Homeowners and renters often look to cabinet, counter and hardware styles and colors, or artwork, when designing their kitchen themes.
One functional indoor kitchen design element that offers benefits year-round is edible live plants. Green leaves and colorful flowers offer a wide variety of mix-and-match design options. Additionally, indoor live plants lower grocery bills and improve air quality.
What are some creative ways to accessorize with live plants?
Planters
Although one obvious choice is to use planters, you can be creative with materials and their presentation. For example, instead of using terra cotta or plastic pots, consider canning jars. Display soil and plant roots through clear jars, decorate with solid-color paint, or enjoy sunlight reflecting off colored glass, stain glass paint or self-adhesive gems. As for presentation, consider a custom-made wood open-backed bookcase in a kitchen window with an herb jar in each cubbyhole, or simply line up jars along a windowsill.
Walls
Soil or hydroponic wall gardens are another live plant accessorizing option. Use soil-based short or long boxes or pockets hung one above another on a wall, or an inset cubby-style box with semi-enclosed shelves. If you prefer hydroponic gardening, consider a custom inset wall frame designed to allow plants to grow in a non-soil growth medium and nutrient-rich water solution. If you prefer a freestanding wall, consider a bookcase-style box wall with semi-enclosed pockets on one or both sides, or a frame-style wall with hanging stacked boxes or a hydroponic medium.
In-Counter Boxes
People often don’t consider in-counter kitchen storage when thinking of efficient ways to accessorize with edible plants. Instead of placing herb planters on an island counter, consider hiring a cabinetmaker to install a custom in-counter storage box specifically for growing edible plants in individual planters or in a full-length lined plant box. To change the kitchen's appearance year-round, install in-counter boxes throughout the kitchen and then switch the plants to different boxes as they flower.
Other creative ways to accessorize with edible plants include planters that hang upside down from ceilings, inset window box gardens and freestanding plant towers. If you’re about to replace an old kitchen island, consider removing the countertop and converting the cabinet box into a garden.
As you can see, accessorizing with edible plants in your kitchen isn’t impossible. All you need to do is research modern indoor kitchen gardening techniques and products, and then let loose your imagination and creativity.
