Have you ever thought about decorating your children’s rooms with house plants? If you’ve caught the houseplant bug that’s sweeping the world, then maybe yes?
Plants bring life and warmth to a room and look stunning in neutral nurseries and children’s rooms, as you can see in these images. But they don’t just look great. Did you know that they can help purify the air? The leaves and soil help take out harmful airborne pollutants such as formaldehyde and other nasties. The positive psychological effect on mood and wellbeing has also been well established – it’s good for people to look at greenery. So I think we should all be adding plants to children’s rooms.
Maybe I have a weak spot for plants because I’m a child of the seventies – I grew up with lots of house plants and now have quite a collection myself, including childhood favourites such as the piggy back plant, lemon geranium and lime plant. Succulents are great too – and easy to look after. I’d warn against cacti in kids’ rooms – having done a cart wheel into one of them when I was little, I can tell you, the pain of getting all those tiny pins extracted from my feet was excruciating. Also check that the plants you choose aren’t poisonous when ingested, for obvious reasons.
If you fancy growing some plants from seed with the kids, I can recommend this gorgeous children’s book that I treasured as a little girl: Linnea’s Window Sill Garden by Swedish writer Christina Björk. It’s no longer in print but pre-loved copies are still available at places like Amazon. It’s full of easy-to-follow projects and beautifully illustrated. A little childhood nostalgia…
