How to choose flower pots and plants for your interior - Interview with a Phyto designer and an Interior designer

Plants are becoming an increasingly popular way to make the interior of your home stylish and environmentally friendly. However, different plants are suited to different environments. We spoke with both a Phyto designer and an Interior designer about how to choose the right plants for your home and how to place them in the right locations.

How and where should you place plants in a studio apartment or a one-, two- or three-bedroom apartment?

Studio

If you have a studio flat, you can still find a place for plants even in this small space. Place mini plants in the bathroom, on table tops or on an open shelf. Choose plants that grow in the shade in order to allow for healthy growth and to give a more organic home design.

Between the hallway and the main room is an excellent space to mount a shelf or decorative partition. You can put plants on the shelves. This will split up the space naturally and lets in natural light, which is very important in small rooms, especially where there are plants growing!

One-bedroom apartment

I really like it when the kitchen has real flowers in stylish vases or pots. Low plants in tall flower pots will fit perfectly in the room on the windowsill, and the dining table can be decorated with small floral compositions.

2-bedroom apartment

The bedroom is the most intimate place in any apartment. It is very important that the interior is set up for rest and relaxation. The right combination of colours, light and even scent is important. I do not recommend using artificial scents. Choose flower compositions to perfectly radiate delicate fragrances. The main thing is that you like the scents. Also choose plants that purify the air well to allow for better sleep. In the bedroom, this is especially true for healthy sleep - some plants such as lavender will even aid your sleep too.

The colour of the pots for the bedroom should be chosen to match the overall colour scheme of the room. As a rule, these are often light shades, so the colour of the flowerpots is better off being light as well. If the room is small, use 1 or 2 plants. For example, one on the floor (that’s not going to grow to any higher than your height), and one on a desktop.

3-bedroom apartment

Children - The nursery is probably not a good place for plants, as children can be very mobile and curious. It might be better to wait until your children are age 5 and over before decorating your home with living plants. At this age children understand better and you should be able to teach your children to look after the plants rather than damaging them.

In children’s rooms, I prefer to use small pots with plants on the windowsill, desk or shelves. The main thing is that the compositions are small and do not block the light fr om the window.

Tip:

Florariums decorate any desktop better than the most expensive décor.

Living room - sel ect several plants in a similar style of pot for consistency.

Tip:

Accentuate the dynamics of the interior with plants of different heights.

The dining area will be beautifully decorated with two identical large pots with a green crown of plants placed in the corners along one wall.

Always try to use no more than two or three types of pots in an apartment. Ideally they should follow the same colour scheme, unless your interior is in the style of eclecticism, in which case there is perhaps a wider combination of styles.

Additionally, it is also a good idea to consider the location of windows. The windows that receive the most light are the southern and western ones. There's always an active light source, and it's good to plant plants there that flourish in and love direct sunlight for example, Succulents and Sansevieria.

Near these windows, which may be covered by curtains, the sun’s rays can be used to maximum effect with variegated plants, which like both good and diffused lighting. The general rule is that the more colourful the leaf is, the more the plant is likely to enjoy the sun.

Next to the eastern and northern windows, I recommend planting shade-tolerant plants. For example, Aglaonema, ZZ-plant and others.

Please give some tips on combining style, interior colour and pots

It all depends on the style of the interior and your goals for it. Here are some tips on the example of a kitchen set:

1. For a light kitchen in the classical style, use wicker white flowerpots, light concrete pots (of similar colours), a mixture of matte and gloss;

2. For a dark modern kitchen, I prefer dark matte and glossy pots, but if the room is small and you want to add light, use matte and glossy pots that match your taste;

3. For a wooden kitchen, I recommend wicker pots, matt grey, white, and black;

4. If the kitchen is light fr om plastic, I recommend wicker white flower pots, concrete pots, matte and glossy colours.

If you choose compositions in the nursery, use white matte and glossy bright flowerpots, as well as gentle pastel tones. In this table you can see how to choose the right flower pot for your interior.

When we plant the apartment, the Phyto designer comes to choose the correct plants to match the style, aesthetic and the climate that the plants will live in. The task of the Phyto designer is to support the interior that is offered by the interior designer.

Tip:

Selection of pots and plants should be based on the style of the interior

For an English interior we recommend those plants that are popular in England. For example, the focus is Ficus elastic robusta or Ivy.

For interiors of the eclectic style, you can take plants fr om different groups and mix, for example, Bananas and the currently fashionable Strelitzia, Monsteras.

For lofts, pots with rough surfaces should be considered and plants of strict form, such as Sansevieria, can be used up here too.

Give us three design tips and tricks that you can use at home

Use Phyto particles if the apartment is small. Due to their ecological compatibility, they perform all the functions of a potted plant. Phyto-cards are mounted on the wall and save space on the floor. However, a lot depends on your budget with them.

You can also create partitions and split the room into zones with plants.

Also, currently in fashion are mini-gardens and florariums. Everything depends on the task, and your ideal design.

There are many options for placing plants in small rooms:

1. Florariums are stylish, modern and do not require much space or maintenance

2. Suspended plants in pots aren’t just a variant of grandmother's lace fr om the ceiling. These can also be suspended pots or a hanging structure with small pots. These should be simple and minimalistic;

3. Vertical systems for placing pots - shelves at different heights, racks, or decorative rack partitions with inserted plants;

4. Narrow elongated small flowerpots - even on a narrow window sill there is an opportunity to place a plant. Or next to the sink in the bathroom. Believe me, when you go in the morning to wash, your mood will be improved by the presence of a happy little plant.

5. Flowers in a vase in the centre of a dining table are a delightful sight to see, especially coming home after a long journey. A bouquet of flowers on a coffee table or working surface takes up very little space, and the pleasure it delivers lasts for a long time.

Why are the least popular areas of gardening in the kitchen, bathroom and children's spaces?

The kitchen is a place for cooking. Cooks who are using the space need to be careful that the plant won’t interfere with cooking or take up space in working areas, including the dining table. However, if you can find room for a small floral composition, the interior becomes cosier and no one will want to remove them. It’ll be like they were there all along.

In the bathroom, many of us simply do not know wh ere or how to place plants in a small, often damp room without natural light. But it is worth consulting with a florist or Phyto designer, as it turns out that for some plants these are quite favourable conditions.

In children’s spaces, kids are very active and parents prefer to protect themselves and their children, so that, for example, a child does not taste the plant or have an adverse reaction to it. However, fr om a certain age, plants for the nursery are useful. They clean the air, influence the development of creative abilities and stimulate the imagination. It is important to choose the right plants, as not all plants are suitable for children’s rooms.

My clients use Pinterest or Instagram in search of ideas for their interior. They see examples where plants are used as décor, and as they develop their ideas, they talk more about plants. Plus, when I use plants on my own initiative, customers see the visualisation of their interior, and agree that the plants used look appropriate.

If people are renovating an apartment, do they need to allocate space for plants when planning?

If the renovations are already under way or soon to be undertaken, a space for large-sized plants is most often included at the planning stage. However, for smaller flowerpots, there is no need to plan a place as they will fit in regardless.

How should one decorate the interior with bright plants, if a person is allergic to pollen?

In general, most plants are supplied from Holland, even flowering-hypoallergenic types, but you can try. If you are allergic, then in principle all plants will be allergenic, and plants may not be for you, so you could try fake plants if you want the appearance without the pollen.

Is it true that different plants act on people in different ways? some are fit for the office, others for the bedroom, for example.

This is a very interesting question, I’ll talk about 2 different approaches to it.

The first is purely visual. There are plants with large soft-looking leaves, and there are those with sharp ones, such as flowers or fruits like mandarin. When we see plants with different crowns, fruits or buds, we experience different feelings. It can be security and peace, relaxation, a mood for creative activity or concentration at work.

The second is Feng Shui. Feng Shui specialists distinguish different groups of plants. There are rules for choosing and placing plants. There are even rules of the zodiac. Each sign corresponds to its own plant. Those who believe in such things find that careful plant selection works based on the Feng Shui guides.

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Thank you for the interview.