Cacti and Succulents are trending in home design

MoD Must Haves

stylish, tactile, novel 

for plant lovers

Mini Geo Terrarium

Succulent and Cacti plants are the hot plants that you will start to see more of in home design. These types of plants are easy to care for and are great looking alone or in multiples. Colors and shapes range. There are many different color variations like blue-green, variegated, red and chartreuse. Shapes of leaves may be rounded, needlelike or spiky. Ouchy but who cares!

Home design has been popping up with unique ways to showcase these beauties. 

The glass Cube Terrarium clusters together so you can assemble an array of cacti and succulents. Love it!

Trio Faceted White Wall-hanging 

At the Bethel woods 2016 Hudson River Exchange Harvest festival, an event by creatives for creatives I met LandMstudio. I love their porcelain work! They have  some interesting porcelain planters that can hang or be bunched together. The slip cast on the back makes it really easy to install on the wall. Below check out the glazed black set of three for succulent planters -  made of hollow porcelain and have holes on the bottom for drainage.

Succulent Rock Trio Planters in Black

Carved by artisans, the Adia geometric sculptural planter is great for shelf styling or just arrange a grid on your kitchen table. 

How about a block of wood by JKCustom furniture to display your cactai or succulents? 

Mini Geo Terrarium

I love this brass faceted glass Terranium by Urban Outfitters. Has good energy.

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Plants have Style too

I'll admit, I do not have a green thumb and have no desire to get my fingers dirty in buggy soil. For that reason, I'm always on the lookout for creative ways to bring a little green life indoors.  Indoor plants can bring style, texture, define spaces, ease the lines of angular furniture and merge the separation between indoor and outdoor worlds. There are many modern botanical treasures on the market that can accentuate your walls, furniture and your home with greenery. Let me plant some seeds of inspiration.... 

Air Plants.

Muzz has created the Pod which is a growing vase to hold air plants as well as fresh flowers.  I love all the pockets integrating green life into sculpture. Originally designed for the "Plant for Art Exhibition" at Instanbul's Artane Gallery. 

Separate Spaces. 

Architectural planter systems can be a great way to divide small spaces, such as the Hydroponic Vertical Garden. For the constrained urban dweller who seeks a greener lifestyle, Danielle Trofe Design, a Brooklyn based design studio who takes a socially responsible approach to design developed a vertical garden for the person who doesn't have a  green thumb......its self-watering system simplifies the process of growing your own plants inside your home. Its a simple system -  It distributes water via an internal reservoir using an energy efficient air pump concealed within the structure and uses gravity to deliver water to each of the planter pods. Clay rocks are used instead of soil to eliminate any risk of soil-born disease. Brilliant!

Hydroponic Vertical garden

Artfully Sustainable.

Guess what material these planters are made of? Did you guess mushrooms? Yep, Danielle Trofe's Mush-Bloom planter is totally organic, sustainable and biodegradable!  I really like the shape and texture of each mushroom vase, its charm would add style to your interior.

Mush-Bloom planter

What is so pleasing to the eye is a wall styled with plants.  Woolly Pocket, a family owned company in the USA produces modular gardening pockets great for creating beautiful living walls in your home or backyard. The product ultimately produces artfully suspended plant systems.  There are two types of living wall planters.  There is the sturdy hard vented shell that is equipped with a self watering tank. The other is a Wally made from 100% recycled plastic water bottles, where pockets are soft sided and breathable. The pocket science starts with breathable felt allowing oxygen to get into the roots and extra moisture to evaporate.  Inside every pocket is a military grade totally impermeable moisture barrier keeping your walls and furniture safe. That's so key and perfect for an interior space!!

Plant Lighting.

The idea of combining plant material and lighting was one object that I was mesmerized by at the imm Cologne trade show in Germany.  Designer Miriam Aust  developed the Vase & Leuchte plant light, produced and distributed by the Dua Shop.  With laboratory aesthetics brought into the home,  the designer investigates how a plant can be influenced. I was really blown away by its lighting effects. The incredible light refraction and shadows cast from the hand blown glass and through the roots are very beautiful. 

Vase & Leuchte

Plants integrated with Furniture Design.

Born in a small, lush village in the Rhone-Alpes region outside Paris, designer Pual Bellila needed to to escape the complex city world, and integrate nature into his dynamic environment. Out of his desire to bring harmony and freshness to his space, he created the unique Volcane coffee table and console collection. Its ceramic vase sculpturally houses plants, flowers or small trees like a bonsai. The trees add softness to each piece of furniture.

Volcane coffee table collection

Who needs a bulky vase when you can merge nature right inside your table. Brooklyn based designer Emily Wettstein designed an unique walnut Planter table which integrates plant material via an acrylic vessel which is attached at the underside of the table. I can imagine a wonderful abundance of apples, pumpkins or limes in this curvaceous slot for parties and holiday gatherings. 

Planter table

Sculptural Planters.

The Light + Ladder company creates modern and sculptural ways to decorate with plants. Imagine air plants in ceramic orbs called Spora or pyramidal ceramic sculptures called Ballast. You can hang them or display or on your table top. A grid of the Hive planters is art in itself. Perfect for miniature plants are the Hex Spora, organic shaped ceramic cups that rests on solid maple hexagonal coasters. So fun!

Light and Ladder: Hive, Ballast, Hex Spora and Spora

Have fun creating instantly lush texture with plants in your spaces! You will feel instant gratification of warmth, wellness and style when you introduce plants!

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EcoQube: a Modern Ecosystem for your Home

Help two young UC San Diego students Eric Suen and Kevin Liang bring their innovative idea to life. They have developed the EcoQube, a modern aquarium that is more than just an aquarium.  Its a sleek desktop ecosystem that will soothe your soul.  Its a  product where everything works together and nature is doing all the work for you.  

You can watch plants grow and fish grow all at the same time. Basically, the EcoQube is a simplified version of aquaponics where you never have to change your water filter. You may ask, how? The fish creates waster. The filter takes the waste and turns it to fertilizer for the plant. The plant like mint, basil and even flowers grows and cleans the water for the fish. The process starts all over again. All you have to do is decorate your tank, fill it with water, plug it in and enjoy.

To me, the EcoQube is mindful design; where it can offer positive health benefits like alleviating stress, especially in today's demanding lifestyles. The underwater panorama will calm the human mind and put you at ease in your space, whether its in your office or at home. 

To take it a step further, the founders are thinking out of the box and believe that their EcoQube is just the start of thinking about other ways to grow food. Eric says, " one day we dream to scale the EcoQube to large farm sizes so that we can help with the water and food shortages around the world." Pretty amazing!

On April 7th, they are kicking off their campaign to raise money. The normal price for one of these EcoQubes is $79 but if you sign up for their notification list, you can get the EcoQube for only $39. Sign up HERE. 

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Modern Botanical Innovations

Vase & Leuchte by Dua Shop

The 2014 market has some really cool modern botanical treasures to define and enhance our spaces, walls, and furniture with greenery. On the popular blog Spacesculpt, I guest posted today an article called "Five Clever ways to Style your Home with Plants." The products range from the beautiful Woolly Pockets living walls to Danielle Trofe's organic planters made out of mushrooms. These innovative greenery products promote style, warmth, and wellness for our homes.

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