Decorating with Plants

I love good houseplant. Seriously. If I actually count ALL the plants in my house, I get 23. Sheesh. Kind of embarrassing. I guess I’m trying to justify my, shall we say addiction, but I Googled around a bit and found out that houseplants really do offer several benefits for your home! They remove odors! They purify the air! Fine, they just look pretty. If wishes were fishes, I’d wish for a room like this:

Ok, ok. I’ll acknowledge that a conservatory is a little over the top. What about this?

I love the way that plant fills up that lonely corner and makes the whole room feel more, well, alive. (Well, technically I guess at least one of those is just a branch in water, and will soon be dead...) Anywho, it’s greenery nonetheless. Imagine it at night, with up lighting trained right on it. So dramatic!

I also am really enjoying these images from the new Anthropologie catalog:

Such a great resource for exotic-looking planters. I wouldn’t mind taking that green ceramic planter home with me (and the orange one too).

If large-scale greenery isn’t your thing, you could give a tabletop succulent garden a go.

This looks like Echeveria, maybe some Hens and Chicks and not sure I can identify anything else. But, cute and low maintenance.  Just the way I like it.

Or maybe try your hand at a terrarium? I’m not about to tell you the best way to actually plant and care for a terrarium because I’ve had varying degrees of success with mine. All I know is, they look great, and it's all about the drainage.  However, this post does give you step by step instructions on how to start your own little lovely in a jar.

If I haven’t given you enough ideas, how's this one? Maybe you could just go down to your local nursery and pick up one of these five fireproof, bombproof, black-thumb-proof houseplants you can’t kill.  Toss it in a terra cotta pot, water it every week (or two) and taaa-daaaa! 

Trust me, I have one of each.

Images via Apartment Therapy, Anthropologie, and Sunset