Time to plant fresh ideas

Running out of decorating ideas? Sudha Jain has plants for you! How about using greenery to hide flaws in design  and accentuating a space? Read on for more ideas.

In our well-designed homes, we often overlook the part indoor plants play in enhancing the look of our space. House plants or indoor plants add that extra colour and texture to our interiors.

They are ideal for nature lovers who like to bring a bit of greenery into their living spaces.
This is especially true for people living in flats or apartments and don’t have enough space or any space at all for a garden.

Indoor plants are also a good way of getting to know a bit about gardening. It does not take too much time or space. You can place plants according to the space available. They also do not need much maintenance and you do not have to worry about the weather or garden pests, etc. You can easily manage them without the help of your local gardener even if it’s your first time in gardening.

Elements of style

Indoor plants are great design features in our homes. We can bring life and add that extra zing to an otherwise plain living space just by introducing indoor plants. They not only add a touch of beauty to our homes, but also lend a healthy ambience to our space.

The market now is flooded with a wide variety of indoor plants. With more and more people shifting into smaller flats due to rising expenses, there has been a high demand for indoor plants.

There is a wide variety of leaf shapes, sizes, colours and textures available and they can be used to decorate homes that are modern or traditional and serve a wide variety of design purposes.

The most popular house plants are anthurium, zebra plant, begonia, caladium, spider plant , ferns , ficus, crotons, palms, philodendron, fittonia, monstera and zebrina.

Demarcation of space

Indoor plants can also be used ingeniously to hide flaws and accentuate a space or they can be even used as a space divider. For example, they can intelligently be used to make a space appear larger.

All you need to make your ceiling appear higher is to place a tall slender plant in a corner.
To fill a corner with no activity, place a bushy plant like ficus to enliven the space.

Green plants in the window sill not only make the space more beautiful, they also create an illusion of space, making the indoors seem like an extension. Similarly a large room can be made to appear smaller by placing an oversized plant in the living space which will make the ceiling feel lower. Plants can also be used as a partition for large living space.

With little imagination, plants can be used in a variety of ways to create their own magic in any living space. We can create our own cosy little nook by placing plants around an easy chair or a small sofa, making the space look comfortable and your very own.

Consoles, dressers and high desks make for a very good space when you have to place a cluster of small plants. We can even place small plants in our bathrooms.  In small decorative pots,  these plants grouped together look stunning and add just the right charm to the place. While choosing indoor, one should keep in mind its placement. How your interiors look also depends on how wisely you use these plants to alleviate your interiors.

For large spaces, heavy bushy plants like ficus may be used. To lend an elegant feel to the room, flowery plants such as anthuriums or orchids may be used. Palms look good anywhere and there is a wide variety of palms available in the nurseries today.

In demand

We must also understand the environment that suits the plants. While some indoor plants thrive happily in direct sunlight, others may need partial shade to grow.  Philodendrons and epipremnum do not need direct sunlight and can easily be placed in the corridors or places where there is partial sunlight.

With demand for indoor plants rising, the market is now flooded with beautiful pots and containers to suit individual needs. Plastic containers, though practical, look boring and dull in a living room.

There are beautiful bright coloured pots, and brass and ceramic pots available for indoor plants. They make their own style statement and one can buy these pots according to the interiors and individual taste. The right container makes all the difference.

Creating space for indoor plants not only makes your interiors beautiful, it also helps you bring nature home. It is affordable decor for our interiors and one that has a beauty of its own, one that looks different every few days that you see it.