Plant Ambient: The Living Wall as a Statement Piece

At Evanthia, we offer a large range of aroids – remarkable tropical plants from the araceae family, that mostly live in the shady and humid understory layers of rainforests. As houseplants, they are adapted to survive in many conditions and tend to handle semi-shady settings a bit better than others. But as light remains a crucial factor, let’s see how these plants behave and how they can contribute to creating a great atmosphere, by checking in with Rotem and Jan-Willem, plant parents from Berlin and creators of a DIY plant wall.

A Self-Made Urban Jungle in Berlin

After a recent introduction of @myplantwall here on Thursd.com, today we follow Rotem and Jan-Willem in their daily life amid their self-made urban jungle in Berlin. How are they dealing with the light challenge? Rotem talks about plant habits, textures, colors and lights, and shares what happens in their tropical hangout when the sun goes down.

Living Green Wall at Home

Rotem: "We love collecting plants as a hobby and it all started as a means to greenify our home a little bit. The love for plants - and especially tropical plants like different types of aroids - just grew and grew and so did our collection.

As we moved to our new place, plants became such an important part of our lives and we wanted to be surrounded by them, but without taking too much of our small living space."

The Living Wall as a Statement Piece

"We decided that a plant wall will be the best way to display our plants in all their glory. Aroids like alocasia can grow so big, philodendron and monstera can climb so nicely, and we wanted to see the plants behave as they would in nature, beyond the limitation of a terracotta pot or a climbing pole.

That was also the reason for the size of the wall. Let the plants grow wild and their aerial roots run free. Taking advantage of all the unused vertical space we have, brought us to build a magnificent 3 meters by 2 meters showstopping living wall."

Plants Are Art

"Do you agree? By day, the plant wall looks like living art. A perfectly framed green indoor jungle, with all colors of nature, from neon green to bright pink and deep moody purples. Each leaf is like a brushstroke with a different size and feel for extra depth. The fun textures collision adds to the drama, like the velvety calathea next to the leathery anthurium or shiny alocasia."

Light Is Life

"Light is an essential key to plants' survival. All plants depend on light to perform photosynthesis and produce energy. Our apartment is completely north-facing. Hence, not ideal to grow plants in. Especially if you plan to stick them 3 meters deep inside your room.

For us, the right light system was a key component in the design. Our six bulbs light fixture is hand made by us and designed especially for our green wall. It contains two powerful LED lights, each is over 3,000 lumens. They are full range lights in warm white, so the plants can enjoy all benefits of the spectrum, and the humans will love to live normal life in a well lit living room. Pink shade grow lights were not an option for us. The bright warm light really provides a good atmosphere during the day and keeps us awake and focused when we work from home."

Nightlife in Our Living Room

"The other four light bulbs are RGB changing colors lights. They are dimmable and can be controlled through an app called Smart Life.

The grow lights and pump are also controlled with the same app, so we can easily and remotely control the green wall environment. At night we can turn our beautiful lush green jungle into an immersive dark lights installation.

If we want to relax, we let the wall trickle water down softly while we turn on some gentle rainforest sounds of birds and winds and dim the changing lights. This natural calming feeling washes over you and allows you to completely immerse yourself into the sound and light experience of a nighttime enchanted jungle.

If we want to party, we put our favorite music on and let the lights change swiftly and brightly. We love to have friends over, and watching the plants in bright colorful lights just makes the house happy, vibrant and takes the party to another level.

It is so much fun to watch your friends appreciate the space, and enjoy the plants as much as you do!

So are you ready for a tropical hangout or are you more into ambient meditation? We would love to hear from you!

If you are looking for more information, inspiration, or just want to ask us a plant wall question, find us on Instagram: @myplantwall. Let us know what interests you the most about plant walls, and we would be happy to elaborate on those topics in our next series of posts!?"