If you follow as many home designers/furniture shops/design bloggers/other home design-obsessed Instagrammers as we do, you’ve probably had serious house-plant envy a few times. You know: that plant, the tall, broad-leafed one that anchors so many well-arranged living rooms and brightens screened porches and even makes elegant bedrooms feel as calming as they do full of life.
That plant is a Fiddle Leaf Fig tree. It’s been interior design gold for a good few years now, and its stock just seems to keep rising.
The Fiddle Leaf Fig is so popular right now, it can actually be pretty hard to get a hold of a large one around here. If you catch an inspiration photo and think you can run over to the big-box garden center and grab one, chances are decent you’ll leave disappointed. We’ve had friends stuck on mature-Fiddle Leaf waiting lists that rival decent daycares in town. True story.
As beautiful as these plants are, they also have a reputation for being tricky to care for — they’re picky about sun and water, so you need to expect to devote time, love and attention. (Or you could always buy a convincing artificial one for, oh, a grand or so?) But if you want an argument for why they’re worth it, we’ll be glad to oblige.
Below, just a quick peek at the Fiddle Leaf envy our Internet time has kicked up in the past few weeks.
Bohemian life
Top-notch texture
From Rugs USA’s Instagram feed, a focus on soft textures — the nubby rug and fluffy chair throw — is grounded by the leathery, glossy beauty of that tall Fiddle Leaf Fig.
A kitchen comes alive
Nashville-based blogger Elsie Larson of A Beautiful Mess has gorgeous taste, and she’s been letting us all follow along as she renovates her new home here. The breakfast nook is one of many balanced design home runs — the table and light fixture feel sleek and modern, the wood seating and decor (hello Fiddle Leaf!) feel warm and alive.
Book-nook beauty
Decor shop Lulu & Georgia shares a seating area that we’d love to curl up in with a good book, basking in the glow of that majestic Fiddle Leaf Fig.
Balancing the bright and bold
Nashville blogger Laura Gummerman’s online home, TheBandWifeBlog.com (her guy is Mute Math’s Todd Gummerman), is a fantastic place to look for design inspiration — she has great taste, and great suggestions. She’s blogged a bunch about her love of house plants, and, of course, she makes jealousy-inducing use of big and beautiful Fiddle Leaf Figs. In her living room, bold colors and almost pop-art sensibilities on the walls and in the throw pillows, brought back to nature with a cute Fiddle-and-cactus pairing.
From the flower pros
The folks at new East Nashville floral stop FLWR Shop base their business on the beauty of growing things — you can find remarkable arrangements of all kinds in their shop, at 123 S 11th St., near Five Points. So of course, when they were making their own flower-sharing space pretty, they turned to pretty and prominent greenery. Check that massive Fiddle Leaf Fig in the back, with a big and beautiful Peruvian cactus friend. (If all this talk of houseplant power has you thinking you need something to liven up your space, FLWR Shop might be the place to go.)
What do you think — are you a Fiddle Leaf lover, or do you feel like they’ve gotten popular enough to be over? Have some other lovely living decor you’d rather plant in your home?