7 Plant Styling Tips You Need to Know About
Plant styling is not just about taste and pretty plants and pots.
There are a few critical aspects, (or steps, if you want to look at them in order of importance), to consider if you want to be successful with plant styling.
So, before you start shopping and assembling your pretty plants and pots, you need to read this Blog.
Without these considerations, you won’t be successful.
I want you to be successful!
I’ve seen too many people loosing precious plants, (a lot of money and time too), by impeccably plant styling their home, without considering these very important and basic aspects I am about to talk to you about.
Do yourself a favour; before you buy any plant under the “social media influence”, do your diligence and figure out what you really need to know to be successful with plant styling!
1. consider your lifestyle
The first thing you need to do in order to be successful with plant styling, is to really consider your lifestyle.
Ask yourself these questions and give yourself honest answers;
- How much time do I have to dedicate to plants?
- How much time do I want to dedicate to plants?
- Do I travel often enough that I need to rely on someone else to care for my plants?
- Are my children old enough to resist the temptation to chew on potentially toxic plants?
- Are my pets going to get sick if they decide to munch on potentially toxic plants?
These are very important aspects you need to consider when buying plants to decorate your home with.
If you have a very busy lifestyle, with little time to care for plants, or, if you travel often, you can still have beautiful plants.
And you even have many plant styling options with them.
You simply need to select plants that are low maintenance, requiring little care and less watering than the average plants.
Some great low maintenance upright plant options are Ponytail Palms, ZZ Plants, African Milk Trees, and the many varieties of Snake Plants.
Some stunning low maintenance trailing options are Pothos and Hoyas.
Here are two good lists of low maintenance plants;
10 Best Low Maintenance Plants
My Top 5 Impossible to Kill Houseplants
If you have young children and pets, and are concerned about the toxicity of certain plants, you can rely on non-toxic indoor plants.
There are houseplants that are safe for both, children and pets.
There are plenty to choose from, even succulents!
Many of them are both low maintenance and non-toxic too, (the Ponytail Palm is one example).
10 Best Non-Toxic House Plants That Are Safe For Children, Cats & Dogs
Succulents Safe For Cats; 5 Best Non-Toxic Succulents
I always recommend to check the complete list of Poisonous Plants on the ASPCA website if you are looking for any particular plant.
Once you’ve figured out the types of plants you need to match your lifestyle, you are better equipped to plant style your home.
Let’s jump into the next step to be successful with plant styling.
A Ponytail Palm is an incredibly easy plant that can add a lot of flare wherever you place it in your home. It only needs water every three weeks. It doesn’t grow fast either, so it doesn’t require frequent repotting.
It is placed next to a Desert Candle Cactus, another incredibly easy plant that requires minimal care.
A Snake Plant is extremely easy to care for. It only requires water every three weeks. This particular variety called “Silver Queen” is quite elegant and easy to style inside a basket I purchased on Amazon.
2. light availability and orientation
Now that you’ve determined which type of plants suit your lifestyle, (which is oh! so critical), you need to figure out yet another important aspect to be successful with plant styling.
Natural light access within your home and orientation of your windows!
Here are the questions you need to ask yourself for this step of the plant styling journey;
- Do I have a lot of windows with plenty of natural light in my home?
- Which way are my windows facing?
- If I have a West facing window, do I have a sheer curtain to screen the sun rays?
Let’s start with the easy, but not so great scenario.
You don’t have much natural light in your home.
That’s ok. There are plants for that too!
Before I give you the link to the list of plants that adapt well to low light environments, I’d like to specify that while these plants will do well in low light conditions, they may not thrive as much as they would in bright, indirect light.
For example, plants like the Peace Lily, the Staghorn Fern, the Pothos and the Heartleaf Philodendron, adapt well to low light conditions. However, they do even better in bright, indirect light conditions.
I can tell you that plants like the ZZ Plant and the Snake Plant do quite well in low light conditions. (There is a reason why malls are filled with these plants!).
10 Best Low Light Indoor Plants For Your Home and Office.
On the other hand, you may have a lot of natural light in your home with access to North, East, South and West windows.
Depending on your lifestyle, your level of experience with plants, you will have different plants requiring different light exposure.
Based on my experience, the majority of plants thrive in bright, indirect light.
North and East windows are great for those plants that require a lot of bright, indirect light, without any direct exposure.
(For example; I have a lot of plants facing North because of the nature of our home; Norfolk Pine, Hoyas, Pileas, String of Hearts, Monsteras, Peperomias, Arrowhead Plants).
South windows are magic because they are the perfect “in-between” direct and indirect exposure. Many plants do well with a few hours of morning sun rays.
I have a lot of plants by my South facing window in my Home Office; Fiddle Leaf Fig, Strelitzia, Jade Plants, Aloe Vera, several succulents, and many others removed from the window.
West facing windows should have sheer curtains to screen the scorching afternoon sun and they are ideal for the heat and sun loving plants like cacti.
Here’s a list of plants for full sun exposure;
7 Top Full Sun Houseplants That Like The Heat
By this point you must have narrowed down your plant selection even more.
But don’t worry!
Any plant, and in any amount can be used for plant styling!
While the ZZ Plant can be pushed to the extreme of darkness, it thrives in bright, indirect light.
The String of Pearls is one of those plants that requires full sun to grow full and healthy.
3. consider the climate you live in
The climate you live in is also very important when choosing plants for your home, (unless you have an indoor greenhouse cabinet with grow lights).
For example, I live in a region with very cold and dry winters.
The humidity in our home in winter is often below 40%, which is quite low for certain types for plants.
So personally, I stay away for the high humidity thriving tropicals, such as Calatheas and Alocasias, because I also have a busy lifestyle and it is not realistic, nor practical for me to maintain them.
Perhaps, you live in a completely different area, and don’t have the same problem of mine.
Try to stick to the plant species that do well in your climate to be successful.
There is no point in pushing for plants that you know from the beginning they may require extra effort from your part.
However, there are easy strategies you can adopt if you really cannot resist the temptation to buy those gorgeous plants that need more humidity than you have in your home.
These strategies are also excellent plant styling options for your home!
For example, if you love Orchids, or any other type of high humidity plant, buy a small species of it, and place it inside a glass jar.
This way the plant will be enclosed in its own micro-environment filled with moisture! I’ve done that with Orchids, Plumosa Ferns, Aluminum Plants, Prayer Plants and Polka Dot Plants. It works like a charm!
Here are some good resources for plants that do well in high humidity and others that thrive in dry environments;
The 10 Best High Humidity Plants For Your Bathroom
7 Best Low Humidity Indoor Plants for Dry Homes
Now that we have dealt with the aspects of your environment you don’t have control over, (such as natural light access and climate), let’s take a look at those aspects you can control!
Orchid in a glass jar.
This plant does well inside and outside a jar, but for sure it thrives in high humidity.
I buy my glass and Apothecary Jars online.
Jade Plants are great plants for dry homes. And they can grow quite big!
4. gauge your level of experience and your willingness to learn
If you are a plant beginner stick to the easy plants when plant styling your home.
As you get more familiar with different plants, and learn the different efforts that different species require, you may want to venture into more challenging plants.
Whatever plant you choose, don’t forget the basic and most important aspects we’ve just covered; your lifestyle, the amount of natural light in your home and your climate/environment.
Plants difficulty becomes heightened by these aspects.
For example; if you buy the particularly rare Alocasia Frydek, not only you need to be a skilled plant parent, but you also need a quite humid environment with bright, indirect light. If you are willing to learn, and to put in the amount of care that is required to maintain this plant, go for it! You’ve got the passion you need to be successful with all plants!!
Here are some useful links to beginners’ plants and tougher plants;
7 Best Indoor Plants That Are Ideal for Beginners
The Toughest Houseplants To Care For
The Marble Queen Pothos is one of the most beautiful indoor plants that are extremely easy to grow and propagate. The plant styling possibility are endless with this plant.
While the Prayer Plant is one of the most stunning plants I own, it’s also the most difficult one to grow without crispy leaves! It is a plant that requires a very high level of humidity. I can only keep it beautiful inside a closed glass container.
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5. evaluate your living space
This is when the “design eye” comes in.
It is important and valuable to assess the size and proportions of the rooms in your home.
Ask yourself questions like;
- Do I have tall ceilings or limited height?
- Do I have a vaulted ceiling?
- Do I have a tall and small room?
- Do I have a low and big room?
Size and proportions matter, we all know that!
Plants can help mitigate, adapt to, or even enhance any proportions.
The trick is to know how to handle proportions properly.
If you have tall ceilings with big empty walls, leave it to a Strelitzia to fill and enhance that space!
Monsteras are great for these kind of spaces too!
If you have low ceilings and small spaces, think about plants that don’t grow too much.
There are some floor plants that are columnar and slow growing, ideal for this spaces, like Snake Plants, (if the space doesn’t have much natural light), or the Desert Candle Cactus and the African Milk Tree.
Alternatively, for small spaces with low ceilings, the best option is to work with surface plants and to create nice groupings.
Whatever home size and proportion you have, the goal is to achieve a balance in every space, and plant styling can help you with that.
The tallest plant in our home, (the Strelitzia), is placed in my Home Office, where it can take advantage of a vaulted ceiling height.
This tall Monstera plant is placed in a tall corner that would otherwise feel very empty and out of proportions.
6. find opportunities within your home
Plant styling is all about finding opportunities for spaces that would otherwise feel empty, or un-used.
Have you ever seen book cases or coffee tables filled with tacky decorative objects, like metal knots, abstract ceramic or stone figurines, or even dusty old potpourris???
Well, imagine replacing those items with plants inside gorgeous containers!
Every plant you buy is selected based on the criteria we discussed in the previous sections, (lifestyle, natural light available in your home, local climate, home size).
To these plants you’ll add the proper tasteful touches, (see next section.)
For now, look around your home for opportunities.
- Do you have any empty corners?
- Are there coffee or side tables filled with useless items that have no meaning, nor sentimental value to you?
- Are there empty wall spaces you could fill with hanging plants, rather that mass produced art?
Be creative and think outside the box.
A lonely corner by the dining table feels so much more lively with this arrangement of plants, family and friends memories and art collection.
This corner stair landing would be absolutely un-used and empty, if it wasn’t for some floating book shelves and this African Milk Tree Cactus.
These books are suspended on the walls with “Conceal Floating Bookshelf”.
7. enhance the look of the plants you already have
Finally, now that you know which plants are best suited for you and your home, and where they need to go within your home, it’s time to have some fun!
I’d like to say “Bob’s your uncle” when it comes to “dressing” your plants, but really, you should follow the same size, proportion and style rules you’ve applied to your home.
Speaking of dressing your plants; Drainage is another critical aspect for the health of your plants that you can’t forget about.
Whatever you do to decorate you plants, make sure you provide them with plenty of drainage.
Here’s a great guide on How to Plant in Pots Without Drainage Holes.
There are so many different ways you can decorate your home with plants.
You can simply place your plants inside beautiful containers of different materials, shapes and colours.
Here’s a complete guide to selecting Indoor Plant Pots.
Baskets for Your Indoor Plants.
You can hang your plants from the wall or ceiling, or let them trail from bookcases and shelves.
Indoor Climbing and Trailing Plants That Are Easy to Care For.
10 Plants Wall Decor Ideas For Your Home
More creative plant styling options can be built by hand; you can tastefully assemble driftwood pieces with Air Plants, or learn to build Terrarium, Closed Terrarium and even Kokedama Moss Balls.
These are fun and grounding activities that can bring a lot of satisfaction!
Check out these guides for more inspirations!
Plant Decorating With Driftwood.
5 Easy Steeps to Make a Terrarium.
Closed Terrarium 101 – 7 Easy Steps to Build Your Glass Terrarium.
Ways to Decorate With a Kokedama Moss Ball.
I buy the majority of my plant containers from Home Sense. I don’t wait until I need one. I buy it when I see one I like because I know I will need it eventually. Baskets are really great for big, floor plants!
I really like to group plants by common themes; these could be pot colours and shapes, like in this picture.
This group of plants are all different but they have in common the same metal plant stand at different heights. The black of the plant stand complements the black of the chair frame.
The big wall hanger made with driftwood and macrame is ideal to cover an otherwise huge, empty wall.
I wrote several Blogs on plant styling and different types of plant decorating ideas.
However, I never dwelled on the aspects and steps people should really consider before starting the creative process.
Learning which plants are best for you and your space is critical to have the best and happiest plant styled home!
Show me your plant stying projects in the comments below!
Disclosure: This Blog contains affiliate links, which means I will make a commission at no cost to you, if you make a purchase after clicking my link.
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