Indoor Plants: A Breath of Fresh Air

With summer now a memory and spring several months away, now is the optimal time to put your green thumb to work indoors.

In terms of interior design, plants can be the least expensive yet most versatile option.  Plants offer a softness and depth amid the typical straight and solid home furnishings.  The range of colors, textures, shapes and sizes make a home feel comfortable and inviting.

For example, do you want to make your ceilings look higher? Try placing a tall and slender plant in the corner.  If you want your room to appear larger, place your plants by the windows.  Use plants to create transitions between rooms and to break up larger living spaces.

Flowering plants are an excellent source of color.  Create focal points throughout the house with orchids, African Violets, or the diverse and enchanting Oxalis.  Groupings of flowering and foliage plants add a particularly decorative touch.

Match like-colored plants or use them to draw from colors in your fabrics.  It’s impossible to go wrong when you’re dealing with a pot of living, natural beauty!

Beyond décor, keeping indoor plants benefits your health.  Allow me to give you the rundown:

1. Photosynthesis.  Plants feed off of carbon dioxide and increase oxygen levels.  Many plants produce oxygen during the day, but keep an eye out for the ones (like the Snake Plant, orchids, or succulents) that do so at night.  Consider keeping one in your bedroom!
2. Humidity.  Through the act of transpiration, plants release most of the water they take in.  Upping the humidity in this way is good for combating dry skin, sore throats, and dry coughs.  Plus it makes the room feel warmer, so you might save a little on your heating bill too!
3. Purification!  According to NASA research, plants can clear up to 87% of volatile compounds every 24 hours!  Everyday household items, from your furniture to your carpet, your paint to your plastics, and your cleaners to your dry cleaning, are typically accompanied by formaldehyde, benzene, carbon monoxide, and xylene.  By filling your home with plants, you are greatly reducing the amount of air pollution.
4. Ailments.  Be it at home or in the office, keeping plants decreases fatigue, headaches, colds, and stress.  Studies show that hospital patients with plants in their rooms need less pain medication, have lower heart rates and blood pressure, less anxiety, and are released sooner than their plantless counterparts!  Gosh plants are great.

The world of indoor plants is vast and exciting.  It is easy to spend hours researching the qualities and benefits of each one.  So I’ve kick-started your journey by making a list of notably decorative and functional chlorophyll-tastic assets to every home!

• English Ivy – This classic cascading plant has been acclaimed by NASA as the #1 best filtering houseplant.
• Aloe Vera – The “cool guy”, this easy-growing, sun-loving plant would do well on a sunny kitchen window.  Plus, as you probably know, the gel helps heal cuts and burns!
• Peace Lily – All this lovely lily wants is shade, weekly watering, and to eat up the most common volatile compounds around.
• Peperomia – These small tropical plants are widely diverse and offer a splash of color to any room.
• Red-edged Dracaena – This slow-grower can reach 15 feet high but stays compact, so play up your ceilings with a pillar of air-purifying color!