It’s no secret that indoor plants are exceedingly popular when it comes to interior design and adding the finishing touches to our homes. Come to think of it, houseplants were a thing long before “interior design” became such a well-known term. This meant that for hundreds, even thousands of years now, we have instinctively known that surrounding ourselves with nature will have positive effects on our minds and bodies.
Artificial Plants vs Real Plants
First things first, in the points mentioned below, always assume that real, living, and breathing plants are being referenced. Artificial plants only affect one of our senses: sight. You may be able to trick your brain into thinking that you are surrounded by “plants”, which could result in the support of your cognitive health and may even contribute to a few of the points that will be discussed throughout the article.
However, artificial plants will have no impact on your other senses. On the contrary, artificial plants are made from synthetic materials that emit harmful toxins into the environment, which makes them particularly bad to surround your senses with.
Let’s look at the benefits that indoor plants provide when used in our homes and workspaces.
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Plant Care = Therapy
Tending to any form of life is an extremely rewarding and therapeutic process. It is in our DNA to care for and be taken care of. The ritual of planting, pruning, watering, propagating, and getting our hands dirty is a humbling process and physically connects us with the four-dimensional world.
The act of taking care of your plants is something you can do without having to be connected to a screen, or some form of technology, which is a rare find in the 21st century.
2. Plants Boost Your Productivity
There is a reason that numerous studies highly recommend the addition of indoor plants to a workspace or office environment. The reasoning behind this is quite simple: Experiencing nature (i.e. plants) makes people happy, and happy people are more productive people. Research shows that being surrounded by plants can increase your productivity levels by up to 15%.
3. Plants Can Reduce Stress
All of us could do with less stress in our lives, and it’s no secret that spending time in nature tremendously reduces our stress levels. This same rule applies when bringing the outdoors indoors as well.
Why do we feel less stressed when surrounded by plants? Studies have shown that taking care of plants, or simply being near plants, can reduce our blood pressure significantly, which naturally makes us more relaxed.
This is why designers are becoming increasingly aware of the importance of incorporating nature into our everyday lives through philosophies like biophilic design. Creating your own little oasis in your workplace will make you feel like you are on a lasting workcation.
4. Plants Increase Your Creativity
Whether you made a career out of your creative ability or not, humans are creative beings, and surrounding ourselves with plants has been proven to increase our creativity.
Theorists have tried to decipher the reasoning behind greenery sparking creativity and the theory that they produced is quite interesting: Our connection with plants is ancestral in that thousands of years ago, when traveling and foraging, our ancestors would view healthy foliage as a sign of abundance, as they took it as an indication of food and water being nearby. This meant that they would be freed from the worry of where their next meal would come from, which, in turn, left more space for being creative.
5. Plants Improve Indoor Air Quality
All plants absorb carbon dioxide (bad), and release oxygen (good) through a process that we know as photosynthesis. Besides providing much-needed oxygen, plants also release water vapor into the air, increasing the humidity in a room, which is especially important when you regularly have an air conditioner or heater running.
Plants that work hard at improving indoor air quality:
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Ficus Plants
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Spider Plants
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Rubber Tree
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Boston Fern
TIP: Like humans, plants can only exceed in their jobs when they are in optimal health. Remember to wipe down the leaves of your plants regularly with a damp cloth, in order for them to be able to properly absorb the nasties out of the air.
6. Plants Improve Sleep
Because plants have the ability to reduce blood pressure and therefore decrease our stress levels, it is plausible that being surrounded by plants should also improve your sleep quality.
Plants that produce the most oxygen during the night:
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Chinese Money Tree
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Snake Plant
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Chinese Evergreen
7. Plants Help You Heal Faster
We know that plants like aloe contain components that can contribute to various conditions and ailments. But does just being in the presence of plants contribute to the healing process?
Countless studies have been done on this topic, especially pertaining to hospitalized patients. Again, this goes hand in hand with the fact that being surrounded by plants decreases your stress levels. Lower stress levels = lower blood pressure = faster recovery rate.
8. Plants Will Transform Your Interior
As someone with interior design experience, I just had to sneak this point in here. We can purchase anything by convincing ourselves that it’s good for our mental and physical health, but there is no denying that the addition of indoor plants will elevate the aesthetic of your interior.
Empty corner in your living room that’s bothering you? Put a plant there! Bathroom in need of some color? Put a plant there! I have honestly found that “put a plant there” is the answer to most interior design challenges.
Go read my blog post on the best rooms for indoor plants to help you get started with decorating your home with plants.
All and all, the following conclusion can be drawn: happy plants = happy humans. I hope this blog post has given you the push you needed to start your very own indoor jungle, or at the very least add a handful of plants to the rooms in your home where you spend most of your time.
. If you need any assistance in sourcing plants for your home or workspace, head over to my plant services page and fill in the plant styling questionnaire.
Happy growing!
