From Lobbies to Rooftops: Creative Ways to Use Commercial Planters in Hotels

Hotel design is a key element in shaping the guest experience. Every color, texture, and form you select for your property’s interior and exterior spaces tells the story of your brand and the atmosphere you want to create.

While furniture, floor and wall coverings, lighting, and art may take center stage when crafting your design aesthetic, the role of greenery should never be overlooked. Featuring plant life in thoughtfully curated commercial planters throughout your property adds warmth, sophistication, and life. Here’s why you should include planters in your property design, along with creative ways to incorporate them.

Why Planters Matter in Hospitality Design

Thoughtfully placed planters do more than beautify – they serve several design and functional roles that elevate every touchpoint of a guest’s visit.

Versatile

Planters offer exceptional flexibility in terms of both placement and design. Incorporating them is a simple way to refresh spaces without major renovations, and they can be repositioned or replanted seasonally to instantly make over a space.

Beneficial

Beyond the beauty that planters and lush greenery add to spaces, incorporating plant life provides certain functional benefits that furniture pieces and artwork do not. Plants offer air purification, and they act as noise absorbers and diffusers in open or hard-surfaced spaces.

Plant life also has a calming effect that’s perfectly suited to hospitality environments. According to a 2022 study shared by the National Institute of Health, even small-scale greenery may provide effective help for stress relief, making the inclusion of plants an excellent way to enhance guest wellness.

On-Brand

While inundating guests with brand imagery can be seen as overkill, finding subtle ways to incorporate company cues into your hotel design reinforces your identity in a way that feels natural. With color such a key element in branding, lining your porte cochère with commercial outdoor planters featuring your business colors offers a tasteful nod to your brand while enhancing curb appeal.

Commercial Planters, Area by Area

In both interior and exterior spaces, planters add dimension, character, and cohesion.

The Lobby

Greenery can serve as a visual connector between your exterior and interior, so carrying through commercial planter placement from your front entrance into your lobby threads these spaces with a common element.

The lobby is an ideal area in which to incorporate the design element of symmetry – the even balance of objects that people naturally find pleasing. You might frame your front desk with symmetrical plant displays or place planters with similar footprints on either side of windows and doorways.

Common Areas

Certain common areas in hotel spaces, especially those that are largely functional, are often overlooked when addressing design. Elevator banks, hallways, and vending nooks can be enlivened with planters teeming with lush life, turning otherwise dull spaces into focal points.

Planters can also be used as natural room dividers. This takes the sterility out of large, open spaces and adds a touch of coziness. As a bonus, using mobile or modular planter systems lets you move your greenery around as needed to improve flow or control movement.

Food & Beverage Spaces

Greenery can be an especially inviting design element in your property’s restaurants and bars. As in larger spaces, planters can divide dining rooms into more intimate seating areas, framing booths for privacy.

While incorporating plant life in all public areas contributes to a consistent design language, varying plantings according to each space adds a curated feel. Consider featuring popular cocktail herbs like mint and basil in your lounge area, perhaps placing some behind the bar itself for the bartender to utilize.

In your dining room, edible plants make fitting additions. Think leafy greens with eye-catching foliage – Swiss chard and sorrel come to mind – or ornamental peppers for a pop of color. Planters with small trees like dwarf citrus show off both living beauty and a feeling of freshness.

Poolside

By their nature, most poolside areas are dominated aesthetically by hardscaped decking and lounge furniture. Soften this space in your hotel by introducing lush, yet manicured, greenery. Being surrounded by thriving plant life elevates the sense of luxury and escape for bathers.

As in other public areas, planters can subtly guide foot traffic and help define zones. They also enhance privacy; placed around cabanas, they serve as a sort of green “velvet rope” that sets a boundary of seclusion while still feeling organic and visually in step with the setting.

Rooftop

If your hotel features a rooftop lounge area, planters are a must for transforming what could be a stark space into one that feels inviting and design-forward. Adding lighting to the planters or incorporating fairy-like string lights into the area ups the ambiance even further.

As your roof is a completely open-air space, be mindful of weather issues that impact what you place in the area. Choose planters made of weather-resistant materials, and select durable plants. Versatile bamboo is an excellent option for exposed areas, as it can withstand strong winds and protect guests from the elements.

In-Room

One final area that shouldn’t be overlooked when considering where to add planters is in your guest rooms. Decorating these private spaces with compact planters adds texture, color, warmth, and beauty, providing a comforting connection to nature for travelers.

On balconies, planters are both aesthetically pleasing and practical, providing a sense of privacy between neighboring terraces. Inside or outside of guest rooms, it's best to opt for low-maintenance plantings, as staff access will be restricted. Self-sufficient selections like ZZ plants, Pothos, and succulents require minimal upkeep.

Takeaway

From lobbies to rooftops, commercial planters offer an almost effortless way to elevate your hotel space. By integrating greenery, you can soften hardscapes, enhance privacy, and align your design choices with your brand identity. Well-placed planters thriving with greenery contribute to a welcoming, relaxing atmosphere that your guests will remember.