Most people associate landscaping with outdoor spaces like backyards and front lawns. However, a specialized landscaping niche focuses on incorporating the natural world into indoor spaces. Interior landscaping transforms residential and commercial spaces with lush greenery to help improve productivity, concentration, psychological well-being, and air quality.
Starting an interior landscaping business is an intelligent way to help clients have their dream homes, assist companies in going green, and bring the natural world indoors.
Interior landscape experts offer services like designing, installing, maintaining, and selecting plants for indoor spaces. If that sounds like something you enjoy doing, then continue reading for more about what’s involved in interior landscaping businesses.
Interior landscaping is an exciting business that brings natural elements to indoor spaces. While a traditional landscaping business focuses on outdoor areas, indoor landscaping is all about adding plants, natural hardscapes, or water features inside a home or commercial building.
Interior landscaping intersects landscaping and interior design fields. Biophilic interior design is a niche of interior design that turns an indoor space into an area with lush greenery. Therefore, interior landscapers often work closely with biophilic interior designers or have studied biophilic interior design themselves.
Interior landscaping ranges based on the project. It can be as simple as selecting a potted plant as decoration. Or it could be a large-scale project to drastically change the look of a home or office by adding plant containers, living walls, atriums, water features, and other natural elements.
Interior landscapers offer various services, including interior plant design, selecting the right plants, installation and construction, improving indoor air quality, and maintenance. Read more about each one below.
Interior landscapers are heavily involved in designing an indoor space that supports plant life. Not only do interior landscapers design living walls and where to place containers brimming with greenery, but they also design irrigation systems so that the plants stay nourished.
Combining interior design with horticultural knowledge, interior landscapers provide insight into the placement of planters, color schemes, and what kinds of accents work best in a client’s space.
Since every space is unique and every client is different, design knowledge is crucial for starting an interior landscaping business. Alternatively, landscapers can outsource design services from an interior design specialist.
Installation services are the main component of an interior landscaping business. This specialized field integrates engineering, horticulture, design, and a great deal of elbow grease.
Interior landscapers install impressive natural features in places where it’s unlikely for life to grow. From water fountains to living walls to indoor gardens that feed the family, interior landscapers install everything a space needs to sustain life and look amazing.
The plants in this interior landscaping installation receive a lot of natural light
Installation services usually include jobs like constructing an atrium or water feature, installing irrigation systems, transporting plants, and planting carefully selected greenery. Though, some installation jobs will cater to clients with a preference for interior hardscapes with minimal greenery, like an indoor rock garden.
Picking the right plants for the job is an important part of an interior landscaping business. Some plants add a pop of color from their foliage, while others help to purify the air, so it depends on the space and the client what plants make the cut.
Every plant has specific requirements for sun, so interior landscapers will select and place plants based on the blueprints. By looking at the structural space, interior landscapers can plan in advance where plants will go or where construction is needed for the project. The plant selection stage of an interior landscape project is best done in collaboration with the design team.
Interior landscapers work with their clients to achieve the desired look and outcome by selecting the plants best suited to each indoor area. Whether a client wants moss walls or an atrium with an interior plantscape, this landscaping business niche offers customized solutions.
Some of the most common types of plants used by interior landscaping businesses include but are not limited to the following:
Interior landscapers offer maintenance services for interior gardenscapes. Most interior landscaping is efficiently designed to require minimal maintenance. However, all plants and green spaces need routine care.
Commercial maintenance services involve inspecting the greenery, watering, weeding, fertilizing, pruning, and general maintenance for office plants. Landscapers will also inspect irrigation systems during routine checks or site calls.
Residential maintenance services usually occur when homeowners encounter a problem. Typically, residential interior landscapes are up-kept by the homeowners or a hired gardener. However, landscapers offer regular maintenance for indoor irrigation systems and troubleshoot specific problems. Always let your clients know what maintenance services you offer after installation.
Besides looking beautiful inside a home, indoor plants can help improve the air quality of a room. Interior landscapers know which plants are best for improving air quality without demanding lots of care.
Interior landscape businesses can partner with duct-cleaning companies to provide superior air quality improvement solutions for homes or corporate buildings.
When starting an interior landscaping business, decide if you’ll specialize in a particular type of interior landscaping or offer both residential and commercial interior landscaping services.
Residential interior landscaping focuses on bringing green areas into a client’s home or place of residence.
An interior landscaper offering residential services will install containers, atriums, and living walls in indoor spaces. They will also recommend indoor plants and suggest where a client should place them in their home.
Commercial interior landscaping focuses on adding greenery and plant life into office spaces and large corporate buildings. Why? Because office plants can help improve the indoor air quality in a commercial space. Plus, companies can get tax breaks for going greener.
A commercial interior landscaper will work with companies to design and install spaces with plants that can purify the air, insulate buildings, and add vibrancy to a workplace.
