AS SPRING MOVES IN, INTERIORS EXPERT SHARES HER ADVICE ON HOW TO SPRUCE UP THE LOOK OF YOUR HOM

Adding Plants in Your Home: Real or Fake? 

Creating a home bursting with life comes much more naturally with indoor plants. The added touch of greenery is a guaranteed way to brighten up your decor and add further personality to your interior, perfect for the start of spring.

In recent years, it has also become a lot more popular to scatter plants around your home for that contemporary look, making an instant improvement to your space.

For a spring refresh, bringing the outdoors in can ensure that the warmth of pending summertime coats your home decor, too.

And, there are so many positives attached to having plants in your home, with mental and physical benefits, but the argument of whether artificial plants can compete still stands.

Here to mark the first days of Spring, Kate Conrad, senior interior designer at luxury homeware retailer Madison & Mayfair, discusses the pros and cons of both real and fake plants and how to effectively incorporate them into your decor in time for spring.

How houseplants can boost mental wellbeing 

“Research shows that having plants in your home has benefits for your mental wellbeing, reducing stress level. The act of caring for your plants has been proven to release endorphins, often being described as a healing experience, so embracing some indoor gardening can act as a happiness-inducing activity.  Having plants in your home can also increase your productivity by up to 15%, enhancing your concentration in the process. The addition of greenery in your home has the power to improve your mood in general. Able to reduce anxiety, as well as encourage feelings of happiness, being surrounded by nature has so many positive outcomes, so easily achievable by simply adding a few plants around your home.”

How houseplants can boost physical wellbeing 

“Your physical health can benefit from having houseplants, too. The improvements to the air purity will in turn assist with your breathing. Your furniture, carpets, and even cleaning products can damage the air quality in your home, and with poor air quality comes the potential of headaches, dizziness, breathing problems and fatigue. In their most basic form, plants absorb carbon dioxide and release oxygen, meaning they filter out the bad chemicals that can affect our health”, Kate adds.

How do artificial plants compare? 

“The obvious benefit of faux plants is that they do not require maintenance like real plants do. They don’t require watering, feeding, or pruning, and instead only need cleaning and dusting from time to time. Their life span lasts much longer as a result, without suffering any visual deterioration. Faux plants can also encourage some of the advantages of real plants, because the colour green on its own has the ability to achieve the same benefits that real plants do.”

How to add plants in your home 

“A plant, real or fake, will effortlessly fit into any room in your home. And, as we step into spring, it will give a brighter touch to your home.  You can create a living room that takes a contemporary feel with colour in every corner through your houseplants.  Houseplants can also complement any colour theme, adding personality into your decor to make a home feel lived in, without adding to clutter.

Your home office is the ideal place to include houseplants, particularly if you’re opting for real ones – so you can make the most of the enhanced productivity and reduced stress achieved through plants.  Plants are a good way to dress up shelves, too. Houseplants are key pieces of decor, such as a tall-standing plant, which can act as a stunning focal point in a room, too..

“There are also so many options now for faux plants and they look incredibly more like real plants, expanding your options and meaning you don’t have to commit to the maintenance of caring for plants – but can still achieve a botanical sanctuary within your home.”