Using Living Things to Enhance your Interior – Plants

Using Living Things to Enhance your Interior Design

What I remember about using living things when I was young, we had pot plants everywhere in the house. Plants in every room and when we went on holiday we had to arrange someone to come in and look after them or my mother would put them all in the bath and leave a bit of water in the bottom. They were very well cared for. We had pots hanging in macramé hangers, we had rubber plants, maiden hair ferns and even a terrarium. Am I showing my age?

Using living things for interior design
A collection of cacti at the window.

When I got my own house, I was given a rubber plant. I found that quite funny, it survived a while but I managed to kill it. Then I tried again but I always seemed to either over water or forget to water them, so I gave up. This meant I lost a tool from my design tool box. I have only just started to get back into adding plants to my home. I had done it for other people, but not for myself.

Using Living things to soften an interior
Great use of the plant’s form here, the wonderful leaves of the plant on the left behind the chair create a canopy look and the vertical leaves on the right balance the width of the piano.

I must say it was very satisfying, they really do make a difference to your home and  I now check them everyday. I have put some small peace lilies in lovely black ceramic pots in our bathrooms, they provide a sense of “living”. Too often bathrooms are designed to be clean and functional, they can often look sterile. By adding a plant it softens the look and adds fresh air to the space.

We can use living things to soften a living room.
This leafy plant softens the hard surfaces in the living room.

I used some old tea cups and put mini plants in them and put them on the window sill in my kitchen – I just love them – I look at them all the item and they add life to the kitchen. I think I will keep going and try my hand at some herbs too.

Using Living Things to make a space look great
The bonsai tree accentuates the minimalist feel of this space and is the focal point of the room.

My daughter’s bedroom is very hot so the only thing that survives is cacti. She has a small pot with miniature cacti. That’s the experience in my house with plants, and it reinforces to me that they are an important tool for your designer tool box.

Willow College Online Mobile Interior Design Learning
Not plants but flowers in this space adding color and a sense of opulence.
The fern in this room mirrors the wallpaper.

As you can see I have some examples of how plants have been used for interiors. Take a look and start collecting ideas that you can use for your next project or just make yourself aware that they are a great tool for adding a living dimension to your design.

The plants convey a homely casual and carefree look.
Wow, lost for words with this one – enchanting perhaps.

From looking at these images you can see how using living things – plants can be used in numerous forms to truly transform interior spaces as well as exterior spaces. Remember to consider them in your design, but like everything we do in design – use restraint – overuse can look tacky.

Hanging plants with pendant lights - a great way of using living things.
Hanging plants with pendant lights.

As a side note on what I have been up to lately. I have been madly writing and uploading lessons to WillowCollege.com. I am very excited about it, we now have students up and running and we have had a few hick ups but like anything new but there are always things to fine tune. The biggest issue we have had is how to register for the 1 week free trial. It is a bit confusing and I am looking for solutions to it, in the mean time I’ll explain how it works. If you click on the free 1 week trial link it will take you to a shopping cart. There you will have to select the course and go to the checkout. You will then need to register. Once you have done this. Check your email, verify it by clicking on the link and then you will be directed back to the shopping cart to select the free week trial. It will automatically select “none” for the payment option, so we do not take your credit card details. If you complete the transaction you will then get access to some of the lessons from the Interior Design Course at WillowCollege.com. I told you it is confusing – but please go and try it here 1 week free trial

Take your Interior Decorating to the next level – look at the interior decorating course and see how it can change your life.

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