Garden Variety: The Best House Plants for Your Decor

There’s no need to have a green thumb to enjoy indoor plants at home

Whether clustered together in a nook or dispersed among various rooms, plants let you enjoy the beauty of an indoor garden year round. Beneficial for your health and your living space, they soften the corners of a room, work with any color palette, purify the air, and, some experts say, can help reduce stress. We love seeing Sweeten homes filled with greenery, so we set out to discover what kinds of indoor plants our homeowners keep in their homes and how to care for them with advice from Justin Hancock, a professional horticulturist and garden expert at Costa Farms. Below are a crop of our favorite plant-filled renovations.

Samantha’s kitchen

If you’re looking for a good indoor plant for the kitchen, look no further than the snake plant. In Samantha’s kitchen, the greenery adds a decorative touch to the island while breaking up the gray and neutral tones of the space. Also known as mother-in-law’s tongue, it enjoys the extra humidity a kitchen offers and doesn’t need to be watered regularly.

Brett’s living room

The fiddle leaf fig tree in Brett’s living room complements the wall of exposed brick beautifully while the height of the tree makes great use of the tall ceilings. It also acts as a visual barrier between the living room and kitchen, defining each space while allowing them to remain open. Fiddle leaf fig trees love bright, indirect light, so keep it in a sunny room away from windows and be sure to water it whenever the soil feels dry.

Christine’s living room

A wall of exposed red brick in Christine’s living room inspired her to recreate a Moroccan riad—or home with an interior garden. A variety of indoor plants, layered to add depth and visual interest, creates a private retreat within the home. The collection includes a majesty palm, a Red Congo philodendron, a monstera, and ponytail palm, to name a few. All of these plants need to be watered whenever the top of the soil begins to feel dry and do their best in sunny spots around the home.

Christine’s bathroom

When adding a plant to your bathroom, it’s important to find one that can tolerate steam and a high level of humidity. The pothos plant is the perfect candidate, pictured here in Christine’s bathroom. Hang it from the ceiling and make your bathroom feel like a secret oasis. Also, keeping it in the bathroom is a great way to make watering it super easy; keep the soil moist, but not saturated.

Brett’s bedroom

A schefflera arboricola on the windowsill, a corn plant in the corner, and a dieffenbachia on a small side table add a bright boost to Brett’s all-white bedroom. Treat them as decorative elements and mix different species of plants in one room; choose a few varieties that need the same amount of light and water so it’s easy to remember what to do. In this case, these indoor plants benefit from a lot of light and a weekly watering.

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A pothos is a beautiful way to add some greenery to your bathroom; you can hang it from the ceiling or place it in a corner and wrap the vines around your bath like Pallavi and Keyur did.

Sweeten handpicks the best general contractors to match each project’s location, budget, and scope, helping until project completion. Follow the blog for renovation ideas and inspiration and when you’re ready to renovate, start your renovation on Sweeten.