Do you wish you could spend more time enjoying the great outdoors?
National Gardening Week runs from Monday, April 29 to Sunday, May 5. But if you don’t have much of a garden to speak of, you may want to find ways to welcome the beauty of nature into your home.
Here are our top tips on how to bring the outdoors into your living room:
- Go potty for plants
Adding indoor plants to your living room brings lots of benefits and will last much longer than bouquets of cut flowers. As well as looking great and creating eye-catching features, house plants will also make the space a healthier place to unwind and relax. According to the Clean Air Study by NASA, some plants will purify your air and remove many of the airborne toxins, germs and dust you breathe in on a daily basis.
Bright and colourful, Barberton daisies will strip your air of three toxins commonly found in synthetic fibres, paint and other household materials – formaldehyde, trichloroethylene, and benzene. If you are looking for something low-maintenance, spider plants are a great option as they don’t require much attention, are pet-friendly and help clean the air in your home.
- Branch out with a tree
If you have plenty of space in your living room, you could create a striking focal point by bringing a tree indoors. Obviously, you won’t have room for an enormous oak, but fairly young trees planted in large tubs can look very effective and introduce life and greenery into the space. For a tropical twist, you could go for orange or lemon trees, although they will need to be somewhere where they can get plenty of sunlight.
- Choose natural materials
Choosing natural materials you would normally find outside can give your living room a fresh, outdoorsy look. Stone or wood are particularly good choices. Introduce furniture and accessories made from natural fibres like wicker, rattan or hemp. If you want to give your living room a full makeover, you could lay a real wood floor or go for a floor made from bamboo or cork. Having natural materials underfoot will help you get back to nature and they are warmer than man-made alternatives.
- Get inspired by nature
Use plants, gardens and the countryside as inspiration when choosing the colour palette for your living room. Greens are the most obvious option and will bring to mind the natural landscape but you could also opt for blues or yellows. If you prefer something less colourful, pick neutral beiges.
- Add some accessories
A really simple way of bringing in an outdoors theme is to add some accessories like pebbles, sea shells or wooden objects. Fill jars with sand or create a centrepiece using fresh fruits or vegetables. You could also hang photographs of stunning landscapes or colourful flowers on your walls.
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