A House Full Of Plants: 11 Ideas & Tips For Creating Your Own Leafy Oasis

Fill Every Room In Your House With Plants With These Indoor Gardening Tips For Plant Parents

What is a house full of plants called?

An indoor jungle? A plant lover’s paradise?

Whatever you choose to call it, there’s one thing we can all agree on, a house filled with plants is the best type of house!

Houseplants may be in style—66% of American households own at least one house plant—but is it good to have a house full of plants?

Beyond aesthetics and the pride that comes with calling yourself a “plant parent”, filling your house with plants has many benefits.

Plants can help purify the air, reducing indoor air pollution and making our homes cleaner as well as greener—literally.

Filling your house with plants is also one way to implement biophilic design—an architecture and interior design concept that aims to help us build a stronger connection with the natural world for greater well-being.

Research shows that we’re happier surrounded by our leafy friends and there’s always room to squeeze in another pot or basket somewhere!

If you’ve been turning green(ery) with envy over Instagram pictures of foliage-filled interiors and need help adding plants to your home, this article is for you.

We’ve potted up some advice with a little stem support from houseplant expert Ian Drummond, co-author of At Home With Plants to help you grow your own plant-filled oasis in no time.

1. Plant-Filled Living Room

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A living room full of plants makes for a calming, relaxing space to hang out in.

Move over books! Consider trimming down your paperback collection and letting plants inhabit your bookshelves instead. Find a home for potted plants on your coffee table, mantelpiece, side table, cabinets, shelves, and window ledges.

How do you style a house with plants?

Aesthetically speaking, three is the magic number when grouping indoor plants together, although other odd numbers work, too. Avoid uniform heights, and opt instead for a mixture of sizes. Plant stands can help here.

Trailing and handing plants that cascade downwards provide visual interest. Plus, they take up less shelf space, making them ideal for smaller homes and apartments.

Consider the type of pots you use and how they fit with your overall style. Keep it minimal with simple terracotta and ceramic pots or opt for some brightly colored baskets made from natural materials for a pop of color.

If you want more indoor plant grouping ideas, Pinterest is a veritable planter’s paradise for visual inspiration.

2. A Dreamy Bedroom Filled With Plants

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Dreaming of plants in the home? Why not put them where you actually dream?

Our bedrooms should be indoor sanctuaries of peace and relaxation and plants can help create a restful vibe.

Sleeping in a room full of plants may also be beneficial to our health. Plants act as mini air purifiers and can drastically improve indoor air quality.

According to a NASA study, some of the best plants for this are peace lilies, spider plants, and Areca palms. All three of these also release oxygen particularly at night.

For small spaces, like a bedside table, the Chinese money plant (Pilea peperomioides) makes for a cute night time companion.

3. A Rainforest Bathroom

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The bathroom is the place where you freshen up yourself, but that doesn’t mean the room itself can’t stand for a serious spruce-up—and nothing says “fresh air” like a house with plants inside.

However, as with anytime you’re considering where to place houseplants, be mindful of the amount of natural light in your bathroom before filling this room with plants, however.

Plants that come from rainforests are adapted to shady, moist environments and can work well in bathrooms with low light.

Try a Zamioculcas Zamiifolia, they tolerate low light levels and like humidity,” says Drummond.

Other options include the Boston fern (Nephrolepis exaltata), Snake Plant (Sansevieria), and a tall, bushy Kentia palm (Howea forsteriana) for an instant dramatic effect.

4. A Delicious Dining Room Filled With Plants

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Again, lighting is key. If your dining area is in a light-flooded conservatory, you’re going to want to choose plants that like it bright.

Cacti and succulents work well in such environments. A cascading Lipstick Plant (Aeschynanthus radicans) is a fun, low-maintenance choice—plus every house with a lot of plants needs at least one Aloe vera!

Not all plants need copious amounts of sunlight, however. If you have a low-light intimate nook, opt for shade-tolerant plants. Trailing Jade (Peperomia rotundifolia) is a lovely compact, trailing plant perfect for placing on a shelf.

5. Plants In The Kitchen

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Don’t have the space for an outdoor garden?

No need to feel blue (or rather, green). Sunny kitchens are the ideal place to grow some edible plants. Make maximum use of natural light by filling window ledges with potted plants and hanging some in the window.

If you have a south-facing window and can offer plenty of sunshine, try some compact varieties of cherry tomatoes, chili peppers, and select varieties of garden herbs.

Herbs are never that easy inside, but mint and basil should be hardiest,” advises Drummond.

A south facing window can keep a basil plant alive for years even, especially if you follow one of our favorite indoor plant hacks and buy a simple grow light to supplement during those dark winter days.

6. House Plants In Your Home Office

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More and more of us work at home, so is it good to have plants in your house office?

Considering indoor plants can help relieve stress and boost concentration and productivity—perfect for when you’ve got a last-minute deadline—they make for exceptional home cubicle companions.

Share your desk space with succulents or try a Money Tree (Pachira aquatica), a popular plant that’s happy growing indoors.

A variegated Snake Plant (Sansevieria trifasciata laurentii) or Pony Tail Palm (Beaucarnea) are both tolerant and low maintenance—even if your boss or coworkers aren’t!

7. Hanging Out Amidst Trailing Plants

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What do you call a room with lots of plants? Jungle-tastic?

Whatever the term may be, adding a plant-iful array of trailers and hanging plants in addition to upright ones can create a lush, interesting vibe.

Drummond says, “Trailing plants are really popular and easy to look after. The trend for macramé is brilliant for this too – you can group them together. Alternatively create a ‘shelfie’ by grouping plants together on a shelf, with a landscape effect.

If you can’t hang anything from the ceiling, don’t let that hamper your hopes for a house full of plants. Look for alternative ways to hang—say, from the cornice of your windows, if you have them.

Alternately, use wall planters or plant stands of various heights or fill a shelf with plants such as the Spider Plant (Chlorophytum), Mistletoe Cactus (Rhipsalis heteroclada), English Ivy (Hedera helix), or Silver Vine (Epipremnum pictum Argyraeus).

8. Plant Corners & Dedicated Displays

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Growing house plants is addictive. What happens if you have too many plants in your house?

It might become known as “the house of plants”.

Any room in your house could be taken over by large amounts of foliage and become more of an indoor plant room or greenhouse than any other type of room.

If you find yourself bursting at the seams with an apartment full of plants, consider dedicating a spare room, entryway, wall, large cabinet, or area of floor space to your collection.

Shelving is key for storing your expanding collection. Glass cabinets make perfect miniature greenhouses to house your plants in and have the added advantage of keeping pets and toddlers out.

If you still find yourself with plants in the house—those spider plants just won’t stop propagating!—share the leafy love and help someone else start their indoor jungle journey.

9. Living Large With Large House Plants

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When designing a room with plants, large plants are your best leafy green friend.

These include plants like a Ficus Tree (Ficus benjamina), Windmill Palm (Trachycarpus fortunei), Fiddle Leaf Fig (Ficus lyrata), or shade-loving Cast Iron Plant (Aspidistra).

In addition to being statement pieces that make for some effortless decorating, they can physically break up and add privacy screens between different areas of your home, which can be especially useful for a small or studio apartment, despite the larger size of the plants.

When the holidays roll around, hang ornaments on them for an everlasting tree to complement your sustainable Christmas decor.

10. Living Walls

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Vertical gardening is a great way to make maximum use of your space, especially for a small house with a lot of plants.

And nothing represents ‘vertical’ quite as much as your walls. Living walls are like paintings, but with low-maintenance plants like moss and ferns. They can be as big as your whole wall or as small as a framed photo, but either way, they can add a little excitement to otherwise boring whitewashed walls.

If you can’t mount on your walls, a simple, no-shelving required method is to place houseplants of varying heights along a feature wall or low cabinet.

Otherwise, consider attaching a simple trellis for climbers like Golden Pothos (Epipremnum aureum), or use wall planters for cascading plants.

11. Mini Gardens For Intimate Interiors

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Indoor gardening isn’t just about dramatic displays; even the smallest of spaces can be filled with tiny plants.

Air plants are back in fashion and any mantelpiece or shelf can be filled with an array of pots.

Plants with an upright growth habit like Snake Plants (Sansevieria) and Zamioculcas zamiifolia take up less space.

Smaller species include Peperomia caperata and Echeveria setosa and almost anything can function as a plant pot—including pen pots, tin cans, teapots, and other things you can creatively repurpose or recycle.

Closing Thoughts On How To Place Plants In Your Home

How many plants should you have in your house?

That’s for you to decide, but we believe you can never have too many.

Whether yours is a house with an indoor garden, or a few potted succulents you haven’t yet managed to kill, a house full of indoor plants is a beautiful thing.

Not only will your home be cleaner and greener, but filling your home with abundant plant life can help create a relaxing, peaceful, and creative environment.

The main thing to consider when creating a plant lover’s paradise is the optimum conditions that your plant buddies need to thrive.

Do they like bright light, or are they happy somewhere a little shadier? What about temperature and humidity? How thirsty are they, and how often do they like a drink?

Knowing how to group plants together and place them in optimal conditions can make or break your planted paradise.

Learn the needs of your leafy companions, and they will grow healthy and strong, helping you nail that Instagram-worthy plant filled room in no time!