May 03, 2023

Decorating with plants – Create the dream plant room

If you found your indoor plant collection growing bigger and quickly outgrowing that corner you have them in, maybe it's time to consider creating a plant room. This is the exact predicament I found myself in a year ago and ended up turning my guest room (that was never used) into my dream indoor plant room.

Creating a space entirely for my houseplants gave me the chance to create the ideal growing conditions for my plants. It also is a place I can go to get all my plant chores done and not have to worry about spilling soil all over my living room, where my plants previously lived.

A plant room
Boho inspired plant room
Photo by Spacejoy on Unsplash

Want some plant room ideas and some tips for creating your dream plant room? Well, keep on reading.

Before You Begin:

Finding a Space

Any room can be turned into a plant room; an office room, spare/ guest room, an enclosed porch. The more natural light the room receives, the better, but no light is fine as well (we'll talk more about that later). But before placing plants together in the room, make sure you track the sunlight. If the room is bright and receives a lot of bright direct sunlight, you may need to curate your collection for plants that can handle that much light.

Plan the layout and style of your dream plant room

This is something I wish I took into more consideration. You'll need to consider your current plant collection plus any future plants. Let's face it, we all know how hard it is to NOT buy more plants. Keep in mind, most tropical plants grow big, especially if you want to grow them on sphagnum moss poles or wooden planks because they take up a lot of floor space.

While planning out the layout, break the plant room up into sections. One corner can be made for trailing plants. The trailing plants can be trailing off shelves or even be hung from the ceiling in plant hangers. Another corner can be for larger plants. You can put different indoor plants in this area, some on a plant stand or on top of terracotta pots to add varying heights.

If you plan on using shelves, consider where you want to place your plants. Place the low maintenance plants on the top or in the back of shelves, so they're okay with one or two missed waterings. And the more finicky plants, place in the front so you can easily pay attention to their specific needs.

And don't forget about storage! Make a space to store all those propagation containers, different soil amendments, and that collection of different shapes of planters. Once again, another element I wish I put more thought into. Right now, things are just thrown into a closet. But using totes or different storage containers will help with organization and make plant chore day a lot easier. Stacking terracotta planters in a corner can add visual interest as well.

Lighting

Lighting is crucial when it comes to indoor gardening. It may take a few weeks to understand how your plants react to the lighting in their new living space.

If your plant room receives full light, you don't have to worry about much. However, if you notice a few plants are getting burned, then move them a few feet away from the window. You could also add a sheer curtain to your window treatment. This will drastically reduce the amount of sunlight that comes through. Additionally, move different plants closer to the window. Arid house plants like cacti and euphorbia do great in bright windows.

Hanging spot light

Hanging spotlight with featured wall.

Does your plant room or plant area have little to no natural light in? No problem, grow lights work just fine. My plant room has one, very shaded window and sunlight is very minimal. I've had to line my shelves with grow strips and added a few hanging lights to cover a group of plants. There's lots of different grow lights available to match your home decor.

Place plants on the windowsill

Windowsills are a great way to save on your floor surface area and a great way to give your plants ample light. You can also add shelves to your windowsill or add hanging pots of plants with different leaf shapes to create a beautiful living curtain.

Use Wall Space to Your Advantage

Using wall space is a clever way to add style to your plant room. You can make a whole featured wall or even one or two wall planters as the perfect finishing touch.

Satin pothos growing on wall with Monstrella wall mounts

Featured Wall

A featured wall could be a mix of different plants in hangers, handmade art from small businesses or DIY art you've made. When choosing house plants for the wall, spider plants or any trailing plant make a great option. The colors and textures of different vines and foliage are always fun.

Monstera deliciosa with featured wall

Create a living wall

The living wall aesthetic has been popular within the past couple years. This can be achieved by curating your own DIY system or using various form of wall planters and hanging planters to add to the wall. Use different trailing vines (like pothos or trailing philodendron) to trail on the walls. The wall mounts from Treleaf are perfect for this job and add to the look of your plant room.

Satin pothos on wall mount by Treleaf

Another fun option is to get a propagation station where you can prop different types of house plants and have them trail their long vines down the wall.

Other factors

Now that you created the ideal plant room, here's some final tips to help your plants thrive in their new environment.

Humidity

Humidity is crucial for many indoor plants, especially in the winter time when outside temps are down and the inside heat is high. If your plants are located in one room, use a humidifier. Letting a humidifier run for a hour, one or two times a day will help with dry conditions and help keep pest at bay.

Another tip for helping humidity, is by clustering smaller plants together in on area. This creates a micro environment for your indoor plants making them happier and hold on to humidity just a tad more.

Pests

With plants being in the same area together, specifically if you group plants together, pest might be more of an issue. Dry condition, unhealthy plants, new plants, or having foliage touch other plants are just some ways pests can happen and spread. Plant pest are just part of plant life and inevitable. Read here to learn more about common plant pest and how to treat for them.