Here at Lauren Keenan Home, we love styling with plants in all the homes we create. There are so many benefits to having greenery in your home. 

For starters, plants look amazing. They’re naturally beautiful and they can help soften architectural features in our modern homes. Plants provide a contrast to timber floors, painted walls and other hard finishes like tiles, glass and appliances. 

We also know from studies that greenery can have a really positive impact on our health and wellbeing. Plants purify the air in your home, they make you feel better mentally by connecting us with nature and they really bring a room alive.

DESIGN WITH PLANTS

If you want to step up your styling game with plants, you’ve come to the right place. We’ve got some practical advice from interior stylist and indoor plant expert Alana Langan. And our founder Lauren has some key design principles to remember when introducing greenery and styling with plants at home.

Scale

Just like with furniture and accessories, scale is an important consideration for plants too. For example, if you have a spot on the floor calling out for a plant, you’ll want something with height so it feels like part of the room. Or if you want a plant on your bedside table, it needs to be small enough to allow for other essentials like a lamp and books. Consider your plants and pots as living decor items and size them accordingly. 

Light

Light is the first thing you need to consider when choosing a plant for a space. It’s no good falling in love with a particular plant only to discover it likes bright light and your room is dark! Make a note of what the light is like in your room at different times of the day. Does it receive all-day filtered light? Morning sunshine? Or hot afternoon sun? A quick google search will throw up some plant options suitable to your light levels.

Layers

Plants look amazing when layered together or alongside other decor items. Think about using an artwork as your backdrop, either hanging or leaning up against the wall. Then your plant, which could be stacked on a couple of coffee table books. Then a small decorative item or two. Look for common design features to bring it all together – you could take a colour from the artwork and select a pot in that shade, or use a similar metallic finish across some of the items.

BEST PLANTS FOR INDOORS

Alana Langan from IVY MUSE botanical emporium joined us on our podcast to talk about plant care and the best indoor plants. Alana’s a product designer, a stylist, a plant lover, and an author. Together with her business partner Jacqui Vidal they are helping us greenify our spaces and cultivate wellbeing with plants. 

Stream the show here now or listen and subscribe in your favourite podcast app like Spotify, iHeart Radio or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode.

If you haven’t found your green thumb yet, Alana recommends three plants – Devil’s Ivy, Mother-in-law’s Tongue and Peace Lily.

“Devil’s Ivy is a beautiful trailing plant. It looks amazing. You can have it on a shelf. You can have it trailing off a bench top. It’s a beautiful plant that is low maintenance and can deal with lower light levels as well. 

“Mother-in-law’s tongue requires very minimal watering. They can also deal with lower light levels. They’re beautiful too, more structural and architectural.

“The peace Lily is a good communicator – when it needs water the leaves start to flop. So for someone starting out it is easy to tell when it’s time to water the plant.”

HOW TO SET UP YOUR PLANT CARE KIT

Caring for your plants is essential and you will need the right tools to do it. Alana recommends a watering can, a mister to add humidity to your plant’s leaves, scissors or secateurs to remove brown or dead leaves, neem oil to repel insects, and a dusting cloth.   

When it comes to fertilisers, Alana says that there are specific indoor fertilisers that you should use. 

“We’ve seen some indoor plant fertilisers come onto the market which are better suited to indoor plants than osmocote and other outdoor plant fertilisers. Really you should only be fertisiling in spring and summer which is the growth season for plants. 

“Potting mix already comes with fertiliser in it, so if you’re re-potting your plant or topping up you don’t need to add fertiliser. The same goes when you buy a new plant – you don’t need to add it for a few months.” 

You don’t need to spend a lot of money on your plant care kit items. IVY MUSE has a range of plant care products available on their website worth checking out. Lauren recommends and uses their Indoor Plant Foliage Spray and Indoor Plant Soil Food.

You can also buy Alana and Jacqui’s book ‘Plant Style: How to greenify your space’ from their website. As Alana tells us on the podcast, it is a practical how-to guide with plenty of beautiful photos and inspiration for your own home.

LAUREN’S LOVELY LIST

Here are the links for Lauren’s Lovely List recommendations in this episode: Stay at Hold Cottage in Gunning, NSW Southern Tablelands; try recipes from a cookbook called Neighbourhood by Hetty McKinnon; and check out @amberinteriors and her modern relaxed interiors in California.

Our award-winning interior design podcast, hosted by Sydney interior stylist Lauren Keenan, is now in its fifth year. 

Lauren and Producer Scott are back with new episodes to help you at home during the pandemic. Including conversations with interesting people to help you adapt during these challenging times. Ultimately we want to continue to help you create a home you love.  

Get in touch if you have a topic you want us to talk about on At Home with Lauren Keenan. Rate the show and subscribe in your favourite podcast app like Spotify or Apple Podcasts so you never miss an episode. 

And if you want to hire Lauren to help you styling with plants in your home, email lauren@laurenkeenan.com.au.

Find out more about the services offered at Lauren Keenan Home and check out Lauren’s portfolio of work for some inspiration. And thanks for listening!