To enhance your environment and well-being, use plants strategically and aesthetically – they improve air quality, lower stress, lift our mood and increase productivity. Caring for plants is known to reduce physiological and psychological stress, is therapeutic, and especially rewarding once your efforts grow and produce lush foliage or beautiful flowers.
A Happier, More Creative Workspace
Plants are almost always incorporated in workspaces as it had been proven to increase productivity by 15% and creativity by 45%! Aesthetically – introducing plants with different textures, shapes and colours can soften angular and sharp spaces and create visual interest and pleasure. Plants in a restaurant can be used to soften harsh acoustics.
Styling and Decorating with Plants
By using various sized, shaped and coloured pots filled with shrubs, palms, or colourful perennials one creates instant balance and impact. Groups of 3’s or 5’a are the most appealing combination. Always consider the height of walls and the areas of expansion to make the right choices of the size of the pots and plants to be used to create the most pleasing effect.
Trellis’s and decorative panels are another way to enhance expansive and plain walls. Be experimental and attach them not only vertically, but horizontally in pairs or threes. Bed edging neatens beds and creates uniformity and neatness to a garden – as well as being a practical way of keeping the grass at bay from extending into the garden beds. Edging can be made out of wood, metal, or plastic – one can even use upended roof tiles for an interesting and cost effective impact.
Practical can still be Beautiful (and Cosy)
Focus on integrating nature into architecture by using hanging plants, upright walls and placing solar lights beneath trees, along paths, or amongst shrubs to create impact and atmosphere at night. Plants can fill empty corners, and create the feeling of cosiness and that ‘welcoming’ feeling.
Final Thoughts
Perhaps one of the loveliest qualities of plants is their ability to make a space feel lived in, cared for, and welcoming – a bare corner becomes cosy with a tall leafy plant, an entrance feels inviting with layered pots, a patio becomes relaxing with surrounding greenery and a workspace starts to feel calmer with a touch of nature nearby. Plants help transform houses into homes and outdoor spaces into sanctuaries.
