Are you fed up with a dull interior? Alternatively, your space could be a blank canvas awaiting its first splash of color. The best indoor plants can provide the perfect amount of intrigue—they’re free-form and organic yet clean and sculptural; they delight with their unpredictability yet reassure with their constant presence. And, happily, their lifespan is significantly longer than that of cut flowers.

However, there are a few things to consider when incorporating indoor plants into the decor of a room. Dennis Schrader of Mattituck, New York-based Landcraft Environments explains more.

Indoor Plants Are Part of the Interior

Dennis Schrader explains that people should think of indoor plants as pieces of furniture. This means they should match the interior. The location of your plants should also be dictated by their light requirements and then by the owner’s tastes. That said, you should try a plant here or there and see what looks good for you. Dennis also claims that you should not be afraid to move it around over time. For smaller indoor plants, he says that you can use them as a table setting and then move them to a window still later on.

Here are some of the top choices for indoor plants that will look gorgeous in your home and give it a more finished look.

#1. Peruvian Apple Cactus (Cereus Peruvianus)

Whatever the weather outside, a cactus will transport you to a desert oasis in your own house. Not only is it low maintenance, but its upright sculptural form ensures that this architectural anomaly always makes a big impression. As a plant grows, it naturally gravitates toward the light. To restore balance, rotate the plant away from the sun and then back toward it.

Peruvian Apple Cactus Plant Care: The Peruvian apple cactus prefers bright, indirect light, although it can also flourish in medium or full light. Once a month, water.

#2. Fiddle-Leaf Fig Tree (Ficus Lyrata)

This shrub is distinguished by a long, graceful stem and branches covered in large, leathery leaves. Schrader recommends placing it “near to a skylight or beneath a window.” In other words, it requires the maximum amount of sunlight possible. Schrader says that when the top branches grow above the window frame, they should be pruned.

Water the Fiddle-Leaf Fig Tree once a week, or more frequently if it is winter and the air in your home is dry.

#3. Meyer Lemon Tree (Citrus X Meyeri)

Meyer lemons, which are considered to be a mix of lemons and mandarin oranges, have a milder, sweeter flavor than lemons. However, these trees do not end at fruits. When they blossom, they emit this lovely scent of citrus. Meyer lemon trees thrive indoors as long as they receive adequate sunlight.

Meyer Lemon Tree Maintenance: Weekly watering.

#4. Kentia Palm (Howea Forsteriana)

This plant’s fronds rise to vast heights from the soil and then lean forward, shade the ground below. It looks fantastic in a large urn. This plant should be given enough room to grow to a height of 10 feet with a broad reach.

Kentia Palm Care: Kentia palms require medium to bright light and weekly watering.

#5. Castiron Plant (Aspidistra Elatior)

This plant is “mostly for foliage,” which means it’s ideal if you’re seeking to add a lush, dark green plant to your home. It thrives in medium to low light and is forgiving of neglect, so it’s perfectly good if you forget to water it now and then.

Water once a week or every ten days.

The branded candle, or evidence thereof, became widespread in the 2010s when houses began to act as backdrops for social media posts. Perhaps it was a Le Labo Santal 26 candle burning peacefully next to a tidy stack of fashion books. Maybe it was an empty Diptyque glass holder now packed with cosmetic brushes and sitting on the end of a bathroom sink from a previously used Diptyque scent. These candles are still around and smell just as amazing as they did when they first came out, but there’s a new crop of options that are, well, odd.

These candles, which are often designed as affordable art items, concentrate on shape, color, and method. Take, for example, Hannah Jewett’s Sculptural Candles, which have curvy, abstract designs that change when lit, or Carl Durkow’s whimsical piled pillars, some of which are reminiscent of sculptor Constantin Brancusi’s work. Janie Korn, a New York-based artist, used to produce ceramic figures, but she wanted to do something more immediate and engaging, so she started making hand-painted wax candles styled after Wendy Williams, Ally McBeal, and a bottle of Kewpie mayonnaise. “When you light a candle, there is an act of performance,” she explains. And there’s the issue of depletion – unlike most sculptures, you don’t have to live with a candle for very long.

Candles Are Art!

Candles patterned like everyday objects, such as a lamp or a bunch of grapes, have an odd aspect to them that seems appropriate for our bizarre and digitally saturated times. These candles, however, are made to make you smile as well as make you do a double-take. “They bring both delight and confusion,” says Samantha Margherita, a set designer in Los Angeles who found herself with less work and more time last year. She started constructing molds out of materials she had around the home and filling them with pastel-colored wax. Her first finished candles were a pale pink bitten apple and a neon-yellow pear, which she sold under the Altra Object brand.

3-D Printed Candles Require Precision

Margherita still creates every one of her candles by hand, carrying on a centuries-old craft practice. Chrys Wong sells Mexican Bouquet candles in her Los Angeles store Maison Modulare, which are traditionally given to a soon-to-be bride at the occasion of a proposal. A buyer asked Wong, who works with several families of manufacturers in Mexico’s Oaxaca region if the candles were 3-D printed at a recent pop-up. Not even a smidgeon. Each family has its unique method, although the core procedure is always complex: Large slabs of beeswax from Chiapas are first melted over an open flame. The wax is made into discs and then placed on tree branches to bleach in the sun for around 15 days before being sculpted into the style’s trademark florets and connected to pillar candles.

Last year’s lockdowns, when so many people were looking for unique but low-cost items to refresh suddenly all-too-familiar spaces, almost certainly boosted demand for the arty candle — Korn noticed an increase in orders, and Margherita’s creations sold out almost immediately as she listed them. In any event, it is fall, and a quirky-cozy candle might be just the thing needed.