The Restaurants Inspiring Us to Put Houseplants Everywhere
Dine at the hip and healthy Commissary in Los Angeles, and you might find yourself distracted from your grilled lettuce and avocado salad by some different types of greens: the pothos hanging from the ceiling, the succulents gracing each table, the lemon trees lining the corners. It seems like every restaurant has all at once decided that elaborate floral arrangements are out, and ivy walls, tabletop planters, and terrariums are in.
“Something about plants has this breezy, bohemian feel, whereas florals feel more like your mom’s garden,” says Heather Tierney, the designer behind The Butcher’s Daughter, the chic, veggie-heavy café, whose NYC and LA locations both have vines draping the bars and potted herbs on every shelf.
When it comes to bringing home the look of your favorite restaurants, plants are a no-brainer place to start. They’re easier to maintain and longer lasting than flowers; just a few small pots can—literally—breathe new life into your home decor. We asked the designers behind the spots that give us max plant envy (think: LA and SF’s Gracias Madre and NYC’s Verde) for their best tips for turning your home into a green paradise.
Courtesy of The Butcher's Daughter1/7Start with a neutral backdrop
Plants—especially distinct-looking ones like cacti or snake plants—stand out the most in areas that look like blank canvases. When Tierney was placing plants in The Butcher’s Daughter, she looked for white walls and plain wooden tables. “They just add that ‘alive’ feeling to a neutral space,” she says.
Courtesy of Verde2/7Mix and match your pots
“[Plants in the wild] don’t all grow the same size or in the same way. Some shade others, some climb up on the sun,” says Gonzalo Gout, co-owner of Verde in NYC. He simulates this effect at Verde by buying pots of various sizes and textures from thrift shops and antique markets and grouping them all together in a window display. Using various pots plus differing varieties of plants like ferns, philodendrons, and succulents, “creates this eclectic feel, with all the various colors and textures,” Gout says.
Photo by @jordangmiller3/7Use a lot of one varietal
Commissary, in LA, looks like a sprawling greenhouse. The key to getting that lush, voluminous look in your own home, according to the restaurant’s designer, Sean Knibb, is to buy ten of the same plant—something low-maintenance, like a pothos—and hang them all above a table, or place them in a cluster on a window sill. “It creates that overgrown feeling of volume and density and helps to layer the space,” he says.
Photo by @angelakulagina4/7Try a butcher rail
At The Butcher’s Daughter, which marries the butcher-shop aesthetic with that of a health store, Tierney turned a butcher rail with “S” hooks into a row of hanging plants—just make sure the plants are lightweight ones, like succulents or vine plants (the latter, she says, create that lovely, tropical, free-hanging effect). Tierney uses this trick at her own apartment to hang eucalyptus from her shower curtain rod. “When you take a shower, it creates this amazing eucalyptus-scented steam room,” she says.
Courtesy of Verde5/7Go high and low
Another way to make your display look more natural is to set plants at different heights. If you have a stool or an empty crate at home, put a plant on it, then place a plant on an adjacent table or sill. At Verde’s water station, Gout placed a banana tree on a stool to the left of the station and little succulents on the counter to the right of the water. “It’s a little bit of chaos, in a good way,” he says.
Photo by @greenerynyc6/7It’s okay to stay small
Large plants are immediate statement pieces, but Rebecca Bullene of plant and garden design company Greenery NYC, says to not overlook the little guys. “Small, tabletop planters on a breakfast table or a window sill create those little accents,” she says. “A lot of big plants create clutter. Little plants allow for negative space, which is important.”
Photo by Alex Lau7/7Get that ivy-on-a-building look
“Putting hanging plants on shelves breaks that visual line, creating a feeling of homeyness and abundance,” says Oliver Haslegrave, cofounder of the design firm, Home Studios, which has worked on New York restaurants like Black Seed Bagels, Metta, and Rebelle. “The plants look so integrated, like ivy on an old building.” He applied this technique to the stunning, high-walled bar at Sisters in Brooklyn, using most of the shelves for storing bottles but reserving a few for hanging plants like Algerian ivy and creeping fig vines.
