Are you craving a little green? How about some plants in your kitchen? Herbs, ivy, potted flowers? We love having fresh herbs to snip, but even non-edible plants brighten a kitchen and make it feel more like home. Here's a look at a few real-life kitchens and the ways that they've incorporated living plants...
• 1 42anderson's Love, Eat, Party - An entry in Small Cool 2007. Love how the pots in the window take advantage of every scrap of urban sunlight without blocking the view or light to the rest of the kitchen.
• 2 Monika's Evolving Experiment - A trail of ivy defines the boundary between kitchen and living area.
• 3 Abby's Mom's Home - A cozy, old-fashioned New York apartment with a whole window of plants.
• 4 Mariah's Eclectic House of Curios and Collectibles - This San Francisco kitchen has small green things growing in every corner, it seems!
• 5 Mariah's kitchen - Another set of plants in Mariah's kitchen.
• 6 Karen and James' Color Commitment - Bold and red on the countertop.
• 7 Peter's Light Loft Living - We showed you Peter's shopping cart kitchen island; now look at how he dramatically fills the space between cupboard-tops and loft ceiling.
• 8 Ben's Mid-Century Mecca - Ben has an unusual element in his tiny urban kitchen: a bonsai. A nod to the pressures and pleasures of small urban living, perhaps?
• 9 Jeremy's Lovely Vertical Kitchen Storage - So much green here; we like how the plants and accessories work so well together.
• 10 Brian's New Beginning - Here the plants really help an eat-in kitchen feel more cozy and homey.
• 11 Margaret's Recession Proof Home - It's great how Margaret casually throws a plant in with the jumble of diverse and interesting ingredients on her counter.
• 12 Chad and Ed's Warm Neutrals - This kitchen is fairly dark, but the plants seem to thrive here.
• 13 Chad and Ed's kitchen - An up-close shot: geraniums, in the kitchen! They have such a wonderful smell.
• 14 Chris and Nyla's Passive Solar Cottage - Wow, this is a lot of plants! They echo the view of the trees outside.
• 15 Adelle and Justin's British Retro Modern - From a favorite kitchen tour. Fresh basil is such a good thing to keep around!
Do you have plants in the kitchen, and how do you keep them alive? If you have photos, post them here, and we'll do a roundup next week of readers' plants in the kitchen!
Related: Hot or Not? Ivy In the Kitchen
(Images: Please see linked posts for individual photo credits.)
Originally published 2009-03-09 - CB
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
How do you keep cats from digging in the soil or muching on the leaves?
view eml35's profile
Maybe having pot of grass or catnip for them? good question
view Lizzykewl's profile
Many of these plants are up high in places cats cant fit, or hanging. My trick is wire shelving, cats HATE it
view Hollie's profile
@eml35 - If you place large-ish rocks (at least 4" dia.) on top of the soil, your cat probably won't be able to get to the dirt, and will lose interest. It worked for my kitty. I've also heard that moss will work, too, but I haven't tried it. I still haven't gotten her to stop munching on the leaves, though. Bitter spray didn't work for me, but you can try it for your cat.
view safarikate's profile
Also, any suggestions for plants for a windowless kitchen? It gets some indirect light from my east-facing patio windows, but it's always pretty dark.
view safarikate's profile
OMG. I'm in love with the shopping trolley fruit bowl in picture 7.
view buda's profile
safarikate: snake plants.
view KimberlyM's profile
If you looking for an easy and green way to fertilize your plants check out this video from Scott Common Sense:
view Kimmy23's profile
Sorry about that - here is the link to the video: http://bit.ly/RBH2T Anyone else have fertilizer tips?
view Kimmy23's profile
I leave out a small dish of torn lettuce leaves every day which is gone by the time I return from work. The plant munching has gone done to almost nothing since I started doing this. They like butter lettuce the best.
view linbo's profile