How To Create a Living Wall
Biophilic design
“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world.” - philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein
I can’t count the number of times I’ve Iearned a new word or phrase, and then started to hear and see it EVERYWHERE. What Wittgenstein said is true, because once we have a term for something, our brain will naturally watch out for it, especially if it’s something we are excited about. We start to notice things that we wouldn’t have noticed before, and maybe engage in ways we wouldn’t have before, and our world expands and expands.
That happened to me this past fall when I met my dear friend Kelly Hofferth from Kelly’s Green Living. She introduced me to the phrase “biophilic design.” I had never heard of this term, but I was totally psyched about it as soon as I heard about it. If you look at the Greek origins, biophilic literally means “life-loving.” As an interior designer, how could I not be excited about life-loving design???
There has been a lot of research on biophilic design and how it is beneficial to humans and even mood-enhancing. That’s not my realm of expertise (talk to Kelly about that!), but I 100% believe that every space looks better and feels better when you layer in greenery and natural elements. For my own home and my clients, I define biophilic design as any design elements inspired by or sourced from the living world, especially plants, greenery, florals, botanicals, animal prints, furs, wood. I would loosely consider natural elements like water, stone, etc. in this category as well - even though they weren’t technically alive themselves, they are evocative of the outdoors so I’d argue they contribute to the overall effect. I try to bring in as much biophilic design into any space as possible. Every biophilic element is pulling double duty! It’s beautiful, AND it’s beneficial to your brain. Win win.
Live plants are the best form of biophilic design in my humble opinion. They provide greenery, they clean the air, and as an added bonus, you have to tend to them. “Wait, what?!” you say? “How is a chore an added benefit??” I know, I know, none of us need more chores. But consider this: in addition to the aforementioned mood-enhancing benefits, there are scientifically proven benefits to the act of “tending” as well. So it’s a chore that gives back to you! Also, I can point you in the direction of super low maintenance plants. Believe me, I have killed enough plants to be an expert in this area.
Living wall
The term “living wall” was another language bomb that Kelly dropped for me! I had never heard of this before, or if I had, it had not registered into my language, and therefore was not a part of my world. Once Kelly brought it up and talked through examples, the concept became concrete, and it became a goal of mine to get some living walls going in my designs, starting with my own home. With my world thus expanded, my brain was on alert for the the opportunities that presented themselves shortly thereafter.
How to create a living wall
Here are steps I took and things I used for my living walls:
You’ll need a trailing plant, and I recommend philodendron or pothos variety. If you can find one that has already started some trailing, that would be ideal. Otherwise you will need to be patient! I had a philodendron trailing nicely in our kitchen, and a pothos that had gone gang-busters in my office.
For my philodrendron, I hung a wall bracket to hold the planter. I used this one which holds a 4 inch pot. My pothos is sitting on a cabinet so it didn’t need to be mounted.
I purchased adhesive clips and checked whether the stems of my plants would fit in the clips.
My pothos has thicker stems that I didn’t want to jam in the clips, so I used S-hooks to hang the stems from the clips.
Once my plants were situated in their final locations, I very gently untangled the trails of the plants, and held them up against the wall to see how far they might stretch and where I wanted them to trail.
I hung paths of adhesive clips for each trail, and clipped in the stems.
Ongoing care
I have both of my living wall plants (and almost all my plants) in draining pots to avoid overwatering. I used to carry them to the sink and water them until water dripped out the bottom and let them drain completely. Now, I can’t take them to the sink anymore, so I have been creative about how I water them and let them drain. I posted a video on social media for you to get the idea :-).
This is just a rough guide. Remember - since plants are already gorgeous on their own, you really can’t screw it up! That said, if you would like help with your space, let’s talk. We can work together on a life-loving, life-giving design.
~Rachel
