Indoor Jungle in a North-facing 4rm HDB with Floor-to-Ceiling Windows

323

Couple Living
3 br
HDB (Resale)
~1,000 sqft
Classic Farmhouse

Let's talk about plannnnnnts! Not gonna lie, I don't actually have green fingers, but I love plants. The obsession for me started during Covid, which I assume was a period where many Singaporeans got into gardening while being stuck in the country. I got into it a little later, just because I was getting a house... 🏡
If you've seen my living room/ home renovation post, you'd know that we don't have a balcony as we opted for a floor to ceiling window (unfortunately it's either or for HDB). That said, there is a little space and segregation from the living space to the windows i.e. where my swinging chair is. I've then designated that as a little green corner for most of the plants in our house since the windows provide the most light. Over time, our little ficus umbellata has grown into a tree, and the little plants have been switched up. By that we mean when the old ones die, new ones somehow come along again 😛🌱
We're a North-facing unit, so we don't get direct sunlight. The West sun shines on the wall next to our living room (aiming at our guest room), so depends on the season, we do get quite of bit of sun shining in in-directly (March to September). For a little pro tip, it's to ask the vendors if the conditions of your unit allows for certain plants to thrive. So for us, it's hard for plants that require a lot of sun to survive and even harder for our Monstera plants to split (and also survive, it's now our 4th try because I like the plant so much haha).
Facing North as well, we have a little open shelving situation in our study that allows us to prop some plants here as well, especially the smaller ones, or plants that we've propagated. P.S. on the left you'll see our first ever plant that we have in this house. Glad to report it's still alive 😮‍💨🥹
Probably Singaporeans' favourite plant of them all - the money plant! We got this from our parents' place and has since grown them everywhere around the house: living, study and even the outdoors (by that we mean outside our unit haha). Because it's such a low maintenance plant, we've used it more as a decorative mix, e.g. putting it on top of our open shelves to drape down. It works even though it's a little far from the window and light.
On the topic of faux plants, I mainly have floral decorations that match my farmhouse style e.g. lalangs, wheat and cotton plants (I think they're actually real). Most of these were actually leftovers from our wedding which we actually kept and re-purposed for house decorations. Win-win I would say!
And finally, since we live in a HDB with no balcony, it's hard to have some type of plants and decorations in the house. When I saw this little barn-like planter in IKEA, I really wanted it but it doesn't really make sense in our house, until I decided to become like one of those HDB aunties who put their plants outside. Yes, I claimed that little bit of space that gets direct sunlight in the day (East-facing). Also, because we travel a lot, those self-watering solutions do help a bit with these for when we're not around. We also obviously keep low maintenance plants here so we're not too precious about them being destroyed by passers-by for whatever reason. I hope you enjoy this piece :)