February 4, 2019

10 Plants Wall Decor Ideas for Your Home

Do you love plants and want to add a bit of green to your walls?

Do you live in a small house and don’t have enough space for your plants?

Plant Wall Decor involves using a structure on your wall to hang or display different types of plants. Check out these 10 different ways to decorate your home walls with plants!!

But first; what are the ideal plants to hang on walls? The answer, as always, is; it depends! It depends on the type of installation you choose, the amount of light flooding your walls and amount of effort you want to put into watering and maintaining the plants! One thing you need to remember is that, with certain applications, you may have to water your plants directly on the wall, which can be risky business…so think ahead, before you plan your living wall decor and buy materials!! For low maintenance purposes, air plants, mosses and succulents are the most common, yet are the most interesting choices for plants wall decor!

Let’s dig into the different types of plants wall decor!

1. Moss Walls

Moss walls are considered green walls as they are built with real moss. However, the difference between a green living wall and a moss wall is that the former is made with living plants, while the latter is made with “dead” moss. This is real but preserved moss, which is generally preserved using a natural paraffin or glycerin process to help maintain its bright and beautiful colours.

Different kind of mosses are used to achieve different compositions based on the buyer’s requirements for look and feel.

It doesn’t require any soil, watering or misting of any kind. The only maintenance required is the occasional dusting with a can of compressed air, (same product you would use for a computer keyboard).

These walls are not as easy to DIY as other type of plants wall decor. I would leave the job to an expert! It may also not be as easy to find a local supplier and the cost can be higher compared to other plants wall decor options. However, these beautiful compositions last for an average of 10 years!

I think this is a fantastic, low maintenance and permanent way to bring a splash of green to your walls!

2. Driftwood and Air Plants

Driftwood can be found on the beach or purchased from a store. A well weathered piece of wood makes a beautiful composition in your home.

Air plants are plants that do not require soil to grow. They are suspended in the air and only require moisture to grow.

Driftwood and Air Plants can be combined in many different ways. The same project can be wall mounted or placed on any surface of your home. It depends on how you want to assemble your driftwood. With this type of plants wall decor, you can either DIY or buy ready-made products. If you buy ready-made items, you can hang them on your wall permanently and simply remove your air plants for periodical soaking. The frequency of this soaking depends on your climate. Just ask your local supplier where you bought your composition from.

If you are up for DIY, you can do this project in two ways:

a.) Driftwood pieces collage; collect a bunch of driftwood pieces and hot glue them together on a rigid and flat backing board. Add your air plants in crevices formed by your driftwood composition or simply add some old, rusty bent nails to support your air plants. Add a hanger in the back and voila’, your composition is made. I recommend you keep your driftwood board to a small size so the driftwoods glued together are not too heavy and can stay glued for a long time!!

b.) Individual sculptural Driftwood piece; find the most beautiful driftwood piece. A piece that has an aesthetically pleasing look with many knots and crevices where you can tuck in your moss and air plants. Once you have a piece selected, study it and determine what is the best way to hang it on the wall and how it will sit on the wall. This will help you determine where your hanger will be installed and where your air plants will go. Once you’ve planned all the components of your piece and how it will be hung, find those precious crevices in the wood and tuck in your air plants and some moss! Now you are ready to hang this beautiful piece on your wall.

In both instances, do not permanently place your air plant on the driftwood, as you will need to water it every once in a while! You simply have to remove your air plants from your driftwood composition and soak it in water!

3. Leaning Plant Stands

This type of plants wall decor is similar to a shelving system but it’s more decorative and fun! In this case you will have to choose the right type of ladder that suits your interior environment and that allows every step to function as a shelf. The depth of the step, (or shelf), depends on the type of plants you want to place on it. You may want to display your propagation glass jars, your succulents or cacti collection or simply potted plants or a mix of everything!

You need quite a bit of a space to lean AND secure your selected ladder on the wall and to be able to water all the plants you are going to place on or hang from it!

With this particular installation you can water your plants without having to remove them from the ladder. You also won’t need to buy new plants! It’s a good way to make more room for all your plants and decorative objects.

4. Wall Hanging Test Tubes

This is such a fascinating way to decorate your walls with plants! I find it to be very creative and highly decorative!

It’s mostly used for propagating purposes so it is definitely suited to plants lovers! I believe it would also have a beautiful visual effect by placing fresh herbs and green stems in it!

This is a high maintenance living decor for you walls! You need to be very diligent with cleaning all the glass tubes you are placing on your walls and replacing water frequently to avoid stagnant, yellow water!

I have seen some very creative use of the IKEA Rimforsa line of containers for this very use! Other options are on the market with beautiful live edge supports!

5. Glass Wall Vases

Like in the previous application, this type of plants wall decor is mostly used for propagating purposes, however, these glass containers can be filled with a bit of rocks, sand and soil to create mini air plants terrariums. I wouldn’t make them full succulents and cacti terrariums as the maintenance requirements are different as well as the weight on the wall.

Differently from the test tubes, these containers are installed with special white wall nails that come with the vases and fit through a hole in the upper portion of the vase.

This is another high maintenance living decor application, even more than the test tubes as it requires a more intricate cleaning of the glass containers. They come in different shapes and sizes. In my opinion, in order to create a WOW! effect with these glass vases you should hang a good number of them on your walls; one or two, or even three won’t be very meaningful on your walls!

6. Hanging Pots

There are several different type of products on the market to hang pots. I tried to categorize them by main materials and typology. By no means does this list include all the products you can find to hang your pots out there, but these are my favourites!

a.) Macrame’ Plant Hanger; the best hand braided plant hangers are made by a combination of cotton and nylon rope to support the weight of both plants and pots. There are several styles on the market that are capable to adapt to different needs and aesthetic value; simple 4 legs to hang pots from both walls and ceiling, wall hanging options only, more complex beaded hangers, terrarium ceiling hangers. You can even buy Macrame’ kits for DIY projects.

There are many Macrame’ Plant Hangers on Amazon.

b.) Metal Wall Planters; there are two main types of metal wall planters:

The first one has a ceramic vessel placed inside a metal shaped structure that is fastened to the wall, in which case the vessel (pot) can be removed and watered. Any plant can be used for this type of application.

The most popular example is the Umbra Trigg Wall Vessel shown here above.

The second one is a simple metal structure built in different shapes that holds an air plant. It’s a very minimalistic decor but it’s very clean and beautiful. They come in different metal finishes.

7. Wall Mounted Terrariums

There are so many beautiful wall hung terrariums on the market. From plain glass to metal and glass! A wall mounted terrarium is different from the glass wall vases I described in point #5. These are complete, rocks, soil and sand terrariums with succulents in it. For more informations on how to make a Terrarium check out my article on 5 Easy Ways to Make a Terrarium!

To water, clean and prune these wall mounted terrariums, you have to take them off from the wall and water them in a sink. Do not water your plants on the wall!! You can make a serious mess!

8. Hanging Terrariums

Hanging terrariums are beautiful and mostly made with a round glass container with a hanging rope. They can be open or sealed. The sealed ones are very humid environments and require good maintenance to avoid yellowing of the glass walls and little bugs to stick on the glass.

Open ones are more common and can be filled with rocks, sand and soil to create a full succulent and cacti terrarium, or simply with some rocks, driftwoods and air plants.

9. Kokedama

Kokedama means Moss Ball in Japanese, (Koke=Moss; Dama=Ball). This centuries old Japanese garden art is also known as the “poor man’s bonsai”.

The concept of Kokedama is simple; a ball of a plant’s root and its soil is wrapped by a layer of moss all bundled together by aluminum wire or nylon that can also be used to hang the Kokedama from the ceiling. It’s basically a no-pot concept. While the concept is simple, the making of it takes patience and maintenance takes dedication. Only plants that like part to full shade should be used to make Kokedama, such as ferns and ivy. Succulents and cacti are not good plants for Kokedama. Kokedama needs too be watered regularly and the frequency depends on the climate you live in. The whole moss ball needs to be soaked in water for a certain period of time.

Kokedama is having a great western resurgence, and many workshops and how to videos are being offered everywhere!

10. Creative Wall Mounted Composition

I’ve seen all sorts of beautiful and creative pieces hung on walls!

From old rusty farm equipments with air plants and succulents tucked in them to DIY wood and rope shelves! Some have used old and new wooden crates to make “box shelves” for their pots and jars! Some have used picture frames with chicken wire to tuck in mosses and air plants!