You spend a lot of money making the building look beautiful. You hire the best architect and the best interior designer in town to make your space attractive for customers and employees.

The lobby furniture is perfect and you’ve selected eye-catching artwork for the walls. The windows are just right, the brick is just right, the tile on the floor is just right. Then you turn to the pride and joy of your new building: the atrium.

These days, it is common to have an area inside an office building that gets a lot of natural light from skylights or windows. It’s an oasis where the people who work inside the building can come and enjoy their lunch, or just sit and think, surrounded by bright light and, of course, plants.

Natural, living plants not only produce oxygen, but they also look nice and add to the feeling of being outdoors while you’re really inside. All year long, employees can go to the atrium in order to relax for a bit and soak in the power of plants.

There are so many factors that are key to creating and maintaining a successful atrium. It’s the kind of thing that is incredibly difficult to do on your own. You want an atrium that people enjoy, right? One that will last? Accomplishing that takes specialized knowledge you can only find in a professional plant designer or plant technician.

A professional in bringing life to atriums knows how to create the right space that accomplishes all of your goals. There are five key factors that go into a thriving atrium, but getting them wrong will lead to a lot of dead plants and replacements. That’s why a professional plant designer knows:

1. It takes the right light

building

Atriums often feature beautiful open spaces with a skylight, glass ceiling or a line of windows that go from floor to ceiling. The first step of designing a successful atrium garden is to determine the light levels in your interior space using a light meter.

Our eyes adjust to the light, and it may seem very bright, but a plant that needs light to live may have an entirely different opinion. Different plant species tolerate different levels of light indoors. In some indoor environments, low-light plant species may be the best option.

2. It takes the right plants

lady

Once the light situation is known, you have to choose the right plants. Of course you want a visually stunning panorama of plants to attract the eye and make the space really come alive, but brightly colored plants usually require a lot of attention and a lot of light.

If you are unsure of what plant species to use, you might want to get in touch with an indoor plant specialist like Ambius.

3. It takes the right soil

soil

Once you decide on the plants, don’t skimp on the soil. While an interior garden can be done with plants in buried pots, plants need to spread out for their roots to really thrive. For that to happen, you need a good quality soil that will enrich the plant and enables growth.

4. It takes the right amount of water

watering

The thing that kills most plants is not the light. Instead, it’s people either under-watering or over-watering. Just because certain plants thrive in low light, doesn’t mean they need less water.

In fact, some low-light plants require quite a bit. A professional plant technician knows what type of plants you have on sight and has knowledge about just the right water levels.

5. It takes design skills

light fitting

Sometimes plants in an atrium seem like a last-minute afterthought. They get planted without much thought to design. For your atrium to really stand out, spend some time considering which plants look great next to each other.

A trained plant designer will consider which plants will work nicely together when planted side-by-side. The right design elements will create a space that really stands out and that employees will really want to use.

An area that stands out

With the right professional help, you can have a truly dazzling space that will make your building stand out. The kind of place that companies will want to use as their home base and where employees will take respite in between meetings. Your atrium should be a place of serenity that people will look forward to visiting daily.

Sound overwhelming? Well, remember that there are experts who can guide you through the entire process from light readings, to choosing the right plants and helping to take care of them. A trained plant designer or specialist from Ambius will work with you to create the right space that people will talk about.