7 Good Reasons To Have Plants In Your Home Office

Desk shelves in a home office filled with plants and flowers

Do you have plants in your home? Perhaps fragrant fresh herbs growing in the kitchen, a collection of sculptural little succulents, or some lush trailing plants in your living room?

Plants are now a familiar feature in stylish interiors and practically considered an essential home decor element. We’re re-discovering the beauty of bringing nature into the home and embracing biophilic design.

Plants and Pacco Monitor Stand and Drawer on a minimalist desk

But often our desk or home office gets neglected. When in fact it’s just as important – if not more so – to have some plants where you work.

There are so many benefits to having them in your work space and it could help change the way you work. Yes, really!

So now it’s time to take things a step further by bringing some biophilia into your workplace.

Here are seven reason to add some plants to your home office today.

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Urban Jungle Bloggers: Botanical Zoom And Fractals

Urban Jungle Bloggers: Botanical zoom - a close up of the leaf on a pothos plant

This month’s topic for Urban Jungle Bloggers is Botanical Zoom. It’s all about zooming in and taking a closer look at our plants.

Donkey Tail succulent close up - Mocha Casa for Urban Jungle Bloggers

Something fascinating happens when you look at plants from close up – as I discovered when I began zooming in and photographing of some of mine.

You realise there’s more to them than first meets the eye. You find new details, patterns within patterns, hidden exquisiteness that’s not apparent at first glance. It gives you a fresh perspective and it’s mesmerising. I found myself staring in wonder at the beauty of nature.

But there’s something else too …

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How To Give Your Living Room A Fresh New Look With Biophilic Design

How to give your living room a fresh new look with biophilic design

One of the key interior trends this year is biophilic design.  And with spring on the way, it’s the perfect time to give your living room a fresh new look. So why not add some elements of nature to your decor to bring the outside in?

More than just a visual makeover, biophilia has been shown to relieve stress and promote relaxation. Meaning not only will your living room look great, but give you a sense of wellbeing too.

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Urban Jungle Bloggers: Jungle Animals

Urban Jungle Bloggers Jungle Animals from Mocha Casa Blog

With Jungle Animals as the theme for this month’s Urban Jungle Bloggers, I enlisted the help of two of my boys for this post.

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Urban Jungle Bloggers: Kitchen Greens & Fresh Herbal Tea

Fresh herbs for herbal tea - Urban Jungle Bloggers kitchen greens

I rotate my plants from time to time, sometimes placing them on the kitchen worktop to catch some sun. Although, up until now, none of them have been permanent residents.

However, when I saw this month’s topic for Urban Jungle Bloggers – Kitchen Greens – it occurred to me that yes, the kitchen is the ideal place to display plants. Especially edible ones.

In addition to adding some green decoration helping to make your home feel more biophilic, you also get to enjoy your home grown produce. What could be lovelier than growing fresh herbs in your kitchen to enhance your dishes?

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Biophilic Architecture: When Design Meets Nature

Biophilic architecture - mirrored installation by Anish Kapoor

Architectural shapes have always fascinated me. Especially when they are juxtaposed with nature.

I never realised there was a name for this synchronicity of design and the natural world working together. But then I learnt about the concept biophilia, and it all made perfect sense.

When you set architecture against the sky, like the Anish Kapoor installation above, or Santiago Calatrava’s Chords bridge (below) the effect is quite dramatic.

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Urban Jungle Bloggers: Planty Wishes For 2016

Pyramid Phone Holder and plant

I took this photo to share to Instagram of how my phone sits on the Pyramid beside a plant on my desk. Looking at the picture again I suddenly realised that it tells a whole story in and of itself.

How, through the power of the internet and with the help of technology like smarphones, we are now able to connect and communicate with each other – wherever we are in the world.

As a result, I’ve been able to get to know (and make some friends along the way!) with other like-minded people who share a love for plants and design, nature and beautiful interiors. Amazing people such as Igor and Judith for example! And because of them I became part of the Urban Jungle Blogger community, which I’m so happy to be a part of.

I’m also so thankful that it enables me to share with you plant and interior inspiration, as well as our own homeware designs. And grateful for your input and feedback whether by email, social media, the online store or this blog.

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12 Nature Themed Gift Wrap Ideas

 

Rustic autumn leaves, twigs and kraft paper gift wrap

You may have noticed that plants are having a big moment right now in interiors. And biophilic design – the innovative design concept that blends nature together with interior design – is more popular than ever. So this festive season, when wrapping your gifts, why not create a crossover by integrating some natural elements to your gift wrap?

As well as being bang on trend, it will give your gift wrapping a slightly unusual twist that is bound to be a hit with everyone who receives a present from you.

Here are some creative nature themed gift wrap ideas to get you inspired and are easy to re-create. But for a new take on it, go for a walk outside in a park or green open space and see if you can find any original natural elements that you can incorporate.

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10 Beautiful Bedroom Ideas Inspired By Nature That Will Boost Your Mood

Bedroom inspired by nature with cute white dog

Your bedroom is the most personal space in your home and although it isn’t on display as much as other areas of the home, how you choose to decorate it is really important. Perhaps even more so in the winter.

On cold, dark wintry evenings your bedroom should become an inviting haven to cosy up in. And on gloomy mornings, be an invigorating space in which to wake up and boost your mood for a great start to the day.

Incorporating  nature into the decor of your bedroom by using elements of biophilia can do just that.

Here are some beautiful bedrooms inspired by nature which may give you ideas on how you can incorporate elements of biophilic design to enhance your sleeping area, turning it into a space that lifts the spirit.

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Urban Jungle Bloggers: Plant Shelfie II

Plants on Pacco Floating Drawer from Mocha

Last time I took part in the plant shelfie challenge for Urban Jungle Bloggers, I created a little indoor garden scene on a shelf in my home office.

This time around I thought it might be interesting to create a few different vignettes and experiment  with  different shapes and textures. Especially as I just picked up a collection of new plants yesterday for a photo-shoot for the launch of our new shelf.

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