bit too "simple." And many of my plants were gifts from friends, so they are daily reminders of people that I love. I know that trying to keep plants alive can seem intimidating, but if you feel that way, talk to friends, family and gardeners who might be able to give you suggestions for easy varieties to start with. My main piece of advice: don't over water.

A few suggestions for decorating with plants:

Choose plants with beautiful shapes. They become living sculptures:

Look for containers that add interesting color or texture:

Unlike many decorations, plants tend to like humidity, so consider adding them to your bathrooms:

Combine plants with photos and other items to create groupings:

 Use plants as screens. This plant is hiding (sort of) a small speaker:

Add them to work spaces to create a natural, restful environment:

It may still be winter outside, but you can always have a bit of summer inside with beautiful plants.

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