What You Need to Know to Make a Plant Room

Have you ever stumbled upon an Instagram post or TikTok of a truly epic plant room? A room that is filled to the brim with lots and lots of beautiful plants. Different shades of green catch your eye as you glance around it. It’s the type of room that just makes you think to yourself, “wow, I wish I had one of these myself.”

And it makes us think, did this just happen slowly over time until it was the perfect accident? Did the creator behind this perfect room mean to do it? And how do you even go about setting one of these up? There must be so many things to consider. We decided to reach out to one of our favorite plant people to find out how she set up her incredible plant room.

“Before moving into the house I’m in now, plants were all over my apartment," Larson explains. "They were huddled under grow lights and quickly filling up the little window space I had. I really wanted to be able to access a majority of my plants in one area and also be able to shut the door and keep my curious cat out of trouble."

The catalyst for the room's creation makes sense: a lot of pets can be a little bit too curious about plants scattered around the house, and not all plants are safe for pets. Keeping them in one place makes it easy to stop fuzzy friends from from knocking something over or biting into something that’s not safe for them.

“I moved a majority of my plants over to this house myself and I recall it taking at least ten trips in my little SUV packed full of plants," says Larson. "It took a few more months to acquire some cabinets and get those set up to hold my humidity-loving plants."

Larson’s resulting plant room is absolutely gorgeous and gives off some serious green oasis vibes. Here's her best advice on creating a lush dedicated green space, so you can have a plant room too.

Group According to Conditions and Care

Making sure you have the right setup is key. If you’re going to keep a ton of plants in one room, you need to make it easy for yourself. That’s why keeping similar plants together is essential. “A majority of my collection are aroids like monsteras, philodendrons, alocasias, anthuriums, etc., because the care doesn’t change much from plant to plant," explains Larson. "I learned pretty quickly that if I’m going to have a large amount of plants to tend to regularly, they need to be relatively low-maintenance, and a lot of philodendrons and monsteras are exactly that."

Get the Lighting Right

There are a ton of things to consider when setting up a plant room. The most important is light. "Lighting is SUPER important. If I had it my way, my plant room would be all windows and no walls," shares Larson. "Unfortunately we often have to work with what we’ve got, so besides two windows facing north and west, I have grow lights all over the place."

If you’re lucky enough to have big windows, depending on the plants you have, that could be enough. Hang sheer curtains over the windows so you have greater control over the lighting, providing direct or indirect rays as necessary. For those cloudy days and long winter nights, grow lights are a safe bet. 

Pay Attention to Humidity

When it comes to humidity, there are a few things to consider. The humidity in your plant room should actually be a bit higher than other rooms in your house because by clustering plants together you’re actually creating a microclimate. Just keep in mind the needs of the plants you choose to place in that room. “If you aren’t caring for plants that require extra humidity, you don’t necessarily need to invest in a fancy humidifier," says Larson. "There are a couple creative ways to create more humidity like making a terrarium or keeping a glass cloche over your plant!"

Place Plants in All Places

“If you really want that jungle vibe in your room, you should be focusing not just on shelf plants but also on having plants hanging and sitting on the floor so the eyes are finding foliage almost everywhere. It’s all trial and error, so don’t feel bad if you kill a bunch of plants,” adds Larson.