No room is complete in our home until I have added in at least one plant! Plants are hands down my #1 go to for inexpensive home decor no matter the room I am working on.

In todays post I will share with you how I like to use plants to decorate our home, and hopefully you walk away with some ideas for how you can add in a plant or two (or three, four, five…) to your home!

Passing on the torch

My first memories of indoor plants are of when we would head over to my Grandma’s house for a visit. My Grandma loved herself some indoor plants.

I remember she had a bay window with a ledge, and that ledge was covered in plants of all kinds. My Grandma’s tastes ran every which way when it came to her plants. A bunch of cactus’s, some geraniums and my Grandpas fancy bonsai tree, were just a few that I can remember. But it must be where my love of indoor plants came from.

Growing up we didn’t have much for indoor plants in our own home, at least not that I can remember. My dad did and still does love to garden, but growing a huge selection like his Mom did indoors just wasn’t his thing.

There also was that one time I came home sobbing because I had landed in Grandma’s collection of cacti and my hand was full of little needles he needed to pull out, I was a dramatic child and my worst nightmare was when I would get a sliver and he would pull out a pin to remove it. So you can imagine how I responded to a hand full of “slivers”. Maybe thats why his fond love of plants never made its way indoors. But I digress.

Now its my turn to fill my own home with plants.Plants add a touch of life to any space, they also make your home feel cozy and complete. In my opinion a room just doesn’t look finished without at least one plant in it.

Here are my top 10 ways I like to use plants to decorate our home!

10 ways to decorate with plants

1. Floor Plants

Go big or go home is a motto that can also be applied when decorating your home, especially in your living room. The best bang for your buck when it comes to home decor is bigger items, that fill up your space. They also look more aesthetically pleasing then having a bunch of little decor items crammed everywhere. Scale is key.

Floor plants are great for adding large scale items to your living room. They also cost substantially less than say a new dresser, console table, ottoman etc.

If you can’t get your hands on a plant that is big enough to sit on your floor without any riser thats ok, a plant stand or table to sit a larger size plant on still works as a “floor plant”.

Below is an overhead shot of our living room. I have our Varigated Ficus plant sitting on a side table that I got from Ikea. It lifts it off the ground to give it the height it needs to stand out behind the sectional. It also ground the room and brings the entire modern european farmhouse look to life.

Some of my favourite floor plants

• European Olive Tree
• Monstera
•  Schefflera
• Varigated Ficus

2. A collection

Although I have fond memories (other than that cactus) of my Grandma’s vignette of plants in her bay window, or more modern way to use a collection of plants is on a shelf, or set of shelves.

Using your plants as shelf decor is a really easy way to repeat similar decor on multiple shelves, which is one of my pro tips for easy shelf styling. ( You can find more about my fool proof shelf styling method here).

My personal preference for a collection of plants on a shelf is to not over do it. Leave some sections of your shelving without plants as “white space” where your eye can rest.

Some of my favourite plants for shelf styling

• Snake Plant
• Christmas Cactus
• Philodendron
• Calathea Ornata
• Chinese Money Plant

Of course you don’t have to just go for real plants. You can always start with artificial, or do a mixture of both. On the shelf above all my plants are real with the exception of the bottom left.

3. A vignette

Another way to use plants as decor is in a vignette. A vignette is a grouping of decor, usually on a counter, shelf or piece of furniture.

I love using a mirror, piece of art work, some vintage candle sticks and a plant as the perfect vignette combo for an entryway table, console table or long floating shelf above a table like ours in our living room.

The green of the plants brings everything to life, the mirror reflects light making the room feel bigger, and the artwork and candle sticks finish off a sweet little vignette.

You can make vignettes in many many different ways, the sky is the limit but there is something about adding in a plant that always acts a finishing touch. Without it, vignettes can look like a random assortment of stuff and not an intentional place to share your loved treasures.

Some of my favourite plants for vignette styling

• Asparagus Fern
• Pothos
• Peperomia

4. A cart or table

Another place my Grandma loved to store her plants was on a little moving bar cart in her dining room. Her dining room also had a great big window, and it was a great space for plants to grow and thrive.

I also love a bar cart to store a collection of plants. If you have a ton of plants, and are running out of shelves and counter to put them on, a bar cart or console table is a great place for storing a bunch of plants at once and have it still look like intentional decor.

We don’t have room in our dining room for a bar cart, so I have used a narrow console table that holds our computer as a place where I can bring in some beautiful plants.

One of my oldest plants is my Schefflera plant or umbrella plant. Did you ever watch under the umbrella tree growing up? No just me? Well this is my childhood memory plant and every time I look at it I think of that 90’s kids show hah!

I also have added a string of bananas plant ( at least thats what I think it is, darn Home Depot for not always putting a tag with the plant name in their plants!) on our fireplace mantel and another floor plant in the corner. Thats enough added green for my taste but you could always add more.

5. What to do in the kitchen

Some kitchens get a ton of light and others like mine do not. They can also be tricky places to know where to put plants and how to style them properly.

Lest we go back to the days when we used the tops of our cabinets to hang all the ivy and layer with every house plant we can get our hands on, less is more when it comes to house plants in the kitchen.

We have open shelving in our kitchen and I have three plants strategically placed along the shelving to create balance. This is another room where you may have to go with artificial plants depending on the lighting you have but a small plant on your countertops next to your soap dispenser or a medium size plant on a riser on your counter are also great ways to bring in plants to your kitchen.

You can also use herbs instead of house plants in your kitchen. They act as both beautiful decor and make your dishes extra special. Win win!

My favourite plants for the kitchen are

• basil plant
• mint plant
• parsley plant
• String of Pearls

6. Low light indoor plants

What about those rooms that get virtually no light at all? Like the bathroom, basement rooms, or rooms where you need to keep the window coverings closed.

Never fear, there are still options for low light rooms. Of course as I have mentioned you can always use artificial plants in low light rooms. Here is a link for my blog post on my favourite faux plants from Ikea! But there are lots of options for real plants to that do not require a ton of light.

The plant I go to again and again for low light room is the snake plant. I have had three snake plants in our home for forever and one is in our bathroom where there is no window! These plants are super hearty and require almost no maintenance at all.

Our bedroom is another room that has very low light. We have to keep the curtains closed for most of the day because our room gets too hot. So a snake plant is my best friend in there. I also take advantage in the summer of all of our outdoor plants and snip them frequently to make arrangements for our nightstands.

Low light plants

• snake plant
• pothos
• Heart-Leaf Philodendron
• Nerve Plant

7. Filler plants

We all have those spots in our home that need a little something but we aren’t sure what. This is where little filler plants as I like to call them come in.

I most often find these spots on my coffee table when I am styling it or my girls dressers and nightstands. They need a little something extra, and a happy little plant will do the trick.

My favourite filler plants are little succulents. These plants are great for kids bedrooms as well because they require little maintenance, and if forgotten about for a while they will be ok!

8. Decorating with plant hangers

Another great way to use plants as decor is by hanging them. I don’t have any plant hangers in our home at the moment but I love the look of two plants staggered at different heights hanging from the ceiling.

It adds great visual interest, and its a great option if you are light on floor space!

My favourite plants for hanging plants

• Pothos
• String of Pearls
• Heartleaf Philodendron
• PEPEROMIA QUADRANGULARIS

9. Wall Planters

One of my first pictures to go wild on Instagram was a photo of some hexagon wall planters on my daughters wall. I had found them at West Elm I believe and painted them white. They were the perfect way to add in some wall decor in a unique way to Elizabeths room.

Fast forward to today and I no longer have those sweet hexagon wall planters, but my love for wall planters has not died. We do not have any in this house but if I had the wall space I would be adding some in immediately!

My favourite plants for wall planters

• Air Plant
• succulents
• pothos

10. Decorating with fresh cut plants

My last tip for decorating with plants, is to use fresh cuttings from your outdoor plants! The easiest and cheapest way to decorate with plants in your home is by heading outside with some scissors or plant snips and getting some leafy branches.

My favourite is to cut long branches to make a bold statement vase to set on our coffee table or dining table. The only downside of bringing in branches from outside is that you can sometimes bring in some unwanted house guests too!

You can always run your branches under cold water, and/ormake a homemade bug killing detergent to get rid of any unwanted pests on your branches.

Mix 1 tsp. of vegetable oil and 1 tsp. of dish washing liquid with 1 cup of water, and put it in a spray bottle, and spray on your branches before placing them in a vase.

I hope your found these tips helpful and they have inspired you with some ideas for decorating your own home with plants!

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