Why a 180 cm plant changes a room.

120 to 160 cm: the middle size

This is where it starts to work. A plant of this height stands on the floor and comes up to roughly your waist or chest. It fills the space beside a sofa, between two cabinets or next to a desk. You see it as you come into the room.

This is also the size that most often works well in flats, where a plant of two metres becomes too much. See the medium artificial plants.

From 160 cm: part of the room

Above 160 cm something else happens. The plant reaches eye level and higher, and starts to divide the space rather than fill it. An empty corner becomes a place. A living room that is too large is split in two without putting up a cabinet.

This is also the height at which the foliage rises above the furniture, so you really see the shape of the plant. All sizes from 150 cm are listed under large artificial plants.

How to work out the right size at home

The simplest reference points are already in your room. In the Netherlands an internal door is almost always 201 cm tall. A sofa is around 85 cm. A dining table 75 cm.

Take a tape measure and stick a piece of tape on the wall at the height you are considering. Sit where you usually sit and look at it. Nine times out of ten the size you had in mind turns out to be too low.

What a large plant asks of you, and what it does not

A real tree of 180 cm indoors needs a bright spot, a heavy pot and someone who knows when to water it. The weight alone makes moving it a job.

With an artificial plant, all of that falls away. You put it where it looks best rather than where it will live longest, and that is exactly the point: with large plants, the spot where it looks good is rarely the spot with the most light.