A few of you have asked about some of the plants I have sitting around so let’s talk about them.  I thought we’d split this post into two parts, today I’ll show entirely too many photos of how I use plants around our downstairs (I hardly have any upstairs right now) and then in the next post we’ll talk about specifics like how I make sure they stay alive and where I buy my plants, why you will love having plants in your home, and which plants are my favorite.

Two Kimberly ferns greet you as you walk into our home.  I’d like to be the kind of person that pulls them inside in the winter and they flourish but instead I’m the kind of person who lets them die every November and then sit in the blue urns looking all decrepit until the day our Christmas guests come and then I pull them out and try to put something Christmasy there and then come January they sit empty until I first spot some fresh green ferns at my local Home Depot every March.    My next door neighbor’s mother just told me that she has a 39-year-old Boston fern that she bought from Kmart–she keeps it inside of course.  That’s what I love about plants, they can last a long time.

Sometimes I use plants to solve a problem.  If you scroll back up to the first photo you can see the view when you walk into our house.  You are looking right down the back side of our TV and it’s not pretty.  So to camouflage the wires I placed that plant (I always called it a Ponytail Plant) strategically to help hide all the guts and wires coming of the back.  I found that plant at either Home Depot or Lowe’s.  I need to pick up a little terracotta tray thing to put under the plant to protect the DVD player from any extra water.  But I always take that one to the kitchen and let it drain anyway.

It doesn’t make quiet as much sense from the front view but it’s worth it to hide the wires.  From this angle I noticed the wires coming out between the TV and the dresser and of  course that drives me batty so I grabbed some painter’s tape and taped those two wires against the TV stand.

PHEW, see, no more wires between the TV and dresser.  Forgive the wires under the TV.  That’s why I have that basket there.  There’s a HUGE NASA sized outlet strip with lights and plugs and it’s just horrible u so that basket is my current solution to hiding them.  I tried attaching the strip to the back inside apron of the dresser (they even put holes on the back of the strip so you can hang it) but we use it so often that it’s easier to leave it on the floor.

Oh I even found a year old photo on my old computer to show you how I attached it-I just hammered in some nails on the back inside wall or apron of the dresser to keep the wires off the floor.  But I could still see it a little from the sofa and any time we fiddled with it to plug something in it fell. The basket is my compromise and usually I make sure the wires are hidden behind it.  So now my plant post has turned into a “how to hide wires post” just count that as a little bonus.

I have another Pony Tail on the mantle.  This one’s from IKEA.

Apparently it’s called an Elephant Foot Palm.  I just bought these plants within the last few months so I can’t vouch for how easy they are to take care of.  And clearly I’m still looking for just the right planter for his home.

There’s a Snake Plant (I’ve always heard it  called it Mother-In-Law’s Tongue) in front of the fireplace.  We’ve had him for over a year now and he’s done fine even when we turned on our pretend fireplace.

The homework table is right in front of the window and gets great light.  So I put the light loving plants in my big planter.  I LOVE this greenish planter, I found it on clearance at Pier 1 last year for $20.  It’s 13 inches tall and 15 inches across and I’ve used it in just about every room in our house for every season…

On the coffee table…

In a grouping last year with different plants.  I always keep this big planter either on the little wooden stool or on a ceramic tray because he’s too heavy to bring into the kitchen to water so having something underneath to help stop the water leakage is a must.

During the fall…

In my office…

…and currently in the planter are some succulents, creeping fig and a few things that I forget what they are called that I just picked up because of the color.

 

I also like to be playful with my plants.  These mini foo dogs travel from plant to plant marking their territory.

As you can see, I move all my plants around all the time.  I found that Bonsai tree at IKEA last year.  It was a splurge at $25 but it’s served us well.

Right now we have a lot of green in our family room and I love it, it feels fresh and springy without having to get out a bin of plastic chickens and then put them back next week.  Although I’m positive my boys would like the plastic chickens and they would probably look so fun perched in my plants.

I love the planter on that shelf. Target sold them last year and if I can find them for cheap I’d buy more.  That one leaf is driving me batty because it looks like a big green tongue. It’s full of succulents that I’ll tell you about in the next post.

I’ve also just started experimenting with tiny terrariums.  This one was a Joss & Main steal from Twig from a few months ago.  I’ve made a few on my own but I’ll wait to see if they live before I try to tell you how I made them.

Of course I can’t show off my plants without mentioning my bust planter.  He’s wearing a mask because he was here for my big girl’s sleepover weekend and it just didn’t seem right.  Funny, I used to think it was a lady, but clearly sometime along the way I’ve decided it’s a fella.  And now I just like the mask because it’s unexpected and purposeless.

Lastly I’ve got this fine fella in the laundry room.  He’s some kind of curly fern.

Stay tuned for Part Two of Using Plants in Your Home where we’ll talk about:

  • where to purchase plants
  • where to purchase planters
  • how to care for you plants (lazy girl’s way)
  • and of course my discourse on why I think you would love having plants in your home

Now come on, I know you want to leave a comment telling us that you love plants but that you have a brown thumb, how many of you are out there?  And for you green thumbs, tell us your best tip!

Read Using Plants in Your Home Part 2 here