Houseplants are a great way to add a lush look and feel to your living room. No matter what style of furniture you have in your living room or how it is arranged, chances are that a few carefully selected and strategically placed houseplants will make this room even more beautiful and inviting than it already is.
Focal Point Foliage for the Living Room
Houseplants come in all sizes, including super-sized! If you've got open floor space that needs to be filled in - but not with furniture - a sizeable houseplant might be just the focal point you need.
Bird of Paradise
Does your living room get a lot of natural light? Yes? Then it just might be the perfect place for a bird of paradise (Strelitzia reginae) plant. Be sure to use a pot that's as big as it is beautiful, as these plants can grow to reach up to six feet tall, even when grown indoors. A bird of paradise will thrive in your sunny living room, rewarding you and all who enter with lush, tropical beauty. If it gets a lot of sunlight, it might even reward you with occasional colorful blooms.
Fiddle Leaf Fig
Looking for a taller focal point than a bird of paradise? Fiddle leaf figs (Ficus lyrata) can reach as tall as 10 feet when grown indoors. Fiddle leaf figs make absolutely striking focal point plants for a living room, but don't expect to get figs from them. They won't flower or bear fruit when grown indoors, but they will add elegant beauty to your living room. Fiddle leaf figs should be placed front of a sunny window that gets direct light during morning or afternoon hours.
Monstera
If you need a focal point for a sunny living room with a super-high ceiling, a monstera just may be the houseplant of your dreams. In a large pot and with access to a lot of sunlight, monstera can grow to reach up to 15 feet tall with a spread of up to eight feet wide. Of course, in a smaller pot and with less light, monstera will stay more compact. That's okay - it just means they'll work just as well for smaller-scale living rooms that don't get a lot of light.
Umbrella Plant
Looking to fill in a good bit of wall space in your living room with a plant? An umbrella (Schefflera arboricola) plant is an ideal choice. When grown indoors in bright, indirect light, this plant can each up to six feet tall with an equivalent spread. It can also tolerate areas with less light, though it won't grow as large and may become somewhat leggy. Even so, an umbrella plant is still a gorgeous plant to display in any living room.
Gorgeous Greenery for the Living Room
Want to add greenery to your living room on a smaller scale than the focal point plants described above? Discover a selection of beautiful houseplants that don't grow to such large proportions.
Chinese Evergreen
If your living room doesn't get much light and you're looking for a plant that's super-easy to grow and care for, the Chinese evergreen (Aglaonema commutatum) is a terrific selection. These plants usually have green foliage with silvery markings, though some are green with red veins and/or streaks. They'll grow in everything from low light to moderate indirect sunlight. Even at their largest, these lovely plants rarely exceed three feet tall. They're typically as wide as they are tall.
Chinese Money Plant
If you're looking for a compact plant to display on a coffee table, end table, or even a fireplace mantel, a Chinese money plant (Pilea peperomioides) is a rich choice. This plant has circular leaves that are flat as pancakes and resemble coins or flying saucers, so it's sometimes referred to as a coin plant, UFO plant, or pancake plant. These plants typically stay at or under a foot tall, which makes them an ideal size to display on surfaces in the living room.
Peace Lily
Every houseplant collection should include at least one peace lily (Spathiphyllum). Peace lilies are among the best feng shui plants for the home. They thrive in low to medium light, so they're best suited for living rooms that aren't overly bright. Some peace lily varieties stay under a foot tall, while others grow to reach three feet tall (or even taller). Select a peace lily variety carefully, being sure to choose one appropriate for the size of the space you need to fill.
ZZ Plant
If you are looking for the least finicky, easiest-to-keep-alive plant for your living room, a ZZ plant (Zamioculcas zamiifolia) is a wonderful option. If your living room doesn't get enough light for a lot of plants, try this one! But don't mark it off your list if your living room is sunny. This plant will grow just as well in a low-light living room as it will in one that gets indirect bright light-and anything in between. It can grow to reach up to three feet tall and requires very little maintenance.
Living Room Plants That Trail or Drape
Some of the most beautiful houseplants grow in a trailing pattern or drape out and downward over their containers. Such plants can be gorgeous additions to living room decor, especially when placed on elevated surfaces.
English Ivy
Nothing says classic elegance better than English ivy cascading from a bookshelf or wall shelf in a living room. Assuming said shelf gets medium to bright light, you won't find a better-or easier to care for-option than English ivy (Hedera helix). English ivy isn't just for shelves. It also makes a lovely statement cascading over the side of decorative urns placed at the entrance to a living room or flanking the outside edges of a fireplace facade.
Pothos
Pothos (Epipremmum aureum) is another gorgeous training plant that you could use in the same places as English ivy. Pothos prefers indirect bright light, but it is very adaptable to all light conditions, including medium and even low light, so you can even use it in living rooms that are a bit too dark for English ivy. If you're using it in a low-light area, opt for a variety with solid color leaves rather than variegated, as the plant will lose its variegation if it doesn't get much light.
Spider Plant
Spider plants (Chlorophytum comosum) have spiky fronds that grow upwards and drape over, so they are a perfect choice to display on a plant stand or shelves in the living room. Just make sure they have plenty of overhead room, as they can grow to over a foot tall. Spider plants grow best in medium to bright light. For the best results, place your spider plant near a window that lets in a good bit of filtered light.
Trailing Jade
If you're looking for a small-leaved houseplant with a trailing habit, trailing jade (Peperomia hope) is a wonderful option for your living room. This plant has succulent-like leaves and stays very small, so it's a great choice to display on end tables or coffee tables. It thrives in bright, indirect sunlight. Trailing jade doesn't have to be watered frequently, but it does like humidity. This makes it a good candidate to display in a terrarium.
Multicolored Potted Plants for the Living Room
Greenery is gorgeous, but you don't have to stick with foliage that's fully or primarily green. If you like the idea of using houseplants to add a pop of color to your living room, you'll be glad to discover some truly colorful selections.
Coleus
Coleus (Coleus scutellarioides) plants are great options to grow in very sunny living rooms. Coleus plants are often grown outdoors as annual bedding plants, but they fare well when grown indoors in pots, as long as they get enough sun. They add beauty and interest to living rooms with their multicolored leaves. These plants provide rich, striking combinations of bright green, pink, purple, red, and/or yellow. They need a lot of light, so you may need to use a grow light during the winter months.
Croton
If you're looking to enhance the look of your sunny living room with colorful foliage, you can't go wrong with a croton (Codiaeum variegatum) plant. This thick-leaved plant has colorful foliage that combines green with any combination of orange, red, purple, yellow, and/or white. This plant's leaves often change color over time, providing even more visual interest to your decor. Croton requires bright indirect light.
Pink Polka Dot Plant
If you want to add a touch of colorful whimsy to your living room, a pink polka dot plant (Hypoestes phyllostachya) is a cool and colorful choice to place on solid surfaces, such as coffee or end tables. Their leaves are pink with green spots. Place this plant in a sunny location where it will get a good bit of bright to medium light on a regular basis. It has a bushy growth habit and can reach 2½ feet in height with an equivalent spread.
Prayer Plant
Prayer plants (Maranta leuconeura) are colorful trailing plants that look lovely in a living room. Their leaves are dark green with a pale green jagged line down the center and strikingly beautiful red veins. Because of their unique coloration, these plants are sometimes called herringbone plants. They typically stay under a foot tall and can sprawl up to two feet, so they look nice on living room shelves or tall furniture pieces, such as shelves or armoires. They need bright, indirect light.
Beautify Your Living Room With Houseplants
Nothing adds beauty - and air purifying benefits - to a living room like a carefully selected, well-placed houseplant. The key to choosing the best plant for your living room is to select species and varieties that will grow well with the light in your living room and fit appropriately in the space where you want to use them. From there, you'll just need to work out the best maintenance routine to keep your plants happy. In return, they'll reward you with a bit of nature inside your home.
