Understanding Interior Landscaping: Enhancing Indoor Spaces

What is Interior Landscaping?

Reaching out to pull all the natural benefits and beauty of the outdoors inside is what interior landscaping is all about. This exciting form of landscaping, also known as interiorscaping or interior plantscaping, involves designing, installing, and maintaining plant materials inside buildings. 

More commercial spaces are investigating interior landscaping with each passing week. And why not? 

The Basics of Interior Landscaping

It’s easy to get started with interior landscaping with so many elements and concepts to choose from. Here are a few of the core elements:

• Live plants

• Faux plants

• Water features

• Stonework

• Containers

Those ingredients open up a vast new world of visually pleasing interior designs. Beauty isn’t all you get, though. There’s improved air quality, noise reduction, and a welcoming environment for guests, visitors, and employees.

Exterior and interior landscaping have similarities. However, there are key differences and challenges. Watering is a major difference indoors, as hand watering is usually required instead of automatic irrigation. Then, you have natural light challenges. The biggest difference is the preventive maintenance to avoid plant loss since disease treatments are not an option inside buildings (more on this issue coming up)

Benefits of Interior Landscaping

There’s a long list of impressive benefits to adding interior greenery, blooms, and trees. Many Yellowstone clients say interiorscaping has been a huge upgrade to their building without overspending. Furthermore, businesses feel the extra value of a nicer environment can incentivize their best employees to return to the office from remote-only work.

Quality interior landscaping is proven to reduce stress (even without 100% natural plants). And stress is a huge reason much of today’s workforce would prefer to keep working from home. Less stress, better air quality, and quieter work environments attract new employees and help bring remote staff back in the office. 

Plus, interior landscapes enhance employee satisfaction and performance. That’s a good return on investing in something as simple as a green wall—or new faux plants, which have come a long way with realistic options that use subtle color blends.

Creative mixtures of live plant materials with faux plants also conceal artificial elements.

Which live plants work best indoors, though?

Key Elements of Interior Landscaping

Our downloadable Top 10 Plants For Cleaning Air is at the end of this article. And here are seven commonly used indoor plants to spark your imagination:

1. Dracaena Colorama Marginata
2. Stromanthe
3. Yucca
4. Ficus Amstel King
5. Ornamental Pepper Plant
6. Bromeliad Neoregelia Variegated
7. Sansevieria Hybrids

Using those plants with other components makes all the difference. 

Planters are a vital part of green interior designs, while soil considerations and access to natural light are crucial to plant health. Irrigation systems exist for interior landscaping, but we highly recommend hand watering (more precise and removes indoor water damage worries).

Faux greenery requires minimal upkeep and is ideal for buildings lacking enough sunlight. Modern artificial plants have more “life” to them, especially when you enhance their “real” appeal by:

• Using planters crafted with natural materials like terracotta.
• Adding natural soil, rocks, or preserved moss to planters. 
• Misting faux flowers adds a life-like look.

Now, let’s get into specific principles.

Design Principles for Interior Landscaping

The main idea of enhanced indoor spaces is to make people feel welcome, comfortable, and even energized. Beautiful interiorscapes achieve this—even when people don’t realize why they “feel better.” It’s akin to how we all feel while at a resort or nice restaurant filled with beautiful landscaping indoors and outdoors. 

Certain designs work best for specific commercial spaces, though.

• Offices: Planters, living walls, and tall plants can shape work zones and add a sense of privacy. Water features and fragrant flowers are naturally stimulating, especially for remote workers used to working in their backyard or at a local park.
• Malls: Water features and green walls near seating areas invite shoppers to relax and shop a while longer. Branding with interiorscapes helps businesses inside the mall enhance seasonal promotions and unique events.
• Hotels: Curb appeal and a welcoming vibe continue into the lobby with impressive planters filled with carefully chosen indoor trees. Interior landscaping elements matching regional and cultural designs can attract travelers drawn to the region.

What about thematic interiorscaping? 

Using a variety of indoor landscaping elements opens many doors to highlight your brand identity. Blooming flowers are perfect for an outgoing brand or celebrations (i.e., grand opening). Another example is installing greenery to encourage peaceful vibes for companies promoting mental health for their staff. 

Then, there’s color psychology. It’s no surprise that shades of green cause our subconscious to visualize nature and growth, but also harmony. Deeper greens tend to feel relaxing, while lighter shades are energetic. More color considerations:

• Red connects our minds to passion, excitement, and a sense of urgency.
• Purple means luxury and spirituality to many.
• Brown and black can give a store that high-end feel.
• Blues are seen as calming and trustworthy.
• White hints at cleanliness and simplicity.
• Yellow silently lifts spirits.
• Orange is seen as playful but can also highlight a brand’s confidence.

How can you maximize color psychology in interior landscapes? Consult an experienced designer who can blend color combinations with existing interior designs.

Still, specific maintenance is what keeps the designs looking their best.

Professional Maintenance Tips for Interior Landscaping

“Yellowstone Landscape’s team of technicians service our commercial customers bi-weekly to rotate plants, prune, and water. Interior plants only need to be watered once every two weeks.” ~Mary Ann Vecchio, Business Development Manager

DIY plant maintenance inside a commercial building is possible. However, a large building full of varying plant materials usually requires professional maintenance. After all, the main thing is keeping your plants healthy to extend their lifespan. They can become stressed due to several factors, such as heating and cooling problems. Even weather can impact indoor plants (a string of cloudy days would rob the interior of necessary sunlight).

Pests must be rooted out in the earliest stages of detection because chemical treatments should never be used inside buildings. The same principle holds true for combating plant diseases that can spread if not nipped in the bud.

An example issue that’s sometimes unavoidable is fungal diseases. Once the fast-spreading fungal species spring up, the only option is removing and replacing all the plants since indoor treatment is not possible. 

That scenario highlights another positive aspect of faux elements, even a half-and-half mixture of natural and faux. This protects all or part of your investment from untreatable diseases. Also, artificial plants don’t need pruning or clean-up from falling foliage. Faux options should definitely be considered when contemplating DIY maintenance.

Now we’ll highlight three remarkable projects in this field. 

Case Studies: Successful Interior Landscaping Projects

Tech Company Office (New York, NY): This "unplug" space features a running fountain and hundreds of live plants that allow employees a chance to recharge and connect with nature. 

Jewel Changi Airport (Singapore): Featuring a 6-acre indoor forest, walking trails, and a 130-ft indoor waterfall, visitors can wander through an astounding 2,000 trees and 100,000 shrubs.

While those are impressive interiorscaping examples, remember, with so many design options and plant elements available, you can achieve fantastic results on a smaller scale. Plus, compared to traditional interior design projects, indoor greenery is very budget-friendly.

How to Get Started with Interior Landscaping

Five steps to guide you on indoor plants and interiorscape designs:

1. Decide on your primary purpose (function, visual appeal, branding, etc.)
2. Evaluate the indoor environment to inform plant choices suitable for light levels, humidity, temperatures, etc.
3. Consider plant sizes in proportion to the room, furniture, and other decor
4. Note low ceilings, floor space, and areas that make maintenance difficult
5. Decide how much maintenance will be needed based on natural versus faux plant usage
6. Determine if hiring a provider is more feasible and cost-effective

When choosing a professional interiorscaper, be sure they check all the boxes for this specialized service. 

Certified designers and horticulturalists understand the unique needs of indoor plants (proper soil, moisture levels, species growth habits). This knowledge is crucial to protecting indoor landscaping investments, but a provider with excellent people skills is just as vital since they’ll be working inside your building.

As for the initial consultation, design, installation, and maintenance—each step should be tailored to your building and its environment. Cookie-cutter approaches are incapable of making a property stand out  and ignore the meticulous details required for a healthy interior landscape. 

Conclusion

Now you know what interior landscaping is, the core elements to get started on any budget, and why indoor plants mean so much today. Bringing natural beauty indoors positively affects the people who enter your building. The clearest example? 

Employees who, right now, could use every bit of encouragement available to head back to the office after enjoying work-from-home environments.

Bringing in talented new hires has become a challenge too, as younger people put more emphasis on their mental and physical health than on a career. Using interior landscaping to provide a pleasant work environment can show an entire generation that a great career and good health can grow together.  

Yellowstone Landscape believes interiorscaping is one of the most affordable property upgrades available and one of the most impactful. Contact us so we can help you make that impact with your commercial property. 

Download Our Top 10 Plants For Cleaning Air Here