Biophilic Wall Design
Special guest: Kendra LaRoche @loftandleaf

bringing the outdoors in: designing a breathtaking indoor botanical privacy screen

There are endless ways to incorporate outdoor nature in your indoor spaces. One of the most dramatic and breathtaking forms of this is a biophilic wall design. Today we chat with Kendra LaRoche from Loft & Leaf to learn about her inspiration behind her Veradek botanical Privacy Screen.

Can you tell us about yourself and your design background?
My name is Kendra LaRoche. I started working with plants three years ago after growing my own house plant collection. After collecting over 100 houseplants, my knowledge of them grew and so did my love!

I took a chance on my new found passion and applied to a local nursery to work with plants. They hired me and took me under their wing. I learned the basics about landscaping and container gardening here and from there went on to take a position as the lead container designer at a design firm in south Florida! This is where I really fell in love with container gardening. I learned everything I know from leading the teams there and being taught by some great mentors.

How did you get interested in doing biophilic design?
After a year of being mentored, I knew I wanted to take a more creative route with my designs than the firm allowed. I set off to start my own business and that's how Loft & Leaf was born. The biggest inspiration for Loft & Leaf comes from our natural environment and our surroundings. My mission is to bring the outside in!

Tell us about your design process for this piece—what was your inspiration? Your method? The plants you used and why?

Creating the Veradek Privacy Screen really allowed a great opportunity to bring the outside in! While planning my design for the privacy screen I knew it needed to be aesthetically pleasing, attainable, and practical for consumers. This led me to use preserved moss, a beautiful product that needs no care but still brings the look to life all while playing off the design of the screen.

I also thought to use orchids that could hang from the screen and don't require any planting medium, like soil! Orchids and air plants make great options for a project like this. Using a planter at the base of the screen I thought really brought the whole look together. It allowed for fuller plants to be a part of the design and to add dimension to the look!

How would you recommend someone go about creating their own biophilic or living wall in their own home? What are the need to knows and need to dos?
To recreate a piece like this in your home I recommend using orchids and air plants to hang from the screen. As well as incorporating the preserved moss to give it that lived-in look! Consider adding one (or more) Veradek planters to the design to add some dimension! Another approach I considered was planting the base container with vining plants and having them grow up the screen. The vining plants would grow nicely up the screen!

 

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We're always looking for more people from our community to show how they assemble, arrange, and transform their living spaces. Have a story to tell? We'd love to hear! Use the hashtag #myveradek or send us a message at social@veradek.com.

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Veradek Outdoor