The key to making an open-plan room work is to create zones that stop the space from looking like one big empty room. IKEA has just launched a unique way to achieve this using plants and greenery with its new planter room dividers.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen this zoning trend turn into the broken-plan layout trend that uses partial room dividers to create pockets of privacy in the home. If you’re looking to break up your open plan living room – be it to carve out a small home office space, or a cosy TV zone, the IKEA MITTZON frame with castors is perfect for the job.
It has been created with office spaces in mind, but we love the idea of using them as vertical garden divides inside the home. They tap perfectly into the biophilic home decor trend, offering a space-efficient way to display houseplant ideas and even grow your fruit and vegetables inside if you don’t have an outdoor space.
(Image credit: IKEA)
The IKEA’s MITTZON frames are among IKEA’s pricier items, selling for £190 each. However standing at 205cm high and 85cm wide, with castors attached they’re actually relatively affordable for such a large dedicated plant stand. They’re tall enough to create little pockets of privacy, whilst helping the space still feel open.
These planters are an easy cheat to create and instant and affordable living wall ideas. In a kitchen, they can become a living larder with herbs, tomatoes and salad leaves inside. Alternatively in a living room, they can be staged with ivy, ferns and other pretty houseplants.
(Image credit: IKEA)
What to grow in the IKEA MITTZON frame
So if you’re thinking of taking the plunge with these IKEA frames, what sort of plants should you be looking to place in containers like these? King Charles’ senior gardner Jack Stooks, working with Alt Index, says ‘there are so many plants that you can choose for that type of stand. It largely depends on where the stand is going to go in your home, and how much light there is there.
‘Spider plants tend to do pretty well anywhere – same with money plants or money trees.
‘Orchids are another good one and have a nice colour. Once they’ve finished flowering, you can cut them back and they’ll keep coming back time and time again, depending on which area of light you position them in.’
(Image credit: Future PLC/David Giles)
If you want to create a draping effect with your plants on the IKEA stand, another type of plant is likely preferable. ‘Ivy plants could also look nice on that sort of stand as they can trail down the sides,’ Jack says.
He did point out however that while a lot of the above plants are pretty hardy can should survive anywhere, it’ll be worth moving the MITTZON frame around your home at somewhat regular intervals, if you can.
‘It’s worth putting the stand in various places in the house to ensure your plants are getting the correct amount of light. Or if they’re having too much light, you can move them away,’ Jack says.
The multifunctional nature of the frames offers a great return on your investment, acting as both a wall, a piece of storage, and a way in which to add some pleasing greenery to your home.