10 Easy Ways to Decorate with Plants for a Cozy Home

No matter the season, plants are one of the very best ways to make a room feel cozy and welcoming. See my favorite ideas to decorate with plants for a cozy home to accent vintage, cottage home decor styling.

Have you ever walked into a room and it just felt cold or a bit too staged? What was missing? Chances are that the room was decorated rather than curated and was likely missing the whimsy and softening a room gets when you decorate with plants. There is something about nature that feels peaceful and calming; I happen to think we were just designed to appreciate nature! When we decorate with plants, we welcome that natural beauty right into our homes.

So, you bought some little plants and are ready to try your green thumb! Or maybe you have a huge plant collection or wildly gorgeous collection of house plants already but don’t know what to do with them? Or, perhaps you have a black thumb but you know you want to bring some low-maintenance plants and even fake plants into your living room to make it feel more cozy and welcoming.

You’re in the right place!

Admittedly, I am definitely NOT a plant expert with real plants. In fact, I only purchase the most low-maintenance plants I can and supplement with realistic faux plants and flowers. However, I’ve found several ways that I really enjoy decorating our home with plants and flowers in our living space and today, we are going to chat about how you can use these easy ideas in your own home. Whether it is to fill empty spaces, address an awkward corner, or add visual interest in your home, using different types of plants are a great option.

So, let’s get started!

large basket hung up on the wall with fresh greenery clipped from outside

medium-sized barrel basket holding a plant on a white apothecary

10 Easy Ways to Decorate with Plants for a Cozy Home

image of a spring mantel styled with different frames and a wooden arch window with a hanging wall basket beside it holding branches

1. Decorate with Plants as Wall Decor

There are so many more ways to decorate with plants as wall decor than what I can share in one post. However, I have a few of my personal favorite ways that I’ve used plants and flowers as wall decor!

First up are my vintage French grape hod baskets. These were a vintage market find but you could replicate the idea with any large basket that is relatively flat on one side! You can see a really amazing reproduction here for an incredible price!

I have used both freshly cut branches from the trees in my yard as well as artificial plants in my baskets. Baskets can be a great option for wall-mounted planters that add different textures and dimension to your decor.

Pro Tip: My plant was too short for the opening in the basket. So, I stuffed the basket with brown kraft paper, topped with dried moss, and then added the plant!

A second favorite way that I’ve decorated with plants as wall decor is with my vintage lavabo. I got mine at a vintage shop. However, you can see a great reproduction here. It looks so good and has a beautiful, vintage-style patina! I have styled this wall fountain for every season and filled with with everything from fresh palm branches from my yard to faux floral stems that match my color scheme to sea coral to potted green plants. There are so many fun ways to decorate with plants in this wall fountain!

It also makes a gorgeous focal point that you can leave permanently hanging and completely change the look with the seasons! I love versatile pieces that make seasonal decorating in new ways so fun and easy!

If you have limited floor space, using plants as wall decor is another way to bring in lush foliage without taking up valuable real estate in small spaces. Plus, fresh plants improve the air quality so they are especially useful as functional decor in a small space!

large grape hod basket mounted on a white door on a wall

white metal lavabo holding a beautiful coastal arrangement with greenery and coral pieces

2. Use Plants for Table Centerpieces

I love using live plants to create pretty table centerpieces. Beautiful plants are a great way to add a really simple centerpiece that still feels full and adds visual interest to a kitchen or dining room. If your dining room has windows with great natural light, your plants will love being the centerpiece of the table!

For a table centerpiece, I usually decorate with plants that are smaller and can tuck and around a vignette.

Here are a few simple ways I’ve used plants to decorate my dining table centerpiece:

plants decorated throughout a dining room tablescape and a white apothecary with shelves styled for spring

medium-sized topiaries in a large dough bowl used as a centerpiece down the table

3. Decorate with Plants on a Shelf

A shelf is a more obvious place to decorate with plants but don’t overlook the obvious! You can see more shelf decorating tips and ideas here! Some of my favorite things to use when styling shelves are small plants. Houseplant decor is perfect for shelves for a few reasons.

First of all, indoor houseplants can provide different levels for the shelf decor. A pretty plant in an ironstone bowl, for example, or faux greenery stems in a pitcher, can break up the height of the rest of the decor. Different heights are important for shelf vignettes.

Secondly, it is a great idea to place plants on a shelf because they can bring in different colors while keeping a natural, organic look. Pretty green plants are the perfect pop of color for a neutral decor color scheme.

Thirdly, intentional plant placement can soften the hard edges of books and objects on a shelf. A plant with a trailing vine, such as pothos plants, are easy to care for and the green leaves trailing along the shelf break up the straight, hard lines.

4. Decorate with Plants to Fill an Awkward Corner

Anyone else have an awkward corner in their house? Or maybe even more than one? Hand raised here!!! The best way to break up an awkward corner in your home while keeping a clean, uncluttered look, is to add a tall plant or tree.

Pro Tip: To make a plant or tree taller, use a tall basket or urn and stack old books or bricks in the bottom. Then, set your plant or tree closer to the top. Make sure the top of the plant base is even with or a little below the top of the container. Next, add fresh moss around the base to conceal your easy hack!

Depending on how the room is laid out, you can use different sizes of plants and create a plant corner with a trio of coordinating plant pots and trees. This is another great way to address an awkward corner.

Pro Tip: I’ve now purchased a couple of different sets of THESE pots and I absolutely love them. There are different sizes and colors available and the variety of pots will blend with almost any decor style while having a clean, timeless style.

If you have an awkward corner where even low-light plants struggle to thrive, I highly recommend these faux options that I have personally seen and used! Find some beautiful, faux tall plants HERE and HERE!

view of a back living room with a white couch and a coffee table with a centerpiece of a bread board with a small plant and a cloche

back living room area with a round side table holding a plant in between the two sofas

5. Use Plants to Fill an Empty Space

Plants don’t just make pretty decor! They can actually be a really important part of your overall design scheme and help you put the finishing touch on a space.

Have you ever been decorating a spot in your home, like a side table or bookshelf, for example, and just felt like something was missing? Maybe it just feels a little “blah” or there is too much empty space? Indoor plant decor ideas to the rescue!

For a large, empty space, try a large plant, such as a fiddle leaf fig. However, if you need just the tiniest touch of green to fill an empty or bare spot, cute little air plants are so fun for home decor too! If you need height on a console table, try a snake plant (I have a medium-height one on my long desk at school to break up the space!)

One of the nice things about indoor house plants is that they come in many different shapes and different sizes. If you have an empty space, you’re sure to be able to find a houseplant that will make the space in your home look and feel complete.

Pro Tip: Even if I think I know what plant I want, I always talk to the experts at the plant nursery. Often, they share tips and ideas or even other plant options that could also work for my room decor!

small plant in a terracotta pot styled in a mantel vignette

6. Decorate with Plants to Add Height to a Vignette

We chatted about this a little bit with shelf styling. However, beautiful plants make the perfect decor to bring different heights to vignette styling. A coffee table vignette, tray styling on a kitchen island, or display on an entry table will all benefit from the addition of a plant.

Pro Tip: When styling a vignette, you ideally want to work with an odd number of decor, typically 3-5 items.

This is a great spot to decorate with plants by tucking a plant in as either the tallest item, medium accessory, or even the smallest decorative accent. You can see more ideas of how to do this by visiting this blog post.

When I am decorating my mantel, I almost always include some kind of greenery, whether they are live plants or a simple faux greenery stem. Plants just help tie the decorative accents together in a soft and curated way!

beautiful white apothecary styled with baskets and a large white wooden vase holding a plant inside to add height to the vignette

7. Group Plants in a Collection for a Focal Point

As I said at the beginning of this blog post, there are so many different ways to decorate with a plants. We could be here all day…or longer…to chat about it! However, another of my favorite ways to decorate with plants is to group them together in a collection.

One way of grouping them is to create a “living wall” or plant wall. This could be a big display with wall planters and different plants. On the other hand, you could have a focal point with a single wall planter, like THIS propagating station. The best part is that you could actually propagate plants, like pothos plants, while using the wall planters as decor too.

I used this wall hanging planter for summer decor and added freshly clipped palm stems from our yard and little American flags from the dollar store. It made a fun and unique wall decoration for the summer holiday!

However, collections don’t have to just be on the wall! An herb garden, displayed in a pretty way in the kitchen, could become a centerpiece for the kitchen island. I grouped my flowering orchids together for a dining room table centerpiece. Even though they are all the same color, the collection makes more of a statement than just a single plant by itself. You could do the same thing with your perfect indoor plant, grouping a collection of them together in a large container!

Another fun idea would be to add groups of three plants to a couple of shelves in the home office. Combining plants with different sizes and leaf shapes and colors creates beautiful vignettes while still adding life and natural elements to the home office decor.

Pro Tip: Do a little research to see which plant life will thrive the best in your home. Write down the spaces you want to decorate with plants, the windows in that room, and what kind of natural light the room receives. For example: my music room gets morning sunlight while my bedroom gets more natural light in the afternoon. Share this information with a plant life expert at the plant nursery. They can help you choose pretty options that will thrive the best in your home!

hanging wall vases holding palm fronds and flags for Memorial Day and Fourth of July

9. The Best Artificial Plants and Flowers for Home Decor

While we are on the topic of natural light, do you have a room that just doesn’t get much natural light? I have good news! There are amazing options available for faux plants and flowers. The artificial plants and flowers seem to improve every year and now, there are some that are incredibly realistic!

Here are my favorites that I use around our home, depending on the season: