We all love to be near nature. Many of us fortunate enough to have gardens, terraces or balconies can fulfill our wish of greenery but for those not so lucky make do with potted plants inside the house or window ledges.
However plants can not only satisfy your green thumb but can also be great functional & decorating accessories for the interiors.
Here’s how to create green décor:
1. Focal Point- Some plants look stunning when placed singly along a plain wall. Architectural species such as Dracena or a big blousy plant such as Alocasia Portadora or Spatiphylum with a spot light on them makes an unforgettable feature in the entrance hall or corridor.
2. Room divider- Plants can be an efficient room divider. Tall plants like Areca Palms & Tall Ficus can visually divide a living & dining room, without breaking the space into smaller areas. Etageres or open shelved high cabinets are another way to divide a room. Plants interspersed among the shelves and between other knickknacks provide an interlude between the areas to be divided.
3. Decorative Pieces- One well-used idea for decorating a living, dining or any other area is to place flowering plants like Orchids, Anthuriums, or African violets as table centerpieces on coffee tables, dining tables or to place cascading vines of Ivy Plant on fireplace mantles, stairs, top of a tall cabinet or dresser to be eye-catching decorations.
4. Window Treatment- Instead of covering a window with draperies, try hanging a few plants like English Ivy or Philodendron in front of it. You’ll enjoy the diffused light provided by the plants while it camouflages the less-than-perfect view. Another idea is to run glass shelves across a window and place several potted plants on them. Have all the pots match in order to avoid a messy, cluttered look.
5. Enhancing space- To make your room look larger, use green plants near windows, if there’s greenery outside it will make your indoors an extension of the outside greenery. If the sill is too narrow, extend with a shelf held up by brackets. Place a waterproof tray on the shelf; add pebbles to the tray and keep it moist at all times. Put your potted plants on the shelf and watch them grow. If your room is small in height, then you can use tall and slender plants like Dracaena marginata which will give a feeling of height in the room.
6. Accent Features- Plants can look stunning when arranged in mixed groups but always complement the color, size and form of the plants with each other. You may also group number of plants of same variety geometrically in the same container; this arrangement is particularly effective in contemporary designs. Grouping plants to fill a dead corner is a clever way of transforming it into an accent feature of the room or you may also place a plant between two chairs or other pieces of furniture to break the monotony.
Aside from being visually stimulating, plants can also stimulate your sense of smell. Natural scents of flowers like lilacs, chamomile, and lavender are very calming. So instead of scented oils, candles & dry potpourri, your plants will add a distinct aroma once you step inside your home.
The choice of plant is obviously a matter of personal choice but generally there are some plants that complement a contemporary scheme and some that suit traditional styles better. However most interior plants particularly Palms, look good in almost any setting.
