The Easy Addition That Will Make Your Food Storage Shelves Look More Luxurious

Food storage shelves in pantries are known for their functionality. After all, their primary purpose is to keep your bulk-purchased canned goods, extra snack and cereal boxes, surplus paper towel rolls, and emergency stash of chocolate neat, organized, and easy to locate. However, if you have an open pantry kitchen, you'd want the expansive shelves to look pretty, too. Fortunately, adding a hint of nature to the mix will make your pantry look more expensive.

While you can always go for nature-themed wallpaper or other design elements, the easiest way to make your food storage shelves look more luxurious is to decorate them with houseplants. Plants will liven the atmosphere and add visual interest to your otherwise functional (and boring!) shelves. Plus, they won't burn a hole in your pocket, unlike wallpaper and bespoke decorations. The best part, though? This addition is perfect for plant lovers and people with a brown thumb. To elaborate, people with black thumbs can increase the shelf's aesthetic appeal with life-like faux plants. As for plant lovers, they have the perfect opportunity to make their pantry shelves stand out with some much-needed greenery.

To choose the right plant for your food storage pantry shelves, the first step is determining the amount of sunlight the shelf receives. This is important since a plant requiring bright, indirect sunlight, like the string of turtles, will have difficulty photosynthesizing if it doesn't get its fill. On the other hand, you risk burning the foliage of houseplants thriving in medium light, like monstera, if you subject them to too much light. Additionally, calculate the space you can allocate to decide if you can accommodate plants that spread out or need to stick to compact ones.

Moreover, figure out the time and effort you can put towards caring for the plant to know if you can cater to species requiring regular watering or if you should opt for varieties that make do with an infrequent drink, like the cast iron plant. Don't forget to rotate the pots when you water the soil to allow the wall-facing side a chance to soak in the light. Put a saucer (or drip tray) under the plants to keep your shelves and stored items clean and dry. However, don't limit yourself to just one plant per shelf; the more, the merrier. Play around with varied textures, shapes, and sizes to give your shelves a unique look, or get similar ones to remember their watering and light requirements easily. Plants with trailing vines, big leaves, eye-catching foliage, or short stems are all fair game.