We know when living in a city not everyone has a large garden or even their own private outside space.
While it may sound obvious, don’t underestimate the power of simply adding plants. Potted house plants are an easy and cost-effective way to brighten up your indoor spaces. If you’ve steered clear of house plants in the past for fear of killing them, don't worry, there are more than a few that are near impossible to kill. They like low light and don’t need watering regularly, there's Aloe, Snake plants, Pothos and ZZ Plants to name but a few. Check out Leaf Envy for more inspiration.
Colour is the best way to change the way a room makes you feel. Go for a complete transformation by painting a feature wall or simply accessories with candles, blankets, cushions and ornaments in colours inspired by the outdoors. Shades of green such as sage are great and yellows evoke freshness helping to brighten a space up.
Updating soft furnishings is a simple and cost-effective way to completely transform a room. Filling your room with nods to nature will invite the outdoors in. Think about textures - materials like jute, wicker, rattan and hemp are wildly on trend and inspired by nature. Decorate with baskets, rugs or even lampshades in these materials.
Living walls
Why should we limit ourselves to planting on the ground? When short of space outside, let's get creative. Why not hang plants from above (plants like ivy or spider plants look amazing and hung above a kitchen island or on top of a bookshelf). Or give the living wall trend a go.
Getting a full living wall will involve some DIY, but that's all part of the fun, right? Living walls can be created via different systems such as wall planters where integrated troughs are attached, a live panel modular system or you can build a panel of planting pockets to be hung on a wall and topped up with water.
- You can either build a living plant wall straight onto a solid wall, fence or indoors we recommend a custom-made wooden wall, this also gives you the freedom to move it between rooms.
- On your chosen surface screw rows of 2in BY 1in battens 38cm apart across your chosen wall, don’t forget to check they are straight with a spirit level.
- Work from the bottom-up screw in the plastic planters to the battens, making sure to lock the planters into each other. Create a reservoir system, water from the top down to keep your plants happy for up to two weeks.
- Now the fun part…fill the planters with your plants of choice, you can plant them straight into the planters but by placing pots directly into each planter you can move individual plants around when needed. If that sounds like a lot of work, John Lewis is on hand with a ready-made living wall here.
Nothing beats natural light. Consider floor-to-ceiling windows, although a costly investment, they will completely open up your rooms adding lots of natural light and access to whatever outdoor space you have...and they look very stylish!
If floor-to-ceiling windows just aren’t feasible what about adding skylights? another very effective way to add another level of natural light to your home.
These small changes can completely transform your space making it a more relaxing place to be. For more interior design ideas check out our blog with Denby and inspire your inner interior designer.