Blooming marvellous: design ideas for displaying houseplants and flowers
A scattering of houseplants or a vase of flowers here and there adds life, vibrancy and colour to our homes. They're a wonderful, often affordable way of bringing the outside indoors, particularly if you don't have your own garden to spend time in. Their mobile quality also means that indoor plants are ideal for renters who aren't able to add colour and personality to their interiors through more permanent means. Some species are even said to have air purifying and calming effects. Simply put, a carefully selected curation of potted plants or bouquets helps to create a sanctuary-like space that you look forward to spending time in. Read on for our top tips on how to decorate with plants and indoor blooms, illustrated by some of the best examples unearthed from the House & Garden archive.
Complementing a room's decoration
Think about a plant or flower like a character in the story of a room. While a severe contrast in style can work, pairing floral arrangements or potted houseplants with your wall colour, a piece of furniture or an accessory, is a simple way to achieve visual harmony. It could be a recurring leaf shape, a particular floral motif present on wallpaper as well as the real thing in a bouquet, or simply a particular colour repeated across a room. The three examples below are all lovely examples of how this can be done.
Maximalism vs minimalism
The options for styling plants at home are truly endless. Again, consider your existing decoration, think about what shape, size and colour of plant or flower would suit the environment, how many of them there should be and where they would look good. One of the joys of houseplants is that they can easily be rearranged, unlike a set of shelves or a large, heavy piece of furniture. So you can simply add to your collection, or take some away and redistribute them around the house for a more pared back look, if one room is starting to feel a bit like an overpopulated greenhouse.
Look to Umberto Pasti's abundant Tangier house for an exercise in floral maximalism, which works perfectly within the context of this treasure trove of a room. Alternatively, at the opposite end of the spectrum, a sole fiddle-leaf fig (a very popular houseplant) cuts a striking silhouette in the stripped back, contemporary bathroom of a villa by William Smalley.
Plant placement
Shelves, plant stands, windowsills, tables, the floor; there are myriad places to pop a plant or bouquet of flowers to add life to a room. If there's a particularly bare spot that feels like it needs something, you can't go wrong with some fabulous foliage. Use a plant stand to play with height, like Pandora Taylor in the scheme below, or nestle taller, larger plants in the corner of a room. Hanging and trailing plants also provide a completely different dynamic, whether they're tumbling down over shelves, or in a basket secured to the ceiling.
Texture and colour
Dried flowers add warmth and a completely different texture to a room, compared to living plants - they're also extremely low maintenance and long-lasting, as there's no worry that they will start to wilt or wither. Their often neutral colour palette means that they are a fuss-free, relaxed option for those among us who are less green-fingered.
Meanwhile, fresh floral and plant arrangements are a way to bring bright, seasonal colour into the home. Play with shape, texture and scale, and pick out an existing colour from within the room to achieve a curated, rather than ramshackle look. Look to Sarah Raven's living room and a kitchen by Anna Spiro below for inspiration.
Choosing interesting pots
A plant is only as lovely as the pot in which it sits, which is why it's so important to choose carefully. It's also an easy way to tie your planting schemes in with your existing room decoration, whether that's with a sleek and sculptural ceramic plant pot, a pretty vase to hold floral arrangements, or even a perfectly imperfect vintage jug. Hunting through flea markets or browsing on Etsy is a wonderful way to discover characterful pieces from the past that will enhance your houseplants. Choose a stylish jute or rattan basket for large or tall plants such as palms, that will look impressive in the corner of a room.
James McDonald1/10In the garden room of this house by Kate Guinness, the collection of plants that fills the space creates a connection between the outdoors and the indoors. Terracotta tiles and red chairs vibrantly offsets all the greenery.
James McDonald2/10In the first floor drawing room of the same house, trailing plants tumble down from the mantlepiece, breaking up the symmetry of the room.
Paul Massey3/10In the inviting home of architect Renshaw Hiscox and his writer wife Sarah, this room is filled with geraniums – it's affectionately known as her ‘geraniorium’, and was inspired by trips to Marrakech. Artisan bowls crafted there and displayed on the wall pick up on the eye-catching Moroccan floor tiles.
Owen Gale4/10An impressively tall potted plant towers in the corner of 8 Holland Street's living area, with the deep green leaves picked out by the Richard Cook Cornish landscape on the wall.
Paul Massey5/10In the open-plan garden room of this Nicola Harding project, what appears to be a vintage stool has been repurposed as a plant stand. The pink of the botanical prints either side of the mantlepiece is reflected by the vase on the coffee table.
Dean Hearne6/10Whoever said it's quantity over quality clearly wasn't looking at this charming greenhouse of Charleston conservator Kathy Crisp, where small terracotta pots, even those without greenery in them, fill and decorate a simple set of shelves. Further warmth is brought to the rustic space through the wood furniture and dried decorative plants.
7/10In the kitchen of the same house, a selection of eclectic ceramics have been used to house an equally varied range of plants, densely arranged on a single shelf.
Mark Fox8/10Monstera is an enduringly popular houseplant, and this tall one in the corner of Alfred Bramsen's airy, playful sitting room in Hackney shows just how imposing they can be.
Owen Gale9/10Potted plants hang down from Vitsoe shelving, adding an organic element to the otherwise clean lines of the studio of this south London house.
Simon Brown10/10A handsome palm in the corner of the sitting room of Beata Heuman's London flat helps to create the ‘urban safari chic’ look that she wanted.
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