9 Refreshing Ways To Decorate Your Home With Plants

It's a given: plants are perfect living accessories. Aside from their many health benefits, they make fantastic home decorations because they can add so much life and color to any room or space. Having house plants is also another way to appreciate your home more. 

9 Refreshing Ways To Decorate Your Home With Plants

If you'd love to accessorize your home with pretty, green foliage but need some inspiration on how to better do it, read on for these new and unique ideas. Soon thereafter, you will move on from the usual bar cart or garden rack filled with plants and come up with new ways you can spruce up your home.

a room filled with furniture and a fireplace

Bookshelves aren't just for books, framed photos, and other displays and accessories. If you haven’t considered this yet, try including a plant or two to your bookcase to enrich the space and add some texture. If you want to go beyond the succulents or small potted plants, place a trailing plant on the top of the shelf to add a “living layer” and create visual interest.

a close up of a plant

Love plants but don't think you have any extra floor space? Well, the sky (or the ceiling) is the limit! Creating a garden in the air can instantly add a dreamy, bohemian look in your space. Also, setting up hanging planters at varying heights is an unexpected way to add color and visual interest. Hanging plants are also perfect if you have pets or small children and you’re afraid of them grabbing the plants on the floor or tabletop, especially since there are some plant varieties that could be poisonous to them when eaten.

You can opt for some macramé plant hangers if you want that boho-chic look. Or, simply use a hook on the coat rack in your entryway or mudroom to add a hanging planter as an instant accessory.

a screen shot of a living room

Want to try something different? Go over the top with an enormous potted tree that can add a burst of life to your space. It's perfect if you are already tired and bored of the usual small house plants, you have a minimalist home, or if you don’t have enough space or budget for lots of plants. 

Tall indoor plants and trees like palm trees, fiddle leaf fig, olive tree, or Monstera, can be a great statement or conversational piece in any room. They can add so much more floor-to-ceiling style to any space. And since trees are natural, living furniture pieces, they can complete the look of the home with the most organic feel and spruce up any space that needs livening.

a close up of a flower garden

One practical way to incorporate plants into your home is to use them as a room divider. They make attractive dividers especially on houses with open floor plans or layouts, and on studio apartments where you need to create defined areas within the room. Using plants is also a great way to maximize natural light and space.

There are several ways you can craft a divider using house plants. You can use any standard open bookcase, cube storage unit, or rectangular planter between the spaces you want to separate and fill it with plants. You can also line small, similar plants on top of a long table or bench. Likewise, choose several tall planters with small trees or plants with broad or bushy leaves to create a lush screen that will add a lot of character to your open floor plan.

a close up of a flower

Plant life can pop in many areas of your home—even in your restroom. Especially if you're looking for ways to improve the look of your boring bathroom, adding a few potted plants can add a soft, warm layer to all the hard materials. Some plants that will feel perfect in a bathroom or walk-in shower include peace lily, sansevieria or snake plant, and spider plant. The bonus is, even if you think you have a black thumb, these plants will thrive in low light and warm temperatures. Also, the moisture created from your daily bath can help your leafy friend stay alive even with less effort.

a close up of a flower garden

Bring the pleasure of cooking with fresh herbs straight to your kitchen by growing your own indoor garden. The beauty of this is, even if you have limited outdoor space or have no room for a vegetable garden, you can incorporate plant decor while filling your home with the calming and fresh-smelling scents of herbs. Try planting basil, rosemary, mint, parsley, and thyme in small pots or even mason jars, and then mount them on black wooden boards that you can lean against your kitchen cabinets. You can also use individual planters that will add another pattern to your kitchen wall. This way, your plants will not only serve as cooking aides but also as wall art. Plus, those herbs mentioned above are just some of your best choices for your indoor garden since they don't grow too wide or tall. 

a close up of a garden

Instead of filling that bare wall with expensive paintings or photos, why not display some greenery? Creating a gallery wall of plants is another great and unexpected way to incorporate them in your home. Adding some greenery to your blank wall can instantly add color and texture to your space. If you love succulents and cacti, they are perfect to decorate your homes with using tiny planters, as they will do well indoors and can thrive in less sunlight. To combine geometry with greenery, opt for wall planters with unusual or eccentric shapes and see how they steal the attention of anyone in the room.  

a cat sitting on top of a table

Mirrors can make a room look larger and feel more open. However, large mirrors can at times be distracting. To counterbalance the effect, place a few tiny plants or cute topiaries in front of it. You can use plant pots or containers that match the color of your mirror frame for a more harmonious effect.

a person in a green room

If you have any areas in your home that look lonely and unfilled, adding different layers of plants may actually do the trick. Instead of adding a potted plant on the stairs landing, why not place some pretty foliage on the wall flanking the stairs? If you have high cabinets with an unused empty space on top, add some planters in there to create a lush backdrop.

9 Refreshing Ways To Decorate Your Home With PlantsCertainly, there are better and more innovative ways to decorate your home with plants. If you can't commit to having a mini plant sanctuary, you can always go for a few houseplants that are hard to kill and can thrive with minimal effort. Plus, plants not only make any space gorgeous, but they also have a special way of making us feel better, happy, and content just by being there.


Stop Believing These 6 Common Pricing Myths When You Sell Your Home

When you put your home on the market, the one aspect that usually comes to mind is profit. Without a doubt, every seller's main goal is to sell their home for the best possible price. However, in an effort to get the best deal possible, many sellers fall prey to myths about home pricing that don’t reflect the current real estate market.

Setting an asking price for your home will never be a walk in the park. But coming up with an accurate number can give you the biggest advantage. It can mean the difference between quickly getting an offer and risking your home to sit on the market for months, losing the interest of many potential buyers.

So if you want to get the most out of your home sale, disregard these most common myths about pricing a home and start your journey with some realistic expectations!

Many sellers think that getting a quick offer is an indication that they priced their house too low. They are contemplating whether they should have asked for more money or feeling that their realtor “gave their home away” because it was sold too quickly. 
But here's the reality: getting an offer (or offers!) in the first few days most likely means your home was priced accurately and competitively, which attracted multiple buyers. Your home has the right price on the right market that’s why you received multiple offers even in a short amount of time.

After receiving an offer from the first showing, sellers may be hesitant to accept it, wondering if other potential buyers would be keen to cough up more money for their beloved home. This is another common assumption among many sellers: if they're willing to wait long enough, a better offer will come. The thoughts of potential bidding wars could prompt them to be in a “no rush mode” when it comes to selling their home.
However, that’s not how real estate works most of the time. The longer your home stays on the market, the worse the offers could get. Or maybe you’d get none at all. This is because homes sell for the most money when they are on the market for less than 30 days. According to the NAR 2018 Profile of Home Buyers and Sellers, recently sold homes were on the market for a median of three weeks. When a home has taken so long to sell, buyers will start to wonder what is wrong with it. They may assume that it was priced too high, or that there are issues with the property itself.

Be wary of using any home value estimate tools you find online. The numbers they give can be inaccurate since they have not assessed your home physically, and haven't taken into consideration any of its special features and the prices of the surrounding properties. Many home estimates go above or under the home’s real market value. Keep in mind to always trust your realtor over your home’s estimates.

Every seller's goal is to get top dollar for their home. However, overpricing your home thinking that you could accept a lower offer, later on, will never be a good strategy. The worst is it could just leave you empty-handed, especially when buyers start to wonder what’s wrong with your property. Trying to price it too high, thinking that it will create a lot of negotiating room will get you nowhere. Instead, buyers and their agents will steer clear from your property and will choose a listing that has a reasonable price.
Your realtor knows that negotiation is very important in real estate, so trust their experience in this matter. They will price your home appropriately from the beginning but will make sure there’s enough wiggle room so you can still get what you want out of the sale.

You may have remodeled your kitchen, added a master bedroom, or replaced your garage door. But don't think that the money you spent making these renovations will be recouped once you sell. Don’t set your expectations too high just because the potential new owners will be enjoying all the hard work you put into your property. Keep in mind that while some changes might see some return on investment, you won’t recoup the whole amount. Likewise, there are renovations that can give you profit, and there are those that can even hurt your home sale.
To get an idea of which upgrades yield the biggest return on investment, check out the 2018 ‘Cost Versus Value’ report by Remodeling Magazine. For instance, you can expect to get back only 56% of the costs of an upscale bathroom remodel. Meanwhile, the projects with the biggest return include a garage door and entry door replacement.

Real estate agents are being paid a percentage of the selling price of the home. However, this commission will still be divided up between his or her broker and the buyer's agent, leaving the agent with less money in his or her pocket. Even with weeks or months of showings and marketing expenses, no agent would want to lose a potential sale just for the sake of a few hundred dollars. Trust your realtor because they’re the one who knows the market well, and the price given to your home was based on extensive market research.