How to Decorate Farmhouse Shelves with Houseplants

Add a fresh, new look to a space and decorate farmhouse shelves with easy care house plants.

One of my favorite DIY projects is the farmhouse shelves we put in the Dining Room.

They were so quick and easy and add  style and personality into the space.

It’s a place I decorate seasonally, and it was time to freshen up the Dining Room for Spring!

This time, I decided to use houseplants as the main feature for these Spring Farmhouse Shelves.

Tips for Decorating Shelves with Houseplants

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Decorate farmhouse shelves with houseplants by choosing houseplants suitable for the lighting in the room.

I’m a relatively new houseplant mom, but I’ve been having fun trying out new plants, and am thrilled that *most* of them have survived my newbie care. I would say these are great houseplants for beginners! Perhaps, even, they are the easiest houseplants to keep alive!;)

This space gets very little direct sunlight, but it is near a big bank of windows. So, as I shop for live houseplants, I look for easy care houseplants that don’t need sun.

Here are a few of my favorite low light houseplants:

• Snake plant – I’ve read that this is one of the easiest houseplants to take care of. I totally agree! I seldom water mine  – making sure it’s really dry before watering. It’s happy as a clam.

• Prayer plant – This is brand new to me, but I just love it’s beautiful striped leaves. I’ve read that the prayer plant does NOT like direct sunlight, so as the days turn brighter and sunnier, I may need to move it to a shadier spot.
• Coffee Plant – I’ve had a bit of trouble with brown leaves on this one, but once I removed them, lots of new growth began. It’s been happy in various low light locations around our home.
• Money Tree – This is probably my favorite larger plant of all. I water it once a week and it just continues to get new growth on it. I did panic when it started shedding leaves in the Fall, but apparently that’s normal!

(The money tree is the large plant in the DIY planter stand beside the buffet.)

Alternate heights of plants on the shelves.

I started this arrangement with the tallest plants flanking the edges of the top shelves. The smaller prayer plant works well on the lower shelf.

It’s ok to mix faux plants with real houseplants

Before I was brave enough to try live houseplants, I strictly used only faux greenery for decor. I don’t have to worry about them ever dying!

Filling in the shelves with some faux plants and flowers helped fill out the space nicely.

Group arrangements in groupings of three – mixing in colors and textures.

I like to think of the rule of 3s when I’m arranging decor. Snuggling up three items of varying height makes a lovely look.

Add art to the shelf arrangements for additional color and interest.

I wanted some art on the second shelf, so I printed some Impressionistic art (from free public domain) on my home printer. Since I didn’t have a frame that fit it (and I didn’t want to take time to make a simple DIY picture frame), this time I simply stuck it to the wall with scotch tape!

If you would like to add this beautiful impressionistic art to your decor, too, it’s available for you free in my Printables Library. The free printables library is filled with printable art, cards, organization labels, and checklists.

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I recommend printing off wall art on cardstock with the following supplies (affiliate links)

• Home printer – Ours is the Canon TS5020
• White Cardstock (which is thicker than normal printer paper)

If you’d rather, you can have it printed on cardstock through your favorite print shop.

Stand back and look at the overall arrangement often

Shelf styling is really personal preference. Although there are some easy steps to help you get started, there’s really no right or wrong way.

Arrange and shuffle things around until the overall look and feel is what you like.

Houseplant containers can be a big part of your decor.

Some of my houseplants have come in just cheap little plastic containers. I’ve found it fun to search for pretty plant containers that will also become part of my decor.

Although mine are all rather neutral, you could get bold colors to pop into your decor scheme if you’d rather.

SHOP EASY CARE HOUSEPLANTS ONLINE FROM AMAZON:

For more posts on bookshelf styling, you may want to check these out:

• How to Style a Farmhouse Bookcase in 3 Easy Steps
• Ideas for Decorating Bookshelves with 3 Key Items (you probably already have!)
• Adding Moulding to Ikea Billy Bookcase

For more fresh ideas for your home:

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