Biophilic design is the idea of connecting people with nature inside a building, and much of it is done with colour, shape and material rather than with plants alone. You do not need a renovation, a light well or a large tree to move a room in that direction. This page covers the visible starting points — a natural colour range, organic shapes and textures that sit with what you already own — and hands the wider method and the room-by-room work to the pages that cover them in detail.
Where to start with natural colour and shape
Colour. Greens read as natural when they come from foliage rather than from one bright shade: olive, sage, moss and deep forest. They sit more easily in a room whose other colours are already in the earth range — sand, clay, stone, warm wood, cream — because the green then belongs to the scheme instead of sitting on top of it.
Shape. Look at the lines the room already has. A space with rounded furniture, arched openings or soft upholstery takes arching or fanning foliage easily; a room built on straight edges and right angles usually suits a more upright, architectural silhouette. The shape of the piece does at least as much work here as the species does.
Texture, and what is already there. Natural-looking texture — rattan, linen, unglazed clay, visible wood grain — is what keeps a green element from looking dropped in. Before buying anything, walk the room and find the two or three places that already look unfinished: the bare corner, the empty end of a console, the shelf above the sofa. Each spot usually wants a different height and shape, and a short list of real places is more useful than a long list of ideas.
Where the details live
The idea behind this page has a fuller method. The guide to biophilic interior design works through ten ways of bringing nature indoors, including the light, materials and views that this short page leaves out. If you already know the look you want and need to place greenery in one particular room, nature-inspired room styling applies the same idea room by room, with the colours, shapes and conditions that each space asks for. Start with the room page if your question is about a single space, and with the ten methods if your question is about the idea itself.