Decorate your bathroom with plants

A steamy, bright bathroom is the perfect home for most houseplants. Here’s how to make your own private rainforest.

Boston fern in a light grey clay pot, Spider plant in a charcoal clay pot, Maidenhair fern in a light grey concrete pot and a light grey concrete pot, in a bathroom

Houseplants adore bathrooms. Most indoor plants are originally from tropical forests, so all that steam and heat reminds them of home. Make everyone happy and turn your bathroom into a green oasis.

Ferns are perfect bathroom buddies

Ferns can sometimes be a little tricky, because they need so much humidity. That makes them ideal for bathrooms.

Bertie, Venus, Steve and Toby all love bathrooms. And they don’t need much light, so brilliant for less bright bathrooms. A bathroom filled with just ferns looks lush and feels very calming.

Large Boston Fern in a white plastic pot sitting at the side of a bathtub

Plants can live in the shower

As long as the full force of the water doesn’t rain directly on them, plants can happily live in the shower.

They’ll love the steaminess. Make sure they’re in pots with drainage holes in the bottom.

Get a bathroom tree

If you have the space, there is nothing more luxurious than a bathroom tree. Lying in the tub gazing at a Fidel tree? Amazing.

Or a very tall Chaz the monstera is still impressive but takes up a little less floor space.

Two snake plants, and two corn plants behind a white bathtub

Cacti aren’t fussed about bathrooms

The only plants that have no real interest in bathrooms are cacti and succulents. They’re from hot, dry places and have no need of steam.

They won’t hate a bathroom, on a window sill or similar, but they won’t like getting very wet.

Use every surface

Whenever you’re decorating a room with plants, try to put plants on multiple surfaces, to make the whole room feel green.

A small fern will live happily on a shelf next to your toothbrush. You can suspend hanging plants from the ceiling, to give you the full jungle feeling.