I admit to being a bit sceptical when Living Decor landed on my desk. As someone who rarely carefully co-ordinates their life, I really wasn’t sure about styling houseplants.
Was it yet another book taking advantage of the current popularity for houseplants that has seen Instagram feeds filled with pictures of carefully positioned succulents?
I was given a copy of Living Decor to review.
My scepticism turned out to be misplaced. Maria Colletti has an impeccable pedigree in using plants to their best advantage, having worked for many years at New York Botanical Garden’s shop “creating displays with plants and other merchandise to produce endless visual scenes”. She is also well known for running workshops on planting terrariums.
In Living Decor, she shows how plants can be the starting point for displays that reflect the homeowner’s life and interests. These can be used as table centre pieces, enliven a windowsill or sit atop a piece of furniture.
They are not just about plants either. Maria gathers together what she describes as mementos of her life with books, pictures, maybe old shells, or even in one, Scrabble letters.
The book is full of styling ideas from creating an arrangement for autumn with pumpkins, ceramics and succulents, to using vintage pots from the 1950s as a starting point for a retro display of plants.
There’s advice on which plants to group together, pots to use and places to hunt out unusual display gems.
She has an easy writing style, although some of the Americanisms took a bit of getting used: to the transatlantic spelling of colour, and I was reaching for the dictionary to discover what a creamer set was. Also, living in the Cotswolds, I’m unlikely to have to worry about the all-day hot sun, unlike readers in Arizona or California. But these are minor quibbles.
Picture heavy and with clear illustrations on how plant up a terrarium or care for an air plant among others, Living Decor is more than just a style guide. There is valuable advice on how to look after your plants, how to provide what we are told are the three essentials: light, water and care.
There’s a quick run through of the currently popular tropical houseplants, the “wonderful ‘it’ plants”, such as the fiddle-leaf fig (Ficus lyrata) and Swiss cheese plant (Monstera deliciosa).
Ultimately, although the current houseplant craze may be led by Instagram fashion, it does have its roots in good sense. Plants, we are told, can reduce dry skin by improving humidity in our homes, they purify the air and reduce stress. Ultimately they “make people happy”.
Living Decor by Maria Colletti is published by Cool Springs Press, RRP price at £16.99. All photos copyright Lori Adams. Buy now for £11.89 on Amazon. (If you buy through this Amazon link, I get a small fee. The price you pay is not affected.)
You can read more of my gardening and garden-related book reviews here.
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