How to style a living room book nook with eclectic indoor plant decor. Learn how a thrifted blue trunk can be a charming furniture accent.
Indoor Plant Decor
Indoor plant decor is a wonderful way to bring the beauty of nature into our living spaces. Plants not only add visual interest and texture to a room but also provide numerous benefits for our well-being. They purify the air by absorbing toxins and releasing oxygen, creating a healthier and more refreshing environment. Indoor plants have a calming effect on our minds, promoting relaxation and reducing stress. They can also improve our productivity and focus, making them perfect for home offices or study spaces.
My mother always suggested that it was important to have something living in every room of your home.
From hanging plants and terrariums to succulents and statement plants, there are endless options to choose from. Whether you have a small apartment or a spacious house, there is always a plant that can fit into your decor. With their vibrant colors, unique shapes, and varied sizes, indoor plants can be used to create eye-catching displays or subtle accents. They can be placed on windowsills, shelves, tables, or even hung from the ceiling, adding a touch of greenery to any room.
So, whether you’re a seasoned plant parent or just starting your indoor plant decor, incorporating plants into your interior design is a surefire way to create a warm and inviting atmosphere in your home.
Plant Decor Ideas
With these plant decor ideas, you can bring the beauty of nature indoors and create a calming and inviting atmosphere in your home or office.
My friend Michele from Vintage Home Designs shares these fabulous ways to make your own Topiaries—real and faux!
How To Make a Faux Topiary That Looks Real
How To Make A Topiary With Live Boxwood Cuttings
Roadside Freebie
Blue Trunk and Crock
Last Sunday, I discovered a roadside freebie: a fabulous rustic blue trunk along with a vintage brown crock. I wasn’t sure what I was going to do with the trunk, but I loved the color, and the old-fashioned handles were oh-so charming.
We squished Ella, our Bernese Mountain Dog, over, and into the back of the car, it all went.
Once home and unloaded, we set the blue trunk down in a corner of our living room next to the pellet stove and built-in bookshelves. I thought I would let it sit a bit until I figured out what I wanted to do with it.
It is here; I would clean it all up and decide whether or not it needed painting.
Plant Stand
Almost immediately, I thought this rustic old blue trunk would be fabulous for spring plant decor in this living room book nook space, which has French doors adjacent for lots of natural sunlight.
This would allow the trunk to stay in its rustic condition, and I would be able to keep the blue color, which is what drew me to it in the first place. So this is when I started to dabble and decorate with the day’s roadside freebies with plant decor.
You may also be inspired by the Antique Trunk Restoration Made Easy post.
My Decor Style
I have noticed that my decor style has changed over the past few years. I used to love decorating with neutrals and pops of color. Now, I crave color and more of an eclectic and cluttered cozy vibe. It’s still vintage and antique, just more on the multiform side of design, as in this Vintage Eclectic Decor Meets Craft Room Design post.
Plant Decor Living Room
Layering Plant Decor
Layering in plant decor is a technique that involves arranging plants at different heights and depths to create a visually appealing and dynamic display. Here are some tips on how to use layering in plant decor:
Do you ever stop and pick weeds or wildflowers from the side of the road? Have you ever even considered doing so? Discover the beauty of wildflower arrangements. Learn how to create stunning floral arrangements with freshly picked roadside weeds.
Plant Decoration Ideas
Using all these techniques, my plant decor on the blue trunk started out looking something like this in the photo below. I started adding height with an old painter’s step stool and placed a plant into a recently found vintage crock. See more in the Cottage Farmhouse Decor Trending Finds post.
Plant Decor Living Room Nook
Then, I dismantled it all and started over…
I decided I wanted this plant decor nook in the living room to be up against the window instead of the bookshelving. This would give the plants more light and leave more open space for a chair that we would also like to add to this space at a later date.
*On a side note, I am not a plant expert and often struggle to keep thriving plants. Today’s post is simply written to inspire those of you like me who would like to add some plant decor to your home using vintage and rustic details in cozy spaces.
Plant Decor Vessels
Once the rustic blue trunk was positioned, I started looking around the house for unique vintage-style plant vessels. Here is a list of plant decor inspirations that I found to decorate my new plant corner with.
You don’t have to use standard flower pots for your house plants. I especially love using vintage soup tureens, trophies, champagne buckets, crocks, and tea cups.
Unique vessels will truly elevate your plant decor.
You may also find inspiration in this Pie Safe Antique Kitchen Cupboards Decorating Ideas post.
Because this blue trunk and plant decor now sit in front of a wall of windows, it’s challenging to get well-lit photos for this post. The color of this trunk may also vary depending on the time of day the photos were taken.
Plant Decor Selection
With all of my plant decor vessels gathered around, I chose plants that would work nicely among these unique basins. Selecting plants from a Myrtle Topiary to a miniature Jade plant.
If you have a small space, remember you don’t have to have large plants like ferns and spider plants. There are so many options available today, such as miniatures, air plants, succulents, topiaries, and more.
One of my favorite places to visit to get spring-inspired for my indoor and outdoor plant decor is Snug Harbor Farm in Kennebunk, Maine.
My plant selection remains simple. As we are not here much in the summer, I will need to transport our plants to our home in Maine sometime soon.
Seasonal Plant Decor
Forsythia & lilacs
Plan to leave room for seasonal flowers and fresh-cut blooms to add to your plant decor collections. Here, I added some cut forsythia branches into a glass vase framed with a garden stand that I picked up at a yard sale for our living room book nook.
Pansies
A vintage berry carrier that I found while out Thrifting with the Gals was recently filled with pansies for spring. Because it’s still below freezing in the evenings, this vintage plant decor will move from the porch to our cozy book nook in the living room.
Seasonal blooms are an easy way to incorporate the season’s colors into your interior design.
Plant Decor Home Accents
Add a few individual plant decor necessities to your living room plant decor, such as:
I think Demijohns would add a beautiful texture paired with plant-decor nooks, too. These three demijohns sit on our coffee table in the living room, just next to this book-nook corner.
After finding these vintage framed owl prints at a vintage marketplace this past weekend, it was time to replace the winter snowshoes, and the passing Forsythia was replaced with a bouquet of white tulips in another vintage vessel.
You may also be inspired by this Vintage Marketplace: Infinite Unique Decor post.
Thanks so much for dropping by today. I hope you found loads of plant decor inspiration, and maybe you’ll even find an upcoming roadside freebie that inspires you, too.
Your Guide to an Eclectic Style~
If you have any thoughts, comments, or suggestions, I’d love to hear from you. Please share in the comments below. And be sure to share this blog post link with your friends who are also vintage enthusiasts.
Do you have a flair for all things vintage, too? I would love to see and feature you in our Reader’s Showcase Series. A place for you to share and be recognized for your talents and passion for all things thrifting, vintage, and antique decor-related inspired by your time here with Dabbling & Decorating. Email me at annck@dabblinganddecorating.com
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I love all of these great ideas for using plants in your home decor! Thank you so much for sharing my faux topiary DIY Ann. I really appreciate that!
Thank you Michele, and you’re so welcome they are fabulous ideas that I knew my readers would enjoy!
Hi Ann! That trunk was such a great find! Love the blue paint! You did a great job styling it with plants!
Thanks so much Molly!
Ann
What a great roadside find.
Thanks Rachel!
I really like the blue chest and cannot image finding that free crock also! Living in FL we would never come across anything like that. I buy a lot of blooming plants to use inside until they look unkept and then plant them in the flower bed outside. We can do that pretty much year round here except high summer which I take off from gardening anyway. Love the berry baskets filled with pansies and sweet planted tea cup.
Thanks so much Pamela! We don’t run across free crocks very often here either… I wish I could plant more outdoors, lucky you. Thanks so much for stopping by today and loved seeing your note!
I love them all! Did you just leave the plants in their pots with the berry basket?
Yes! The pansies are in the flat bed trays still from when I purchased them at the nursery and I just water straight through them. Thanks so much Cathy, this was a fun little spring uplifting project.